McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Hark! (Characters)
Tersa:
In preparation for NaNoWriMo, I was reading through the hard copy of Jim's LiveJournal entries that I keep with all my other writing books, and I came to the section on characters. In trying to apply his tips about "traits" and "tags" to my characters, I started wondering... How do writers come up with characters, anyway? Do they actively plan them out, writing up a description before they do any writing, or just learn as they go? Where the heck do all these zany beings come from?
I couldn't think of an answer. I know what I do, but I've been told more than a few times that I'm a little bizarre in my character creation technique. Maybe it is just because I'm a beginning writer, but how it happens for me is that the character just shows up inside my head one day and says, "HEY! Oy! *Waves arms* Listen to me!" After that, I write from there, just letting the words flow, doing short, one shot scenes until I have a good enough feel for the character to write something longer, letting the character do whatever they want. This "technique" isn't without disadvantages, of course. Just recently, I was trying to write more in the story I have going with my character, Jacob Bowen, as the main character and his best friend and the archangel of "lovers, healing, and fluffy pink bunnies," Raphael, stole my attention. I haven't written more on the story centering around Jake in a few weeks now.
So, I ask you, my fellow writers... How do you come up with your characters? Do they just "appear" in your brain, or do you base them off of someone and go from there? Or maybe you do something else entirely, writing out all of their little quirks and traits in a little chart before you ever write anything?
Remember, odd posts generate conversation. They also help the thread maker not feel like such a dork. ;)
Belial:
As I've said elsewhere (I think... I might not have), my first idea for a story is usually the character. Whether he's an eternal jokester or an eternal cynic, he usually molds himself in my head (and no, not all my characters are male, I've written both, but "he" is better than "it" and less work than always saying "he/she") for a while, until I have a good grasp, then I come up with some supporting characters (mentor, big evil, etc etc), design an interesting world, and drop them into it (the characters almost -always- come first, there have been few times when I've made a world or story arc before the character).
Sometimes I use characters that I play in RPGs (i.e. Dungeons and Dragons) if I feel I have have a good enough character.
It's interesting that you mention that other characters have stolen your attention recently, because when I think about it, in two of my larger stories other characters stole my attention.
"Listen Belial, this chick is nice and all, but you know that the real story here is mine. Listen to what I say, you may have an interesting ending with her, but -I- can make that ending so much more interesting, with lots more twists and turns."
Or, "Listen Belial, writing a story about my 'father' is all well and good, but if you look at my bloodlines, I have much more to tell. To hell with his story, tell -mine-, I won't dissapoint."
Hrm... I always thought that most of my characters were pretty nice guys... I guess they're greedy assholes. :-\
Lord Arioch:
I cheat. If I want to creat a vampire, I find one of my VTM books and create a character based off of that. I generally give them more powers than VTM would allow, but after a few hundred years, they'd get more powerful. ;)
I do the same with Werewolves, etc.
I use those as the BASIS... there is still the fleshing out process.
To date, I think the most... interesting fun annoying vampire I ever created was a Malkavian that spoke like yoda, but in riddles. He'd RARELY speak if not in a riddle. Of course, being a Malkavian, he was quite insane and as such, the riddles usually made no sense at all. :P
Dom:
I get my characters from all sorts of places.
A handful came from a dream. The dream formed part of the story, and I fleshed out the characters in the dream from there.
Some come from an idea--hey, I haven't done a [insert type of character...mothering, cynical, religious, airheaded] character before! Let's try that! And then I develop it.
Or...hey, that person on the street is really interesting! How would a character like that go?
Sometimes I develop them bit by bit. I'm just writing along, and they do something, and I'm surprised...but go with it. Eventually they flesh themselves out.
So I personally have no set way. They come when they come!
Cathy Clamp:
Now, see--for me, characters don't arrive fully formed. I have to develop them, sculpt them from primordial ooze. I come up with a basic archetype (grouping of characteristics that personality types share) and then sit down to start to write their background. I have a long list of questions that I answer about each person . . . whether a primary or secondary character. After I've answered them, I quite literally "throw" the circumstance of the plot at the person and, based on their background, I have a good idea how they will respond.
But...
I'm also "God" of my characters, so if I like the plot better than the character, I'll slash and burn their background to give them a different one that will fit with what I want them to do. :o My co-author is often both fascinated and horrified by the way I'm willing to turn a character into a pillar of salt for turning at the wrong moment, or transform a whole life history on a whim of subplot.
It's not for everybody. But it works for me. ;D
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version