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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Tersa on October 10, 2006, 04:01:03 AM
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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. ;)
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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. :-\
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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
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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!
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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
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First I have to say that I hardly dare call myself a "writer", so I'm basically just throwing in my two cents for the sake of the discussion. :)
I have two writing modes - relaxed and dedicated, in which I'll handle character creation very differently.
The "relaxed mode" is where I'll write hundred of pages a year around certain storylines I've used for... ugh, two decades already? Anyway, it is my brand of daydreaming. It is also where I work out some ideas that surface later in my second mode.
It's ok there for me not to define characters at the start, because I can just decide to rewrite certain key points... or be content with the fact I know they should have happened another way, and take it from there. Nobody's going to read it.
The "dedicated mode" is the one I need for sure in PBEM RPGs. (interactive writing, 1000-2000 words per post, a couple times a week. No three liners). Other people are going to read and hopefully enjoy the result of my efforts, sometimes depend on it, and they will also use my character to an extent. I need to establish a distinctive char that I can stay with in the long run, and remain consistent with it. Otherwise plenty of annoying side effects ensue for all.
The short story is, in "dedicated mode" I spend a lot of time defining a character at the top, after which I'm very careful about sticking with this biography and watching how they grow over time. :)
Now, about NaNo proper ;) I'm not a trained long distance runner and this is my first attempt at such a large format. In relaxed mode, the 50k would only be an extended outline needing a lot of rewrites. It would end up in the trash can with me discouraged once again... But I really mean to do this, so I switched to "dedicated".
I struggled for a week with my idea for the NaNo. My main char was rather bland and the story lacked an edge because of it. Last night I went working on "dedicated mode" and realized that this char embodies a concept that can't be revealed before the last third of the story. Doh! Meanwhile, the real main char, the one whose point of view will guide the reader, is the one I originally envisaged as a sidekick... (After that revelation, the outline just flowed from top to finish, yay!). Am I glad I found out now, because if I had just gone for my "relaxed mode" technique, I was toast. LOL
In any case, putting down all this in words helped me see a few things, among which that I have a couple strengths I should make good use of. I'm going to write bios (*) for these characters so the old training kicks in and I don't lose my way mid November!
I hope you'll find something interesting in all this, Tersa - I certainly thank you for starting this thread, and all that contributed. It helped :)
Athanasia
(*) Any lurker I dragged here who ever heard me say I'd most definitely not write another bio this year had better stop sniggering NOW. *eg*
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Usually my characters just do the appearance thing, kick my brain, and wave their arms at me whilst screaming, "Hey, I'm here! Now give me some history and a plotline to go with it!"
Also, characters usually only come half-prepared. I start writing with them and abruptly my brain decides it shouldn't have taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Then they head off on a completely different direction they were going to go and I'm left sitting confused in the dust, having to scramble to catch back up with the little buggers and reform the plotline they're in.
Sometimes also I'll be reading or watching something and I'll find a character and my brain'll go "Hey, that's an interesting premise...let's try to make up a character that's sort of like that" and it heads off and does that.
So, basically, my characters come from anywhere and everywhere, will I, nill I, and at their will and pleasure.
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You're very welcome, Athanasia. I feel all useful now. ;D
All of you rock for responding. I was starting to think I was going a little crazy because of the way I do characters, but apparently I'm not. My characters have an annoying tendency to steal the spotlight from each other just like Belial's do. The two quotes she posted actually sound like they could have come from my character Michael, who is the resident arrogant ass of my story's menagerie. Good to know I'm not the only author who hears their characters "talk" to them. :)
Cathy Clamp, I'm going to be honest... I winced when I read your post. :D I'm the polar opposite, I get so bloody involved with my characters that I sometimes start complaining to my writing friends about how they're acting towards each other! At the same time, however, I wish I could take apart my creations and make them fit so I could get things accomplished more quickly. It is sometimes such a pain to make the story go forward because some character just isn't fitting or working the way they were originally intended to, so I end up having to change the storyline.
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Usually my characters just do the appearance thing, kick my brain, and wave their arms at me whilst screaming, "Hey, I'm here! Now give me some history and a plotline to go with it!"
Also, characters usually only come half-prepared. I start writing with them and abruptly my brain decides it shouldn't have taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Then they head off on a completely different direction they were going to go and I'm left sitting confused in the dust, having to scramble to catch back up with the little buggers and reform the plotline they're in.
"Turn left! *(Barely contained snickering)*"
"Hey, wait a minute! WE'RE IN ROCHESTER!"
Huzzah for Denis Leary. It fits, it really does. ;D
Out of curiousity, have you ever tried writing an outline of the plot as soon as the characters appear? I was thinking of trying that for my NaNoWriMo project to see if it cured, or at least helped, with this problem. I'm the same way, and as a result I have a horrible time trying to get through "The Great Swampy Middle" of my story because I can't decide how I'm going to get to point A to point B.
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Usually my characters just do the appearance thing, kick my brain, and wave their arms at me whilst screaming, "Hey, I'm here! Now give me some history and a plotline to go with it!"
Also, characters usually only come half-prepared. I start writing with them and abruptly my brain decides it shouldn't have taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Then they head off on a completely different direction they were going to go and I'm left sitting confused in the dust, having to scramble to catch back up with the little buggers and reform the plotline they're in.
"Turn left! *(Barely contained snickering)*"
"Hey, wait a minute! WE'RE IN ROCHESTER!"
Huzzah for Denis Leary. It fits, it really does. ;D
Out of curiousity, have you ever tried writing an outline of the plot as soon as the characters appear? I was thinking of trying that for my NaNoWriMo project to see if it cured, or at least helped, with this problem. I'm the same way, and as a result I have a horrible time trying to get through "The Great Swampy Middle" of my story because I can't decide how I'm going to get to point A to point B.
Tried but I've never been able to completely follow through with a plot line. I can get about halfway through it and then it goes off on a tangent. My brain - and my characters - apparently hate being stuck in my trappings and decide to go off on their own wee little ways.
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I also seem to suffer for Adams-isms.
I started a story where I created the most evil being I could... and thusly named him Christian Blessings (hey, irony ;) ). Well, part way thru chapter 2, I killed him off and turned him into an undead avenger.
Of course, I later saw a similar idea in a book and then a movie based on the book. Only Jimmy Cuervo wasn't all that evil. ;)
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They come to me. Not whole, I discover things about them as we go along (which would irritate me on MUSHes, where, to apply for a character, you sometimes had to write pages and pages of backgrouns...even for mortal characters).
But they appear with plenty to work with.
Of course, if something changes, a rewrite may be in order. The characters don't speak to me or anything, they just show up, and I tell them what to do. ;)
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Difficult to answer, for me. Mostly, I get a vague idea of what sort of person the character is, something stereotype. I drop into that mindset, and then stuff just starts happening.
For instance, I wanted to create a character who was a killer. She killed because she didn't grasp the "wrongness" of it. I knew she was quite emotionless, but very clever. I knew she liked pain because pain was one thing she could feel that she couldn't hide from. Then I started to write, 3rd person but her PoV.
Now she has all kinds of traits I didn't set out to give her, but they're inherently there when I write her. Some of them, I didn't even realize she had until someone else pointed them out to me. For instance, when I write her, she never names anyone. She doesn't think of them by name. She thinks of them by the function they serve in her life. So there's Cigarette Man (the state psychiatrist who gives her cigarettes to get her to respond to him), there's Painter (a prison guard whose hobby is painting), the Voice, the Preacher. I didn't plan to do it that way, hadn't even really realized I was doing it. I was "in her headspace" and it turns out that's what she does.
That's how all my best characters function. The bad ones are work. The good ones are all about getting out of my headspace and into theirs.
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I'd not dare call myself a "writer", either, but I'll toss over a penny anyway.
When I write, I start of just writing. Usually, whatever plot I started out with is NOT the plot I end up with. Same with my characters. They develop as I write them. After that first draft, I go back and slash big red lines over everything, and make it work. That tecnique worked a lot better for me then anything else..but that's only for the few short stories I've written. I'm still trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to do that novel...
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I usually get inspired by something to create a character. Either a song, someone I know in real life, random person on the street. This is the spark in a sense.
Then I figure out where I want the character in the story. What does he need to bring to it. I give him some very basic traits based on that.
I give him a background. I use the background to give him a base for the traits I need him to have. I try to give him a realistic background. Based on this, all the other traits my character needs fits into place.
Though sometimes I come up with a character first. Then I create the world that this character lives in. From that I can usually find some sort of conflict in it. :)
Disclaimer: I write alot in my head. Not good at the getting down on paper yet.
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Sometimes I'll have a great-sounding idea for a character name and their personality and background automatically fills itself in based on that name. Other times I'll have a need for a particular type of character first, and the name and other details come in later. Courtesy of wacky RPG-creating with my brother, I have a stock of a hundred or so characters with names, looks and personalities that I draw on and adapt to suit my purposes in a story. There's a certain amount of mixing and matching involved, of course, and I do occasionally throw in personality quirks or history inspired by RL people and events. That's one of the great joys of writing fantasy - it's okay for characters to be as offbeat and strange as you need them to be!
Because I write mainly from a first-person perspective, it isn't often that other characters show up to demand that the story be all about them. The characters with the most extreme/memorable traits tend to be given smaller roles anyway, so they make the most of their moments to shine :D
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Mine usually come from dreams.
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From the posts I've read, I may be the odd man out. In my stories I have always created the universe as a whole before I come up with a plot or a character. Granted, sometimes the universe comes from acool scene in my head, but the character or plot isn't the big deal in the begining. Once the universe is established, I then create a conflict, something that people in the world will have a problem with. Or a bad guy hatches some fiendish plot, like blowing up a moon, or usurping a throne, or maybe making some quick cash. Then I ask around for someone who would want to solve this conflict, and then once I find said character of charter, I ask why they would be involved. After I have the characters and their motivation, I ask how would they go about solving the conflict. It keeps the charters in their skill set, and keeps me from throwing in a whammy just to get the character out of some jam. Unfortuantly several of my favorite characters died in their heroic attempts, simply because I-they couldn't find a way out of a tight spot. On a side note, does anybody else feel like you some how let a character down when you kill them?
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I approach Characters from the POV of "What is their purpose?" Then I decide how to make them unique, starting with something that forms the core -- apperance, personality, name -- something that I can build a character around
Example: For a Fanfic based on the anime series Bubblegum Crisis, a cyberpunk-style series. A trio of police officers are visiting a underground contact for data on a vigilante. The contact is a gang leader by the name of Skeeter Karns. So how to make him stand out?
First, I made Karns a giant -- large man, powerfully built. Then I decided that this guy had an IQ of 180. So he's smart and strong. But how to make him stand out even more?
I decided that Karns was an orphen that had seen the dark side of the city and decided to do something about it, but in his own way. He became a powerful gang leader who rules a large district. But unlike most gang leaders, he doesn't terrorize the district. In fact, he acts more like a benovolent dictator. He helps the people, puts kids back into school and encourages them to go on to college, establishes clinics and helps the orphanage whenever he can. The police leave him alone because his area is one of the few places where crime is not out of control
That doesn't mean he's all goodness and light. His gang is heavily armed and defend their turf from other gangs fircely. Illegal drugs are kept out, the pushers who try to work on Karns turf don't live long enough to realize their mistake. It's mentioned that a triad tried to run drugs through Karns territory, then tried to kill Karns. The result was that Karns gang wiped out the triad in question.
So, on the one hand, I have a character who was trying to do good, but on the other, was not someone you wanted to cross or have angry at you. Great.
But something happened. For some reason, Karns managed to insert himself into the story that occures before the one I had created him for. (I was writing three stories in the series at the same time, going from one to another when I had writer's block) Not only that, but he became an inportant part of the story line. A throw away line about him in the second story became the basis for an entire chapter in the first story that expanded on the people around Karns and why they were so sucessful. In short, he went from minor character to major on the strenght of his character.
Scary, no? ;D
Craig
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It depends on what the story is.
What comes to me first is usually either a story shape or a world. So I often find myself doing the metaphorical equivalent of shouting into the darkness at the back of my head "OK, I've got a vacancy here, 1998 real-world setting, male, early 20s, nurturer, pretty much asexual, has to be someone who will respond to key event X this way in chapter 9 and behave this way in key scene Y in chapter 27. Any takers ?" Then when someone turns up who can fit that part, I start writing and learn about them as I go along - got a whole subplot out of that guy, largely to do with a couple of younger people assuming that because he was not noticably responding to women in a couple of situations where they assumed all straight men would, he must be gay rather than just someone with almost no sex drive; and there was his family background, and what he did with his life, and so on. Complications ensued. On the other hand, I get people who come out of that darkness and don't fit any current projects and just sort of mill around, more or less well-behaved.
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I kind of steal. Or rescue, if you prefer.
It usually comes out of watching a film or reading a book that pretty much sucks. They have a cool character or two but dumb things happen. And I think, "So-and-so would be much cooler if he did..." and come up with a whole bunch of things for said character. And come up with more things. Then lay the character aside for a while then come back and add more things. Then change the name, and voila, totally new character.
I don't do this with all my characters, though.
Other times I take stereotypes and turn them upside-down, usually in a fantasy setting. I have a short and stocky archer and a beautiful ogress as a couple of heroes, for example.
And then I'll do photocopying. I have a stock character. I throw him in whatever story I'm thinking up. Then as the story progresses, jazz him up to fit the story.
For minor characters though, I have no clue. Either I borrow traits off of people I know, or they just randomly pop up.
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the character just shows up inside my head one day and says, "HEY! Oy! *Waves arms* Listen to me!"
This is exactly it. Sometimes they come for a visit, sometimes they move in and set up house keeping. They all have a story that wants told, and some of them are more patient than others. I talk to them, get to know them (their likes, dislikes...somehow, it's very important to me to know what all my characters' favorite foods are), and eventually, I figure out what they want the world to know.
It seems easier to me to base the world around the character, than try to fit the character into the world.
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Mine usually show up in my dreams.
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I like to think I'm a writer but I'm probbaly being pretentious lol
Anyway!
It is my very firm belief that in the center of by brain, and ever so slightly to the left, there is a gateway which leads to every point in in time and space, in every reality there ever was. Now, somtimes, well, quite often, people and/or events come screaming out of this gateway only to find themselves trapped in my imagination. Now, for most of my life, my imagination has been a fun place to be, at least if your a goodie. They could lounge about untill somthing came up, pick up a sword and run around beating Evil into submission, making little witty comments and double entendresm, supported by a colourful array of characters that range from amazonian warrior woment to self-delusional geeks with a highly inflated opinion of their own martial and mental prowess.
Now, however, the hero's get beat up quite a bit. There's no edge when you characters are invincible. Poor little guys...
What all that means is that yes, my characters just happen in my head. As far as I can remember, I have never created a character step by step that wasn't for some sort of RPG lol.
I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but, if for whatever reason I try to take my characters in a direction that they would not normally go down, I get partial writer's block untill I let them get back on a path that their personalities like. Anyone else get that?
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Posting because I find this amusing...I'm slowly forming a character who's spawning from a poem that was inspired solely by the word snickersnack. And he has a mentor/trainer guy who's dead but not dead. Beyond that, I've got nothing.
But it was all spawned by the word snickersnack. And I felt I should share.
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I've written almost an entire novel, inspired by one word in one song by Flogging Molly. Doesn't sound weird to me at all. ;)
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Heheh, that's neat. ;D Out of curiosity, which word in which song? 'Cause Flogging Molly is awesome.
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"Seven Deadly Sins" off the Within a Mile of Home album.
I thought "Hey, Avarice would make a good name for a pirate ship..." And it kinda went from there.
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Indeed it would! That's definetly one of my favorite songs of their's. Love the piratey one's, love 'em! :D
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I think of a begining and an ending and make characters as I go along, as long as it'll get me from one end to the other. I usually get characters from outside sources, like an existing political figure or a maternal person in the news who did a good deed. I also ready other books to get inspired, particularly in areas of conflict and redemption.
I'm mostly plot-driven, so it depends on the situation in the story on what character to some up with at the right moment. If I like the character, I'll tweak the plot to bright him/her back. Something like that. My characters actions are based on how I would feel if I were in their shoes. That one's tricky as sometimes I had to go back and review what I've written in light of their development to make sure I get them to make the right choice, good/bad.
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Posting because I find this amusing...I'm slowly forming a character who's spawning from a poem that was inspired solely by the word snickersnack. And he has a mentor/trainer guy who's dead but not dead. Beyond that, I've got nothing.
But it was all spawned by the word snickersnack. And I felt I should share.
Does the main character weild a vorpal sword? And more importantly, was it brillig? Did the slithy toves gyre and gimble in the wabe? Were the borogoves all mimsy? And did the mome raths outgrabe? Questions that needed asking, I feel.
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Posting because I find this amusing...I'm slowly forming a character who's spawning from a poem that was inspired solely by the word snickersnack. And he has a mentor/trainer guy who's dead but not dead. Beyond that, I've got nothing.
But it was all spawned by the word snickersnack. And I felt I should share.
Does the main character weild a vorpal sword? And more importantly, was it brillig? Did the slithy toves gyre and gimble in the wabe? Were the borogoves all mimsy? And did the mome raths outgrabe? Questions that needed asking, I feel.
Heh, I don't even know the main character's name yet...need to work on that, I do.
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The character just shows up inside my head one day and says, "HEY! Oy! *Waves arms* Listen to me!"
That pretty much fits most of my characters ;). My heroine for the story I'm working on came from some random character I was working on for an RP but then she kind of put into a lot of ideas that fit her story to explain why she is the person she is. Then before I know it other characters (like the main one responsible for setting her down the road of crap she has to trudge through) end up appearing in my head and on the paper usually the way they want. It's kind of odd. Usually I have an idea of a character I want and try to plan it out with said character including giving them back stories, appearances, names that could or could not be tentative based on what they originally came to me as but when I actually start to write them they change a lot than what I intended. However, usually I like the change because it feels more natural but if they go too far I can pull them back a bit.
My favorite example of this is one of my primary characters, Hilliard. Originally, though he was a charismatic leader his problem was he was going to be a shameless, beat up upon, funny flirt. But because he ended up being noble born he ended up having a certain air that gave him class and when he flirted it was usually done as a gentleman. And he never got hit like I wanted him too, shame, because the character I got from writing ended up having traits and characteristics that made Hilliard himself that didn't match up with some of his original traits.
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I haven't had very many characters leap out at me, but once I've created them, they usually take off and do whatever they want to do. In my 2006 NaNo novel, the main character decided that he absolutely could notbe 13, and had to be 16, and I said, okay. He also decided that he was going on a quest to find his dragon, which I did not expect at all. And the entire story changed when my writers meetup group started talking about cultural mores and how some cultures didn't think it was a bad thing to leave unwanted babies to die of exposure. Guess what happened to my kid?
I will say one thing, though...nearly all of my characters demand that they get to learn magic, at least in some form. How they go about it is different in each story, for which I'm thankful.
Sometimes I do find it helpful to write down a few facets of the character, just for reference. I try to find a picture that resembles my mental image (or forms it), or failing that, I draw him or her. Sometimes that's better, or at least it was this year (http://www.etoiline.com/aspire/gallery/traditions/dareon.jpg.html)...
~Cal