Mike
asked
Jonathan Maas:
When choosing characters for your book, do you look at specific people to model that character after or do you just randomly come up with a type of person? Do you use people that you have met in your past?
Jonathan Maas
Great question! The answer is varied:
1) Often it is good to just pick a character and just stick with it through the story, and let the story develop the character. You sit down with these stories for a long time, every day, so you just stick with the plot and then tweak the character according to what feels 'true.'
Sometimes you need to sit down and say 'What makes this character unique? What am I bringing to the table of literature that has not quite been seen before?' If you don't have an answer, stick with the plot and just keep thinking about it until you have one. It doesn't have to be a big answer, just something that makes the character unique.
For example in Paula Hawkins' 'The Girl on the Train,' her protagonist is an alcoholic, and thus an unreliable narrator. It makes it interesting.
In Uzodinma Iweala's 'Beasts of no Nation' the narrator is a child soldier with limited education, and his English is not perfect. It just gives it that unique twist.
Not every character has to have such an epic twist to their persona, but it doesn't hurt!
2) Sometimes for villains (or antagonists) I have a little trick I do in which I think of people in my life that I really like, and then try to conceptualize the complete opposite of that person. It often yields interesting results.
3) Another trick I have is called 'Neil Strauss through a wormhole.' The non-fiction author Neil Strauss is excellent at encapsulating real-life characters. He'll interview you and write a non-fiction book that absolutely captures your essence.
I am not Neil Strauss (though at times I wish I was - he is brilliant!) - but I do have a little trick that softens that. I can't capture someone's real life essence like Strauss, but I can take their essence, put it through a wormhole and into a bizarre alien landscape, and see what that person would do there!
It yields a lot of fun results as well!
1) Often it is good to just pick a character and just stick with it through the story, and let the story develop the character. You sit down with these stories for a long time, every day, so you just stick with the plot and then tweak the character according to what feels 'true.'
Sometimes you need to sit down and say 'What makes this character unique? What am I bringing to the table of literature that has not quite been seen before?' If you don't have an answer, stick with the plot and just keep thinking about it until you have one. It doesn't have to be a big answer, just something that makes the character unique.
For example in Paula Hawkins' 'The Girl on the Train,' her protagonist is an alcoholic, and thus an unreliable narrator. It makes it interesting.
In Uzodinma Iweala's 'Beasts of no Nation' the narrator is a child soldier with limited education, and his English is not perfect. It just gives it that unique twist.
Not every character has to have such an epic twist to their persona, but it doesn't hurt!
2) Sometimes for villains (or antagonists) I have a little trick I do in which I think of people in my life that I really like, and then try to conceptualize the complete opposite of that person. It often yields interesting results.
3) Another trick I have is called 'Neil Strauss through a wormhole.' The non-fiction author Neil Strauss is excellent at encapsulating real-life characters. He'll interview you and write a non-fiction book that absolutely captures your essence.
I am not Neil Strauss (though at times I wish I was - he is brilliant!) - but I do have a little trick that softens that. I can't capture someone's real life essence like Strauss, but I can take their essence, put it through a wormhole and into a bizarre alien landscape, and see what that person would do there!
It yields a lot of fun results as well!
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