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How you create your characters!!
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Jonathan wrote: "Hi, Faye. The supporting characters in my novel are mostly composites of people I've known or read about, while the central character is roughly 75% me. I didn't really put a lot of conscious effor..."Jonathan,
Thank you for your words. I will make sure to include them in my blog!
Faye
I brainstorm, creating detailed outlines for each main character. I start with the name and age, and then I move on to profession, likes, dislikes, hobbies, quirks, family dynamics, etc. I don't base characters on people I actually know, although sometimes I'll name antagonists after people who have wronged me. ;-)I find that the character tends to build itself if I provide the skeleton, and then of course it finds its full voice when I start writing.
For the main character, she is pretty much me. I always have to have that one character in there that is myself. It makes it easier to relate and write from her perspective.
There is a love triangle in my book and the two men are the complete opposite of each other. Each one represents two specific traits of what would make the perfect man.
One is the kindest, sweetest, most caring and dedicated guy that you could ever meet. (trait 1) he represents the stability and love that a woman needs. The second trait he represents is intelligence. He is brilliant beyond even a genius. I exagerated both traits to the point of absolute perfection.
The other is like (with no better way to put it) walking sex. Everyone wants a hot/ sexy partner and that is what he is. The other trait he has is emotion. Not girly emotion, but the emotion needed for a woman to understand him. A lot of guys don't show that much emotion, but he does.
These are only my main characters but for me characters are born from one of two things.
One: The author themselves. This character IS them. He or she thinks like them, acts like them, and many times looks like them.
Two: The character comes from a trait. They are the human version of an emotion or personality trait. They embody it in everyway. Maybe its evil, maybe it is dedication, maybe its love. Whatever the trait is; they are the definition of it.
I hope this helps:)
There is a love triangle in my book and the two men are the complete opposite of each other. Each one represents two specific traits of what would make the perfect man.
One is the kindest, sweetest, most caring and dedicated guy that you could ever meet. (trait 1) he represents the stability and love that a woman needs. The second trait he represents is intelligence. He is brilliant beyond even a genius. I exagerated both traits to the point of absolute perfection.
The other is like (with no better way to put it) walking sex. Everyone wants a hot/ sexy partner and that is what he is. The other trait he has is emotion. Not girly emotion, but the emotion needed for a woman to understand him. A lot of guys don't show that much emotion, but he does.
These are only my main characters but for me characters are born from one of two things.
One: The author themselves. This character IS them. He or she thinks like them, acts like them, and many times looks like them.
Two: The character comes from a trait. They are the human version of an emotion or personality trait. They embody it in everyway. Maybe its evil, maybe it is dedication, maybe its love. Whatever the trait is; they are the definition of it.
I hope this helps:)
I think I must be weird. My characters come from an image in my mind, which suddenly appears, complete with some back history and plot line... Then I explore them and their story. (Which does change as I work through the process of writing it.)They are probably composites of people I've known and places I've been, but they do tend to arrive in images.
Hi, Faye!I think the most important thing for me (I write romance novels) is to know what drives the characters, why they do what they do, and why they can't accomplish it. Goal, motivation, and conflict.
Once I figure that out, the rest of it is much easier to decide.
Give them backstory: A wise person once said (or maybe just posted on Pinterest) that the best way to know where you’re going in life it to look at where you’ve been. That applies to characters too. Whether you include it your novel or not, giving your characters a fully realized past will make their present more believable, and help guide their future actions. Also give them a quirk. Perfect is boring. Letting your character’s freak flag fly a little can help endear them to the reader. Does your character like looking in other people’s medicine cabinets, shoplift, have 100 red lipsticks, cyberstalk on the first date? If that quirk can get them in – or out of –trouble, all the better!
Hope that helps. Good luck to you Faye.
Billie
For me, backstories are essential. I've known my characters from the time they were children (lol), but it's important to remember that your reader only needs to know the essentials that are pertinent to the story at hand. That your hero loves dogs because his Great Aunt Minnie had a Pekenese he adored is only important if he happens to meet your heroine while she's walking her pet Peke. Otherwise, keep it to yourself. Three quarters of what I know about my characters will never be found in my books.
I work a lot with back stories—half of which never gets mentioned in what I write in the end, but they're here, conditioning the way a character will react to this or that situation, and as such, they help me decide on how to make said characters act.I seldom use myself as a point of reference, though. Either I'll start with "what roles do I need in this story, and thus, what kind of characters to fulfil them?" or "I want a character to have [insert specific job/hobbies/likes], now how can I use him/her in this story?" I also get inspiration from tiny things—the way an actor looks in a series, a concept in a movie, a singer's voice, for instance—and work with those.
I tend to go with the snowflake/cobweb method: character in centre, immediate peripheral elements (job, family...), then extend those. X is at odds with his mother? Alright? Why? Because she's always liked his sister better? Because he blames her for his father going away? Because she loves him too much and he feels stifled every time he's in his presence? And so, if he happens to encounter a similar person during the story, how will he react to her? And so on.
It's a lot of work, and I never get to show all of it to the readers (well, my hypothetical future readers, that is). But I tell myself, that's why side stories are for.
Thank you all so much for your replies. I think I have what I need for the moment to get started on my blog. I hope I get more responses. I have to admit, I do some of the same things for creating characters but others .... You ave given me some food for thought. I might try a few new little things are new characters!
I really appreciate all of your responses.
Regards
Faye
All my major and secondary characters have to fulfill some kind of function or accomplish something. I try to equip each one with the set of skills and attitudes they need to succeed (or fail, if that's their role). That's where their backstories come in; what they've done and experienced prepares them (or not) for what they confront in the story.I try to make my main characters as normal as possible. I'm tired of super-special-forces studs and fashion-model/brain-surgeon babes and don't find them very interesting. My MCs get the minimum set of skills necessary to keep from being killed in the first fifty pages and have to unearth the rest along the way. Once I know what a character needs to be able to do, I build a timeline and resume for him/her, and that informs his/her attitudes and trajectory in life up to the first page of the novel.
Because I write thrillers and suspense, my MCs are often veterans, but with fairly normal specialties. They tend to be at the upper end of average in their looks, although their significant others find something special in some part of their physical beings. I rarely create a physically beautiful character (they're not common in real life, either) unless there's a good reason for it.
What an interesting thread! TBH I've never given much thought to how I create my characters - I usually start with a rough description in my head of the MC and the protagonist and go from there. I started to try and write a biography of the MC in what will be my first published novel, and it felt too clinical, too forced... I tend to get to know and build up my character's b/g and character as I write (and re-write) and they often surprise me! I liken it to getting to know a friend; you learn about them as time goes on and in a natural way, much as you do in real life.
My characters come into the story as I write. First a name, then a description and I get to know them through their dialogue. I take copious notes to be able to keep them accurately portrayed throughout the series ( I write fantasy, everything is a series ;-) ) and their back stories evolve from comments made in scenes. For example, a character of mine made the comment “My sire is a harness maker, he would be wroth indeed if I could not complete this simple task.” – She was unsaddling a dragon. Before that comment, I did not know what her father did, then the back-story became more complete in future segments.B.J. Whittington
B.J. Whittington
Website
For me backstories unfold a little at a time, while characters tend to spring into existence fully formed.Leonie, you are not alone, my characters come to me in images as well. They step out of my head, and onto the page. They speak, act, and dress a certain way. It is up to me to figure out why they do so... and, as most people have commented, this is where I must put in some effort to create a backstory. I have a feeling the stories are already there, I just have to dig for them.
For example: I have a very mysterious minstrel in my first series. He is comical, witty, and yet often seems to be far more clever or wise than his apparent ridiculousness would indicate. He talks of events that have happened to him that defy belief, claims to have sung in the courts of kings, and he shows up throughout the series unchanged by time. It would not do, then, for his backstory to be that he is simply a guy who loves music, or that he is a colossal liar. His story had to fit the scope of the enigma surrounding him.
Wow, I think I have enough now to complete my blog - truthfully I was not expecting so many responses. Thank you all so much for your replies. I will be completing my blog soon and I will post a link on here with all your wonderful comments.
Kind Regards
Faye
Most of my characters just come to me.I also think its useful to take inspiration from existing characters. Inspiration is a lot different from copying.
A lot of my ideas come from existing characters that I wish would of acted differently then they really do.
I tend to use real life people....sad I know, but life is a book and when i think about what a character should do I think of the person who inspired that character and if they would do such a thing. if I can't picture that person doing it then I don't add it to the book. The Dozani gang is my first book where I just made them all up. Very difficult for me to do.
I think about all the people I hate, then change one letter in their names. It's a list that will never run low I tell you!
Faye wrote: "I have an idea for a blog page, about how authors come up with characters for their books, so I can help out new writer out there and give them tips, info, etc to help them out!So if you don't mi..."
Most of my characters lately have evolved from my genealogy research. I come across an interesting family story, or tidbit about some obscure relative, and suddenly I have a character in my mind that I need to see take flight. At other times, I have thought of characters after listening to songs on the radio, or meeting someone in real life.
I don't think I've ever just sat down & decided I needed a character for a story. I usually "find" my character first, and then the story grows from that.
Post publication of the blog post, but my evolving rules tend to be (aside from filling the needs of the plot): (1) I write a detailed character summary and keep them on a separate document, to be updated and changed as the story evolves and some characteristic of the character needs to change to adapt, (2) I try to identify particular likes or dislikes for the character that will guide the situations and actions - such as what the man's preferred drink is, or whether he wears certain kinds of clothes, (3) characters need to be different -- within the same story there needs to be variation in style, speech patterns, backgrounds, and motivations. But most important is that the characters have to be realistially flawed -- they have strengths but also weaknesses and they fail as often as they succeed. They have secrets and shame and fear and lust - they are us. Unless the reader can relate, you've got no reader. I'll confess a tendency to have male leads get the girl (at least somewhat) and not be totally frustrated sexually, but there are always consequences to actions for the characters.Thanks for posting the thread. Some really great ideas and thoughts here!
For my 2nd book, "A Bloody Bloody Mess In the Wild Wild West" I focus on two main characters, the protagonist and the antagonist. They are both compelling to what they represent, one good with grit and the other as evil and dirty as all that's illegal. I came up with my hero and based him of your typical good ole cowboy but I gave him grit, passion and a I don't give a damn you gotta think out side the box and get your hands dirty every once in a while mentality which really makes you love him and root for him. He has drive and determination and the need to show that he's the man to watch. My bad guy I feel I dug a bit deeper. I would say I based him off of all those Mexican bad guys you see in movies but I gave him a little bit more of a sense of understanding. He has no manners, cares not for the law and if you look at him wrong? Yup he's one of those guys that will shoot you just for that. I honestly think I created him and developed him a bit more than my hero but maybe that's cause when you read some of the stuff he does you just get drawn in or are just taken in by it.
So if you don't mind me adding your opinion, info, etc in my blog, please post here and tell me how you come about creating your characters for your book - whether the main characters or sub characters!
Kind Regards
Faye