Road Trip to NaNo: Building Characters that Work as a Team

NaNoWriMo is an international event, and the stories being written every year reflect our hundreds of participating regions. We’re taking a Road Trip to NaNo to hear from our amazing volunteers and writers all around the world. Today, Tommeh, one of our Municipal Liaisons in the Europe :: England :: Elsewhere region advises you on how to create a cohesive team of characters:

Welcome to Manchester! Be sure to stop by Old Trafford to catch a Manchester United game while you’re here, or grab your bathing suit and dive into the Olympic-sized swimming pool at the Aquatics Centre that played host to the Commonwealth Games in 2002. What better city, the birthplace of the Mighty Reds, to understand the dynamics of teamwork.

Teamwork is a funny thing. You don’t notice it much when you are in the middle of it. Take football for instance: when the secondary striker moves the ball upfield they simply trust that the center forward is going to be near the goal to score the game-winning point. It’s instinctive. But as spectators, we can see how the entire cast works together toward a common goal. The game isn’t won by one player, its won by a team.

The same can be said about your characters…

They have to become living, breathing creatures with a supporting team to make them believable. Breathe life into them and bring them out of Flatland, as Sheldon Cooper would say, and pull them into glorious 3-D. Remember, your characters do not live in a vacuum. It takes an entire team to mold and shape them.

They need a family. Mother, father, in-laws, step-parents, or siblings. They need a best friend, a mortal enemy, a sexual rival; they need Brenda in accounting that brings them a bagel in the morning and delivers the scoop on office politics. The supporting team for your character gives them a backstory; it gives them history. If your character is a big sister, like me, they might be more of a mother figure than the lone-wolf, only-child character. The lone wolf character might be a little more adept at creating secondary familiar circles.

Once you’ve created this team, you have to learn how to use them effectively. Nothing kills a team faster than a showboat or a ball hog. Your main character is the star of the team, the center of the universe, the David Beckham, but he or she can’t win the game alone. Figure out a role for each member of your supporting cast. Your Beckham should be driving the story, moving the ball toward the goal. Your antagonist should be the goalie for the rival team, stopping the protagonist from scoring. Your second striker should be the sidekick helping Beckham navigate the pitch. The centre midfielders could be the parents who want the best for Beckham, but mostly stay in the wings.

Try using an actual player diagram to help you visualize each character’s role on your team. Keep it in your story binder for easy access and safe keeping. When your characters all work together, the hat tricks roll effortlessly. The story flows, the plot moves forward, and you might just find yourself holding up that Championship Cup.

Tommehbell constructed her first story after she watched Michael Jackson zombie-walk across her screen and onto the page of her Lisa Frank notebook. She grew up in Germany, the firstborn daughter to Army parents. In 2010, she penned her first NaNoWriMo novel while studying abroad in Manchester, England, rediscovering her love for writing. Since that first attempt, Tommeh has graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, moved back to Manchester and started a Creative Writing masters program at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is working on her second NaNo-novel.

Top photo by Flickr user Paolo Camera.