Creating Characters

[Selati]

Hiya,

I've just been thinking about creating characters for a new story and it made me think about what methods other people use to do this.

It'd be interesting to hear how you guys come up with people to populate your stories, or any methods you've heard of from other writers. I always like to try out new ways of doing things.

 

[Purdy Bear]

Well I'm not sure if this is normal, but my characters come during my meditations and dreams. I heard that JK Rowling had this happen with Harry Potter, she was on a train, and he came into her mind, so maybe, I'm not as weird as I thought.

If I need to think up a name, which is rare, I use car number plates. These are especially good for orieintal and wierd sounding names (S054 BGY would become Sogby, Southby, or Sobiashi).

 

[RcGrant]

My characters tend to seek me out, not the other way round. I'll be walking down a road, or sitting in a cafe, and suddenly a name will jump into my head, with a fully formed personality right behind it.

I read somewhere once that there are two types of writers - the type that start with character and develop plot from them, and then the type that creates plot and then develops characters to illustrate it.

Not sure if it's true or not, but it's interesting to think about.

 

[chopper]

they just kinda turn up, i guess. often not fully formed - in the WIP, Cassia was a boy called Cass, and Meredith was a girl....but it felt wrong. names are hit & miss - i've got a couple right now i'm not over-happy with, but i can't think of any better.

 

[Moogle]

My characters are almost always versions of people that I know, or version of preconceived notions about people that I have seen briefly. I usually have an idea for a plot long before I start inputting characters with any depth of personality to them. As a method it works well enough, but I tend to freeform write, basically just open up my word cruncher and start typing what comes to mind; or who, as the case is.

 

[Mattastic]

More often than not, my best characters just occur to me, independant of whatever I'm writing. Sometimes this works out quite well; I'll be typing along and suddenly, "she looked across to John, a brown haired boy who smelled faintly of cheddar--" and John will suddenly become crucial! to the story. Often I end up with someone who really wants to jump in the story but is just a complete pain in the arse. Eh.

I have tried, over time, to try and create characters based on the needs of my plot, but that's never worked out at all. They always seem forced and turn out to be really boring.

 

[Culhwch]

A boy who smells faintly of cheddar is crucial to your story? Are you creating a new subgenre of cheese-related fantasy? Though a word of warning - I think Paolini has that market cornered...

I have tried, over time, to try and create characters based on the needs of my plot, but that's never worked out at all. They always seem forced and turn out to be really boring.

For me, I'd have to say that half of the time, the characters come before (and thus inform) the plot, and half the time the plot dictates the need for a character. I don't think the latter are any less effective than the former, however. Perhaps that's because I'm very loose when it comes to plotting, so if they want to take the story in a whole new direction, I'm happy to let them and see what comes of it.

 

[Precise Calibre]

For me, I have one of two ways with which characters come to mind... usually; I try to think of a particular archetype and go from there, or the character pops into mind randomly from some point of inspiration, usually the words or sounds involved in a name.

As far as Archetypes go, I can think of a type of character I want, their personality, their quirks, their physical description and then think of a name which best suits these traits. Example: I have just created a hero who is large military commander who is bulging with muscles. He is a front line leader and commands the respect of his troops to the point of fanaticism. He is often blunt and harsh, but at the same time charismatic and caring. The name Reinard Stonevice fits this character and it came to my mind because of the traits I chose for him. Sometimes it's fun to go 180º of this idea and give them a contradictory name though... just have to be careful not to ruin the atmosphere. I usually find that contradictory names work best for those you wish to misdirect the reader about, or other characters. As an example, naming a a cold-blooded assassin Vrent the Postman. He has nothing to do with mail but it's contrary image to his profession, yet at the same time provides a nifty metaphor.

Characters based off of their names is my other favored method of character creation. The most obvious way to do this is come up with a nifty name and add a snazzy alias to it. Basing the character off of the alias will often be relatively easy. Basing the character off of the tone of their actual name, though, will be a little more tricky. You can come up with a name and repeat it to yourself until inspiration comes to mind. Often times, I'll be doing this, then run off on some random narrative in my head; "Dibius Kestant was a "pet shop" owner in the lower slums of Calidur City. Shifty-eyed and nervous, the diminutive Dibius would sell "exotic" creatures to those willing to pay his prices. Often time these creatures would be used to participate in animal fighting pens..." and so on.

Once I have my characters, I take their personalities and think to myself "what would their goals or motivations be?" Obviously I have to have someone with an antagonist's mindset, but sometimes my villains come from the most unlikely avenues. After I have their goals in mind, I can work to mesh my characters together in a world I created or will create on the spot for them. These worlds are often tailored to the people, or vice versa.

 

[jenna]

Hmmm good question. I have just been reading through trying to work out where my characters have all come from, but it's hard to remember!
I can give one example though, today I began writing a short story, with a futuristic earth setting. The story started from a glimpse of a number on an apartment building. I knew that I wanted to use that in the opening description, and so I just plucked a name out of my head and started writing that paragraph. The character and the plot have organically grown from there. I still don't know the character completely, but I'm sure all the bits and pieces will come to me as I write.
It occurs to me that this is quite an unhelpful answer! But it's hard for me to explain how my brain works. That's what I pay my therapist for, lol!

 

[chrispenycate]

I work out the plot first, then ask the agency to send me down a mass of characters to fill it out. I know this is the wrong way of going about things - I invariably get sent the bolshy ones no-one else wants, who won't follow the plot line, get involved with people I didn't need and generally refuse to co-operate in getting the story told. Still, I get attached to even the least helpful ones, and don't like sending them back into the limbo reserved for unused protagonists (I think the agency knows I'm a sucker like this, which is why they send me all the difficult ones).

And names are part of the character. Sympathetic magic; the map is, to a large extent, the territory, the label doesnt just represent, it forms and modifies. Indeed, when a character is coming into existence, the name is frequently the seed crystal about which it solidifes, with (we hope) the essential characteristics for performing its rôle in the story, but also a whole lot of other inessentials, dislikes and needs that come to annoy me later (and can frequently be eliminated by changing the name)

Strange, me?

 

[ctg]

LOL, Chris, you are not alone. I create my characters around the plot. They just pop out from my head when I need them, but I base some of them to the real life people.

 

[CrowberFizz]

I doubt I am alone in this. I always have an idea of my character when I sit down to write, but they never turn out the way I expect them to. They are so independent! I love that experience of a character doing something, saying something or acting in a way that completely surprises me - it makes me feel like I am reading someone else's work, rather than creating my own. It really does feel as though I have a window in to a world that is existing independently of me; a world that is not dependent on me at all. It's a great privilege.

 

[Talysia]

For me, I'd have to say that half of the time, the characters come before (and thus inform) the plot, and half the time the plot dictates the need for a character. I don't think the latter are any less effective than the former, however. Perhaps that's because I'm very loose when it comes to plotting, so if they want to take the story in a whole new direction, I'm happy to let them and see what comes of it.

This is basically what happens with me. My characters come first, usually inspired by a name or theme, and they evolve into whatever storyline I give them. Once I've got the characters and some of their backstory, the storyline seems to follows quite naturally out of their circumstances.

 

[Malloriel]

Many of the characters I have now were born for various non-writing-related purposes with independent stories growing around them. The writer in me collected them all together and found comfortable, fluid ways to take their trailing loose ends and connect them in such a way that a dizzying web developed and I no longer know which way is out.

HOWEVER! Just the other day I had sudden inspiration and I'll tell you what it was.
Time is an element that can be used magically in my little world and I was having such trouble devising just what one could do with Time without being this overwhelming unstoppable force, but one intimidatingly powerful none the less. Traditionally humans can't use it (thank goodness, or there could really be trouble there, irresponsible things that they are), except that I MUST have one human learn how to access the power as humans are the only ones who can become Scions to the gods, and blah blah blah. It's a whole intense set up, many pieces, ridiculously complicated. Where this all matters is the other day I was thinking about video games, how even if you're so intent on the game you feel you're right there with the characters, it never phases you when you think about how many times you die trying to figure out a puzzle (God of War, for example: Puzzles made to kill you, you die. BUT, you come back and you learn from your mistakes and you find a way to get past it, even if you die several more times). Now, without some sort of extreme divine intervention, that's just laughably implausible. And now I know I'm not the first writer to think to use things like sprinting back in time to get through a dire situation, but it was as if these drifting pieces gravitated toward the brief thought of video games in that light and began attaching their loose ends to it, and from this came a central character.

Male, no name yet. Rather a gentle scholarly sort, witty, generally well liked, but given much space because those who know him well know his favourite place in the world is buried waste deep in books without the necessity of keeping track of time. He's well versed in several languages, and has friends versed in others he's not so familiar with so that should he come across references, he always has a translator on hand. His family has connections with Time for a blessing given several generations back, which is a bit unusual as creatures of Time are some of the hardest to find, but found one was, and it gave a blessing to the bloodline. There was even a prophet in his ancestry. All this really means is when he finally begins to accept the view that all time is simultaneous instead of linear (we're still in fantasy here, don't worry. No scientific terms ever introduced, just putting words to the concepts people already have. Time goes "I start here, I go there, I take you with me. You see." according to humans, when in fact it's like "What? No. Everywhere, every time. All at once."), which opens him up to the latent affinity with Time, thus allowing it to manifest and express itself.

All this (rather large) explanation was meant to illustrate, I suppose, was in this instance, since it happened so recently and I can remember the process, is I think I started with the baby seed of an idea, other existing but rootless ideas gravitated toward it, and from a situation grew this character and personality, and the more he grew, the more the situation could. Kind of a symbiotic creation process.

How's that for ya?

 

[Malloriel]

I'm wordy. >.<

 

[Selati]

Hehe being wordy seems like a good thing to be for a writer!

Thanks for all the replies everyone, they've given me a lot to think about and some new ideas to try. I'll be sure to have some interesting characters to play with in no time!

 

[chrispenycate]

I was just meditating on the title of this thread.

You know, the amount of obedience I get from my characters, it's quite possible that they have created me, in order to have someone to write them, rather than continue in non-existence.
Which would make them author creating characters.

 

[chopper]

but what happens if they die?

 

[glandowski]

I write a basic out line of the story and note any key characters with a generic identification.

Then as I flesh out the story I flesh out the key characters.

By the fifth pass I have a good idea who is important and needs better detail.

Cheers

 

[jezelf]

For me, a character generally presents themselves as the plot or scene unfolds in my imagination. But Also it's worth working out what archetype is required and work backwards from there.

As an excerise, I open the dictionary up, and without looking, open at a random page, point at a random word. The word is a good starting point for a character trait, the page numbers can give you their age (e.g 134 could be 134, 13 or 34 or 4! - you could even use odd for Female, even for male ) and the rest can flow - race, sex, height etc can all be inspired from there - listen to your imagination that will bounce from that first word.

Do this about 3 or four times for the same character to build up their personality (do it again if there is a contradiction...unless you want your character to be a trickster, shadow or suffer from personality disorders etc)

Jot it all down in your note book with your other ideas - perhaps under a heading of it's archetype that it fits into - and then come back when your want a character, pick one that might suit your story. It can really help create fresh, non-biased characters. I sometimes find I gravitate towards similar characters - typical cliches and this take me in a new direction like a dip in cold water.

Another tool would be to use person's Enneagram type and that could shape how your character develops. You can go further and read up on physcology and mental disorders and the rest - all stuff I like to do. It can take your chracters into more depths.

Most of all this would probably not come out in your story, but just like creating what colour their eyes are or their place of orgin, if they were abandoned or loved as a child etc, it can shape your character.

hope it helps
Jez