McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Character Development - Chicken or Egg Approach

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meg_evonne:
Every writer is different. Every manuscript is different. Things come at us at odd times and in weird ways.

Yes, I suspect we each have our preferred methods. That's what this is. I'm curious how everyone answers.

Griffyn612:
I'm not published, so I'm probably a bad example to follow. I'm writing my first book, and I didn't even write out an outline before starting. I had a vague idea of some plot points I wanted to hit, and just started writing. almost everything I've written has evolved naturally as I've written. I later tried to write an outline for future plot points to include, but didn't keep up with it.

my characters have all formed out of necessity. I need someone to teach, harass, support, or tickle the main character, and then they appear. I had an idea for the bad guys, and they ended up being the goods guys. I developed another lead bad guy, and killed him in the first act, as my story changed.

my story might be crap, and I've got a ton of editing to do. since people changed as I developed them, I have to go back and change some of their dialog or descriptions. I have to add scenes that develop who they are, rather than having already has that in mind because they were last minute ideas.

I recommend starting with a short story or novella, to help you flesh out your process. it's going to take me almost as long to edit the second draft as it took me to write the first, and I'm not even done yet.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
I would call myself 80% of the way towards having them fleshed out and solid before I start, but I do expect to learn new things about them with every chapter.

superpsycho:
The level of character development needed before you start often depends on the plot and storyline. Usually at minimum, you have to have enough to justify the character's basic motivation. I know one author who includes things like birth order to create the personality they need for a characters motivation. I've done characters where their history is a big part of the story and what motivates them so I've had to create a lot of detail before even starting an outline. Other projects have required little to no background simply because it wasn't a motivating factor or pertinent to the story.

LizW65:
I voted #1 as that's my principal M.O. but I do a lot of tweaking in rewrites, especially to the supporting cast.

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