How do people go about creating characters? No matter how hard I try, or in what way I attempt to make them, I never feel like my characters are as deep and fascinating as other people’s. This is especially frustrating to me because I think great characters are what really make me love a story.
What are you guy’s processes?
A couple things I do, that have seemed to work…okay, at least.
Before writing:
I write down the main character’s name and a general description. I then proceed to ask questions, such as, “What is my character’s personality type?” “How is the plot of the story going to change my character?” “What does my character have to draw in a reader more than another character in another story?” Etc.
I repeat the process with other major characters, then adding the question to each of how the characters are going to be interacting and how that’s going to affect each character.
-Write story-
After writing:
I go over each chapter, making a note of what I’ve learned about the main character in that chapter and any development over previous chapters. If I find that I haven’t developed much about a character in that time, I reassess the character. If I can’t develop the character any more than that, I think about moving the main character role onto someone else. If I can, I do.
Repeat with other major characters. If I find I’m having a lot of trouble developing my other major characters, I begin to ask questions of what’s so important about them that I’m spending time on them. If I can’t answer that, I get a new character to do the job or just downgrade the character in question’s role in the story.
I’m still learning some more things myself, but this has really helped in developing some of my characters.
That’s helpful, and also very reasonable. It also made me realize that perhaps I need more character foils in my story, as well.
It’s not a perfect solution, by any means. There’s also a couple books on characterization out there. I’m actually taking notes from the one in the Elements of Fiction Writing series, the character/viewpoints of which by Orson Scott Card. As much as gays dislike the guy, he’s had success for a reason.
He’s had success because his characters make people feel smart, and people like that feeling since it’s a valued trait in most societies. He’s not a bad writer, but that’s what’s unique about his writing and what makes him successful. I personally find his work pretentious for that exact reason. He did do a wonderful job creating a world, but I can’t stand his characters. With a few exceptions, they are flat and one-note.
Funny enough, this characters book doesn’t mention the majority of things he does wrong. He also mentions gays in a…well a non-negative light. Makes me think this book was heavily edited before he could get it published. It’s the reason I’m finding it helpful.
When I’ve had a particularly difficult character, I end up writing a scene where I’m interviewing them about the story and their motivations and such. Usually the character will speak for themselves and suddenly I have their motivation, their quirks, pretty much everything I could want about them.
I’ve never really thought about the process before, so my approach wouldn’t be systematic. I think my most successful characters have been those for whom I considered the reality of their upbringing in detail. Aside from that, I just work off the impression I have of them and try to give them space for “autonomy.” The results have varied. ^.^;
@Voice: Okay. That seems like a much better way of getting to know them than typing out like a case file. That way they can shine through via dialogue, which will likely be the main way the reader gets to know them anyways.
@Dwayle: What character do you feel has been most successful in that regard?
Characters need weaknesses and flaws. Events in the story can be caused by character flaws, or can cause them to become obvious.
I suppose that Aunty Fjola and Kieli are both fairly well fleshed out, having their own behaviors and speech patterns that differ from my own. But, I couldn’t say who is more compelling to a reader. My personal avatar is well-realized since that’s easy in some respects, but those stories are… mmmm… not for public consumption at this time.
Ugh. Speech patterns. That’s something I’m terrible at writing and am unsure how to fix. Choosing different words than I would? Sure. Using different slang and difference accents? Can do. Changing syntax choices? That’s where I get lost.
Anyone have any recommendations for that? Any way of practicing besides finding people who speak the way I envision the character to and taking notes?
You could try roleplaying them.