Elements of Character

[Carrie]

Orson Scott Card wrote in his book Characters and Viewpoint that there are several factors that make up a character.

-what he does (actions)
-his motives (reasons)
-his past (decisions)
-his reputation (what others think of him)
-what stereotype he fits in (male, female, race, profession etc…)
-what his relationsships are (people act differently around different people)
-Habits, talents, and tastes
-physical appearance

He mentions that the most important part of a knowing a character are the first three and the least being physical appearance. Physical appearance is not unimportant but it is just a part of the overall picture so don’t depend solely on it for characterization. Don’t obsess over it.

“If readers know a character’s actions, motives, past, reputation, relationships, habits, talents, and taste, they can often get through a whole story without ever knowing a character’s eye color, and they’ll still feel as if they know the person”

So during our character creation we don’t have to worry about the trivialities like hair color, complexion, eye color and other things unless there is something special about it or if is part of the story.

[Carrie]

I definitely understand this. I could really care less what color of tie a person is wearing. Unless it is a "lucky" tie or something special I don't really care unless it is part of the story.

[Kilgallen]

I think this will really depend on a writers personal process. I write scenes as opposed to chapters. Now because my process is very visual my characters appearance is very important. I create full character sheets for all main charaters that do include extensive physical descriptions. Now i may or may not share this informaton with my readers. I know that my favorite authors do provide a lot of physical description. But again I am a very visual person so this is a personal preference.

[Carrie]

I can understand that. I'm rather new at writing, as you could probably tell. It's good to find different ways of doing things.