Writing Lessons 5: The characters
Something I always get complemented on is the strength
of my characters. How I come up with them is also one of the things I was asked
by my friend that inspired me to start this series. Now I want to point out
that I kinda cheat a lot in the creation process. I have two different ways of
going about it; well three if you count the wishes-verse but I’ll get to that. Your
characters are what drive the story; without them then nothing would ever
happen and it would just be a book about trees blowing in the wind. All
conflict can be traced back to people of differing personalities clashing
against each other so they have to be interesting and feel like real people.
My first method is the good old fashioned piece of advice; write what you know. Take someone from your life and write down everything you can think about her in terms of personality. I tend to make up the looks from scratch but you can use this method for that too.
For example let’s take a look at my sister Allix; she’s bright and energetic, always ready to share a joke and a laugh. She’s a math nerd and a bit of a geek. When I’m down she knows how to distract me and cheer me up despite us not actually being related and not knowing each other for very long she has that connection with me that a real sister would have. I can tell she loves her boyfriend and would do anything she can to keep him.
Now doesn’t that sound like a pretty good character outline? Kinda basic but it could easily be expanded and there you have you character and two connections to other characters and it only took me a minute at most.
For the wishes-verse I did something slightly different with each main character being based on a different part of myself; Lori is my scatterbrained side, Zach is my lonely side, Diego (who hasn’t shown up yet) is my obsessive side and Laura is my love sick side. Or that is how they started anyway but I’ll come back to that in the summary.
My second way of going about things is to think of a cliché and then add a quirk to them. Take for example the term Tsundere; it means someone who is tough on the outside and sometimes even violent towards the guy she loves but inside is just head over heels in love with him but doesn’t know how to show it. And next for the quirk we have a walking talking reference to geek culture…Wait that sounds just like Cass from the wishes-verse. Yeah I mostly do this for minor characters but it is a perfectly good way of creating characters as long as you do the final step.
This next bit goes for both methods. After you have created the basis for your character you need to make them grow and become more than that. It sounds crazy but you need to almost sit and talk with them; find out their hobbies and their past, speak at length about what makes them happy as well as what makes them sad and angry, get to know their hopes, dreams and lost loves. These are the things that make us who we are so why would you be able to write someone believable without knowing them?
I know that Zach is left handed and Laura’s middle name is Marion (named after her grandmother) even if this will never come up in the stories themselves it is important that I know that about them. It’s like how you might know something about a friend but when you talk about her you never mention that fact but because you know it you feel closer to them and therefore understand them better.
For suggested reading today I put forward the Belgariad which is the most cliché and paint-by-numbers sword and sorcery fantasy book you will ever read and that is intentional. The reason it is still a good and interesting read is how developed the characters are and how real they feel. You could meat anyone of them just walking around and thing nothing more of them; they aren’t larger than life but they all have plenty of personality. So for now I’m Silica and don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t.
My first method is the good old fashioned piece of advice; write what you know. Take someone from your life and write down everything you can think about her in terms of personality. I tend to make up the looks from scratch but you can use this method for that too.
For example let’s take a look at my sister Allix; she’s bright and energetic, always ready to share a joke and a laugh. She’s a math nerd and a bit of a geek. When I’m down she knows how to distract me and cheer me up despite us not actually being related and not knowing each other for very long she has that connection with me that a real sister would have. I can tell she loves her boyfriend and would do anything she can to keep him.
Now doesn’t that sound like a pretty good character outline? Kinda basic but it could easily be expanded and there you have you character and two connections to other characters and it only took me a minute at most.
For the wishes-verse I did something slightly different with each main character being based on a different part of myself; Lori is my scatterbrained side, Zach is my lonely side, Diego (who hasn’t shown up yet) is my obsessive side and Laura is my love sick side. Or that is how they started anyway but I’ll come back to that in the summary.
My second way of going about things is to think of a cliché and then add a quirk to them. Take for example the term Tsundere; it means someone who is tough on the outside and sometimes even violent towards the guy she loves but inside is just head over heels in love with him but doesn’t know how to show it. And next for the quirk we have a walking talking reference to geek culture…Wait that sounds just like Cass from the wishes-verse. Yeah I mostly do this for minor characters but it is a perfectly good way of creating characters as long as you do the final step.
This next bit goes for both methods. After you have created the basis for your character you need to make them grow and become more than that. It sounds crazy but you need to almost sit and talk with them; find out their hobbies and their past, speak at length about what makes them happy as well as what makes them sad and angry, get to know their hopes, dreams and lost loves. These are the things that make us who we are so why would you be able to write someone believable without knowing them?
I know that Zach is left handed and Laura’s middle name is Marion (named after her grandmother) even if this will never come up in the stories themselves it is important that I know that about them. It’s like how you might know something about a friend but when you talk about her you never mention that fact but because you know it you feel closer to them and therefore understand them better.
For suggested reading today I put forward the Belgariad which is the most cliché and paint-by-numbers sword and sorcery fantasy book you will ever read and that is intentional. The reason it is still a good and interesting read is how developed the characters are and how real they feel. You could meat anyone of them just walking around and thing nothing more of them; they aren’t larger than life but they all have plenty of personality. So for now I’m Silica and don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t.