developing characters

[SarcasmDispenser]

I have a question, when you all develop characters, do you guys do anything special or do you just see it in your head, so to speak? Do you know how the character will respond to every situation put forth, or do you just do it based on how the story should flow?

 

[Justice4JC]

Well, I have a generalization of what the characters will be like, but after I get into the story sometimes they surprise me. I'll give you an example. A series I started some years ago I started with four characters: Billy, Kate, Andrew, and Justin. Billy was kind of the "leader" type, Andrew was scared of basically anything, and Kate (Billy's sister) and Justin fought, and Justin was sarcastic.

Now, as the series progressed, despite all of Justin's sarcastic remarks and stuff like that, I had an entire episode devoted to him helping out a new kid in school who was stealing from stores. You know, being there for him and helping him and stuff. So, I found out that Justin was really a good guy; a good friend. He surprised me greatly there.

So, no, I don't know how my characters will respond to every situation. But when I first introduce characters, they're just mainly names on a page. As pages pass, I develop them more because I give reason as to why they are the way that they are.

So... yeah... Did that help any?

 

[oncewaslost]

i usually split my personality up some, dividing it among different characters. i also borrow other people i know that are similar to the characters i have. it's done on a subconcious level now so i can't really say how i do it. it just happens.

 

[teenash]

I think that in order for the character to be real to the reader, he or she must first be real to you. Let the character go on their own a little... stretch their legs, so to speak. If you are doing something alegorical you may want to put a shorter leash on them-- but the thing is to let them grow.

I would recommend Salinger's 9 Stories for an example of living characters... the guy is brilliant.

 

[carmi]

I try to "predetermine" as much as possible, if the story is about a particular character, for example when the story is about how a person reacts to/in a given situation. So, I do write down on a separate sheet "things" about a character. I sort of ask questions (something about his background, his job, his family and friends etc.) and write them down on a separate sheet.

But it can happen that a character "takes over" as silly as that sounds. Once the antigonist became the protagonist and that changed the whole story, actually it ended it. I had to complete rewrite. So much for hours of preparations.

 

[Blessed-one]

i try to ask my characters question and get their views on what they would do if certain so and so happens. They do not follow what they say though... on occasions.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

I have a question, when you all develop characters, do you guys do anything special or do you just see it in your head, so to speak? Do you know how the character will respond to every situation put forth, or do you just do it based on how the story should flow?

Usually the characters are reflections of some truth we have about the world. My characters are often different parts of my own experience and thinking, but I mutate them into forms that suit the work. Be that as it may, they have to become very real to you if you're writing a character-driven story. In some stories all the details aren't necessary; it depends on how you're treating the material.

How far along are you in your work? If it's in the initial stages, you can use even magazine pictures and ask yourself why the person in the picture is wearing what they are, what could have caused that facial expression, what it says about who they are. But you have to have a good grasp at least on what the story is meant to accomplish, then walk through the plot. Live it in your mind. Go on the journey and just tell what the characters did and said and let the reader draw the conclusions.

But as someone already pointed out, as your characters become more real to you, you can't let them dictate the story to you. Let their personalities shape it, but don't let them lead you away from the most effective plot. I had to do a rewrite of the last half of my book because I didn't realize until the end that the ending didn't suit the personality of the character. That robbed it of both credibility and serious reader satisfaction. Everyone was complaining about the ending but it took me a while to figure out where the problem was. It was in a subtle nuance of my character's established personality. And I liked what was established.

My very best work flows from my subconscious, when I'm not thinking about it too hard. In the back of my mind I know what I'm trying to get across better than I do when I think too hard about it.

 

[die2live]

I started writing when I was 10 years old, so I had an advantage that most people don't utilize now: I made legos out of my characters and played with them with my brother. THis allowed me to explore and develop their personality before actually writing anything. As I got older, and had less time to play with legos, I found that asking my characters random questions before starting to write would help me know tham a little better. For instance, my brother and I made up a list of theological questions and(he's a writer as well, by the way) asked the same ones of all the cahracters since there's a lot of biblically based themes inour books. It was interesting to see how the protagonists answers differed form the antagonist.

 

[oncewaslost]

i people watch. you can learn a lot about people when you watch. not to mention it's fun. sit in a mall/shopping area and just watch people as they walk by and interact with each other. yeah, i need a life.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

i people watch. you can learn a lot about people when you watch. not to mention it's fun. sit in a mall/shopping area and just watch people as they walk by and interact with each other. yeah, i need a life.

A really important tool-people watching allows us to develop more varied and complex characters, because we can see the many ways people interact with each other. Good tip-thanks!

 

[wgjones3]

I have a question, when you all develop characters, do you guys do anything special or do you just see it in your head, so to speak? Do you know how the character will respond to every situation put forth, or do you just do it based on how the story should flow?

In order to be an effective writer, you have to know a lot about human nature. Once you do, you'll realize that different people fall into behavior patterns because of their personality. In other words, there are stereotypes in the real world just like there are in the literary world. Take for example your big, tough biker with a long, stringy beard, ponytail, black leather jacket, and thick, shapeless arms covered in tattoos. Is this guy going to be trapsing around the boardroom of a billion-dollar corporation? Typically, no. CEO types are polished, well dressed, well spoken. Would a CEO type hang out at a goth bar? See where I'm going?

You can't build effective writing on stereotypes though. But you can play off these stereotypes in order to delve deeper into character development. Take a character who fits a well-established social stereotype and throw them in a totally bizzare situation. Have the CEO's Mercedes break down and have him to into the Goth bar to use the phone. How does he react in there? Is he scared? Appalled? Does he see a new, untapped market for his company's product line? Maybe he goes through all of those things in the course of a few paragraphs.

So I say all that to say this--the first step in building characters is to start out with something your readers can immediately identify with. Then take those characters outside the realm of stereotype. Like have the burly outlaw biker guy leading a double life. Online, he's a well known Internet poet. His work becomes so famous that people start trying to find out who he really is. Take us through that character's reactions. Is he ashamed for his biker buddies to know what he does online? Is he ashamed for his fans to know he's an outlaw biker? Keep building layers upon layers onto the personality.

Also keep in mind that effective fiction often involves a character changing somehow. Establish that fatal flaw and have the character overcome it at the end. One popular forumla for fiction is to have the character face a challenge early in the story, fail (possibly more than once), and then be forced to overcome the same challenge on a much grander scale at the end. This works, quite frankly, because the initial failure plants legitimate doubt in the reader's mind as to whether the hero will succeed. It also serves as tangible proof that the growth or change process has taken place. The reader is left with a story in which they've witnessed something profound, even if they don't conciously realize it.

So back to the original question. How do I develop characters? I start out with a visual. I see the character enter the story in my mind as if I'm watching a movie. From that visual, I draw out a stereotype personality. I flesh out that stereotype for a while, until it's established. Right now I'm working with a CEO type who is ruthlessly ambitious and morally ambiguous. I don't know how he'll finish the story. His daughter is my main focus. She's a spoiled, selfish, wreckless rich girl, but as the story progresses, she is being forced to look at life through different eyes. And she's going to break out of her Paris Hilton stereotype and show genuine growth. How? I don't know. I deal with it as it comes. Each plot point presents a chance to explore the character.

In the manuscript I just finished, the main character is a cop whose career has destroied his personal life. His mind is wrought with chaos and he takes it out on everyone around him. For half the book, he's self-destructive and bitter. But then the change happens. He makes a breakthrough in a big case. His partner starts opening up to him. His secret affair is made public. He's forced to change. But by the end the change seems natural.

So, long story short, what I do is plan out the storyline. And I do this in only the most general of terms. I know where to start. I know where I want to end. I usually pick up two or three points inbetween that become critical to the story. Then I work to each point by method acting the story in my mind. I get inside the head of each POV character and I see the story like I'm watching a movie. I play with everything in my mind, from the style of dress to camera angles. For example, the rich girl I talked about earlier. I see her driving very fast through crowded city streets with a cop behind her. In my mind, I put myself in that situation. Then I act it out internally and write down what happens. My thoughts may be something like, "The cop's behind me and I'm scared. I don't want to be arrested. Why didn't I just pull over." But when I write it out, it's more like, "Amber glanced in the rearview mirror and swallowed hard. Her head was pounding. The cop was getting closer and she couldn't shake him. But she'd gone too far to pull over now. What would her daddy say if she got arrested for soemthing so stupid as a refusing to pull over for a speeding ticket?"

Play out every aspect of it in your mind. Thing about all factors. The girl doesn't want to get a speeding ticket. Why? Her daddy has money--he'd be paying it anyway. Is it pride? Now that she's gone so far she can't pull over. The intensity is ratcheted up. How does she react to that ratcheting effect? Does her forehead crop out with beads of sweat? Does her heart race?

Hopefully all that will give you some idea of how to develop characters.

 

[macandcheese]

Writers start works in different ways: some by theme, some by event, some by character. Mine all start out with a character, not one I try and force out, but characters that come to me and demand their story be told. From there the story develops as I find out more about my character and what kind of people and events would be around them.
And no, I am not hearing voices in my head... : ) It's something very different, that I can't really explain.
I am interested, however, in knowing how others start their works... anyone?

 

[oncewaslost]

mine usually start with characters who have a story. they introduce themselves and then tell me what happened. yeah, it's weird sounding. other times i have a basic idea that just circles around in my head until a character develops and says "hey, that happened to me!"

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

mine usually start with characters who have a story. they introduce themselves and then tell me what happened. yeah, it's weird sounding. other times i have a basic idea that just circles around in my head until a character develops and says "hey, that happened to me!"

I know exactly what you mean. I find mine have been in my mind for a long time before I actually write about them. My best writing is when I let my subconscious take over and I let my character tell me what happened; it flows very easily and comes out very 3D. I go on the journey with the character first, or at other times I don't even know the character yet and that's when I let some truth about the world, a truth I want to tell, personify itself into the character and let it wander through the story in my mind, so to speak.