Characters

[Justice4JC]

Thanks for all your input! lol. I'll probably need to change some of their names, seems like it. Which will be weird, considering I'm so used calling them their current names. Because I'm guilty of just typing out letters... or actually I go by sounds, not letters. A barrage of sounds. And I really come up with the names when the story gets to them, LOL.

Quote:

Anyway, back to the character topic, when I find myself having too many characters, I tend to combine them.

could you elaborate?

I believe what she's saying is that if two of the same characters are too similar to the other, she combines them to save from introducing another character. Or even if they're two complete opposites, she combines them to make a very contradictory character.

 

[mbdeyes]

Hey Buskanaka,

I've alluded to this earlier, but if you want an example of too many characters, check out Tad Williams Otherworld. His writing is great, but he's got dozens of characters, and each has it's own plot. The books are big, but not because a lot happens to main characters, just that there are so many of them. I got more out of reading the synopsis at the start of book 3 than I did from reading books 1 and 2. Interesting read none the less.

 

[Blessed-one]

thanks Justice. That makes sense to me now..

 

[Vulgivagus hagiographus]

could you elaborate?

Oops. I guess that's what I get for not checking up on threads I've replied too . Uh, yeah, I guess that's what I mean. When I don't combine characters, I find that they have a tendancy to get dry and steriotypical. Actually, I've gotten better at characterization, so I don't feel it's as necessary for me personally, but it still helps. I think one of the biggest problems a character can have is too much characterization. Does that makes sense? Sometimes you can spend forever on little things like their first vehical and other stuff that doesn't pertain to the story at all until you completely loose the original idea of the character. Then again, sometimes that can be good. Hey, that made me think of something else! If you find yourself recycling the same character, doing some extreme characterization can change them in such a way that you can go back to the original character, develope them completely differently, then have two (or as many times as you do this) unique characters! Now that probably didn't make any sense at all. Maybe I'll remeber to check this thread later.

 

[discipleofWORD]

If you want a compelling story and people to fall in love with your crazy characters...

...you're gonna freak out because you have a lot of characters to work with, trying to make most out of them... more characters is more work.

Even trying to get one character the way you want to(realistic, etc.) is a lot of worth itself.

 

[Blessed-one]

good explanation c.d.
lol, the joy of working with characters..

 

[Buskanaka]

lol, you got a good point there, but it IS tedious to think up names for new characters! ok. just put a jumble of letters together.. jeidbk
nice name?

yeah i know what you mean, my comment was more of a theoretical ideal that I've never actually done myself...
what I tend to do is when I come to a new character just get a friends name and do it backwards or something haha... but still to get a really good story I think you have to do quite a bit of planning.

and mbdeyes, I totally agree, that's precisely the reason why I've never read tad williams, I'm sure he's a good writer but I pick up his books and have a look and it just doesn't appeal because I see how much concentration would be required to understand it all

 

[Vulgivagus hagiographus]

I use word finds often times to make up fantasy names. Just find "names" that look like they might work. (It's a lot more fun that trying to dig out the words you're actually supposed to find.) One thing to make sure is that the names are pronounceable. Typos often times work well too, since it was actually supposed to be a real word, but got messed up into something that didn't quite make it.

 

[Surprised by joy]

I also combine characters; if I start feeling I have too many, I search out two characters that serve similar purposes and literally combine them into one character, then stretch the plot till they fit. Sometimes it comes about naturally (or almost), and it always enriches the character. But even when it's painful, as the author, your job is to be brutal so the reader doesn't have to be. If there is are any unnecessary characters, combine them, kill them (figuratively, out of the story), or stick them into the story's history.
Some classics have many characters, some few, so I can definitely state that there is no hard and fast rule. A real suggestion: use names mostly based on real names, it makes people feel more at home. Definitely try for pronounceable names, that also makes people feel more at home.
Also, to whoever said that only Star Wars fans know who Quigon Jinn is, I am no Star Wars fan (trilogy fan), but I certainly know his name, if not how to spell it.
I have read Robert Jordan (forgive me, ), Stephen Lawhead, and many other fantasy authors. T.H. White and Gerald Morris are better with Arthurian legend than Lawhead.

 

[mbdeyes]

I have read Robert Jordan (forgive me, ), Stephen Lawhead, and many other fantasy authors. T.H. White and Gerald Morris are better with Arthurian legend than Lawhead.

I don't remember what I said exactly.... I certainly can't say that Lawhead is the best version of Arthur. I haven't read much more than the 'classical' view, and I certainly haven't been impressed by many of the movies or comics on the subject. Taliesin and Merlin are two of Lawhead's best works, however (of course I would put Song of Albion as a trilogy above that series).

I like the fact that Lawhead relies more on historical research and avoids the a lot of garbage, etc. that's in the version I was taught in English class. He goes back to a time before there was fiction written on the subject (only legend). Don't get me wrong, this is a work of Fantasy, and he does play around with the facts (eg,: Taliesin was a generation or more after Arthur, so couldn't have been Merlin's father).

Anyway, that's my take on it.

 

[Lucubratus]

In your stories, how many characters do you have and do you ever wonder whether the reader will get confused at all the characters and names and possibly get them mixed up?

Because right now I'm writing a sci-fi story (so there're inhuman names), and so far I have ten characters. They're soon to run into three more, and then they're going to meet even more. Some are more important to the storyline than others, but I still need them to be there.

I'm trying to make all of the characters as developed as I can before I introduce anymore, but do you think so many characters will turn the reader off?

Hallo Justice,

I read all three pages and everyone made some great replies - so I'll just add comments from my own experiences.
I tend to equate my characters with movie analogies. I have my Hero, my Villian, My Supporting actors and my Walk-Ons, and then I have the wonderful "Cameo Appearance"...
Behind the scenes, meaning my own notes - usually in a binder to refer to and refresh my memory - I keep details on my Hero(s), Villian(s) and Supporting Actors(esses)
Walk-Ons I make a brief blurb like, 'He has a tendency to slur when he's talking, even though he's not drunk". In this way, a reader is going to remember that guy through your dialog, not by description.
Another way is to have a character with some kind of physical trait that stands out, such as "The white lock in her black hair" or "He fidgeted constantly and in two years, he had not changed".

I make most of my characters that have even the tiniest "part" as detailed as possible for me, that way when I am writing them - I don't have to describe it to the reader, but will show it to them.

One of my characters has this penchant for speaking in the first person when he is really getting angry. If his brow arches, then he's about to explode. If his brow arches, he's speaking in first person and his teeth start to clench..
everybody clears the room.


I send my work to a friend to read for commentary and this one guy stands out in her mind the most.

So far in this serial I am working on - I'm like that other guy, I have about 20 or so characters that are "Stars".

 

[LilJesusFreak1128]

If you use lots of characters be sure to give them a lot of detail, so the reader can tell the difference between each of them. It's not hard to keep track of characters if you have an individual picture painted for each of them. I've never heard of Robert Jordan before, maybe I'll check some of his works out.

Bethany

 

[Lucubratus]

I have a teeny disagreement about that Lil' - a lot of detail as in the first time they see the character is permissable - but too much will interfere with the flow of the storyline. A flashback that describes the person and is five pages long to get all the details in is going to annoy a lot of people. Say Hero B is in Book 1 and doesn't resurface again until Book 6 - depending on viewpoint, say it's Hero A meeting him for the first time and the reader is acqainted with Hero A already - a brief reintroduction will be necessary but not all of it nor a lot of it at one time. A little at a time. For one thing, it stands to reason Hero B has undergone some changes -that is what characters do that aren't purposely static, and those changes are going to affect the people in the story who never met him, not the reader.
Hope that made sense...lol

 

[mbdeyes]

I have a teeny disagreement about that Lil' - a lot of detail as in the first time they see the character is permissable - but too much will interfere with the flow of the storyline. A flashback that describes the person and is five pages long to get all the details in is going to annoy a lot of people. Say Hero B is in Book 1 and doesn't resurface again until Book 6 - depending on viewpoint, say it's Hero A meeting him for the first time and the reader is acqainted with Hero A already - ...lol

You just described Tad Williams.... and, yeah, what I said before about getting my head around hsi stuff....