Getting to know your characters

[Chel]

My morning coffee hasn't quite kicked in yet, so expect some possibly incoherent ramblings... Apologies in advance!

Being a novice at writing, I may be going about getting to know my characters differently than more experienced writers - possibly in the wrong way, too! Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as always.

I see my current work in progress as practice for "the real thing", a story I've had in mind for a few years now, but needs a lot of development and self-confidence on my part. However, that doesn't mean I take my current WIP less seriously - the story of Valmarian and Sorellia wants to be written to the best of my capabilities!

I'm wondering how well you all know your main characters. How do you go about getting to know them? Do they come to life within the parameters of your story or do they actively influence your plot in ways you had not anticipated when you started writing?

For example, I've written a scene with Valmarian being sent on his task by his king and queen. This scene is not to be included in the finished book as it gives away every detail of the plot - but also, which surprised me, added some complicated feelings between Valmarian and his queen. What helped me was that this queen is a character I played in a roleplaying game, so I know her very well, which reflected upon Valmarian.

This scene led me to see Valmarian in a different light. It made me understand his motivations and feelings better, which will undoubtedly help me as the story progresses. It already made me write down a short description about how he feels for his queen, too, which added even more to his background history. ...incidentally, I quite like what I wrote in that little excercise, and I'm sorely tempted to post it.

The plot in my WIP will lead to some tough choices for Valmarian and Sorellia, especially Sorellia. Right now I don't know exactly how she will react when she finds out the truth, so I'm planning on writing an interview between her and myself to let her examine her options, and force her to make some kind of decision. ...that is, if it's not apparent to me what she'll do when the time comes to write that scene.

The question I'm trying to get to is really how YOU create a solid personality for your character?

 

[The Judge]

I think you're going about it in just the right way. I, too, create scenes between characters in which they talk and react to each other without worrying about the confines of the plot and all the rest of it. Few of those scenes ever get written. Some of them are fillers or links ie what they talk/think about as they walk down the corridor from one important scene to the next. Some of them are "what ifs" -- ie "what if instead of leaving the bedroom he stays with her...". The latter helps in two ways -- first I see them react unexpectedly; second it helps me decide between two courses of action if there is in fact a choice.

I don't do any role-playing, but when I'm writing I do become my characters, to the extent that when I'm thinking/writing dialogue I frequently find myself looking up as I write the heroine's words and then down as I write hero's since she is much shorter than he is. Which is one reason I can't write while anyone is in the room, as I can't immerse myself in the characters enough, and I get self-conscious about "acting" them.

And yes, my characters drive the story and can be relied upon to do things I don't expect. I think everyone experiences that at some point.

 

[ctg]

Well, the question really is how you make round characters from flat characters and the secret is to know them as you would you know best friends. So better then you family, because as you know, we don't want to know our family members most intimate secrets, when as we can listen the most raunchiest (or should I say sauciest, cos it's more British) story coming out from our mates mouth.

So when you can relax and let your characters doing the talking, going places, and doing things, then you know that their are doing to the right thing.

Capishe?

 

[reiver33]

As I write from a first person POV the main character is always 'me' to some extent, projected into that particular set of circumstances. Generally speaking when I start a piece on here I don't have a full other character back story worked out. However, as I write their actions/interactions with the MC kind of expand both backwards and forwards, chronologically, giving me insight into their motivations and desires.

 

[Mouse]

I don't do any role-playing, but when I'm writing I do become my characters...

Same. I have a male character who's not keen on women (he's not gay, he just has an extremely low opinion of women) and after I'd been writing him one time, I went out in the car and was cursing all women drivers from here to hell!

You sort of have to... channel your characters. But not when you're driving.

 

[Ronanida]

I am a novice in the world of writing as well and have come across similiar problems with my characters. Like Judge, I often find myself pacing through my room, my laptop overheating at my desk for the past several hours, acting out a scene between two or more characters of mine. To my total embarassment, I even mimick the voices I imagine them to have, my mother sometimes walking in while I am scowling at nothing and talking in a low, gutteral voice. In doing this, I find that I can really get into my character's shoes, see what they see, feel what they feel. For some reason, thier sense of humor comes out much more when I verbally create them rather than when I am typing thier lines or actions on my computer.
Another thing that helps me is to put one of my character's voices in the back of my mind and have them commentate on everything I do during the day. This really brings out the character's personality when writing in first person PoV since most of the humorous aspects come from the character's thoughts throughout the storyline.

 

[Precise Calibre]

(Half of you are borderline schizophrenic!)

*backs away slowly*

Anyway,

I write basic outlines for my characters; including their past, their attitude, notable features and their relationship to other characters.

Conversations with these characters occasionally help to find things out about them that I may not have known. One of my protagonists is a very angry individual. I sat down with him and asked him 'why are you so angry?'

He told me all about how, when he was only a year old, his father had been taken from him by war. He told me how his mother had tried to care for him the best she could, but had grown progressively more insane and eventually tried to kill him when he was eleven. I learned of his troubled adolescence under the care of his nation's military and how he almost killed several of his peers in a fit of rage, leading to his exile. Finally, I learned how powers beyond mortal ken attempted to use him for their own needs and how he rebelled against them.

I knew he was angry - I just didn't realise why, or how much.

Also, I've been known to play-act scenes out for myself as well.

 

[The Judge]

(Half of you are borderline schizophrenic!)

But which half?

And I'll have it known that I do not sit down and interrogate my characters...

... I get my other characters to do that for me.

 

[ctg]

“Wake her up.”


“Working on it, my precious. And be careful my love. He’s thinking.” The A.I replied a few seconds before Connor silenced the guns.



Is the A.I meaning the operator she's connected to, or she referring me?

That's just an example how the characters start to play in your head, almost against your vision, but if you allow the freedom for them do that then you will be surprised about the things. [FONT=&quot]

Think about it, and make them real ... or as real as possible. And then the only thing you need to is to weave them into the narrative, as the characters are alive in your mind.
[/FONT]

 

[Tillane]

I think this is one of those instances where there's no right or wrong way to go about it - you just have to find what works best for you. I also think it's true that the vast majority of writers will imbue their characters with aspects of their own personality (to a greater or lesser extent depending on the writer and the character, of course - one hopes Richard Morgan isn't too much like Takeshi Kovacs and Joe Abercrombie isn't...well, anything like Logen Ninefingers): I think it's pretty well unavoidable.

For myself, I have three little tools. Like PC, I'll sketch out a very basic outline for each of my major / secondary characters, which will include things like physical characteristics, basic background, relationships, etc. I'll keep these as basic reference - very handy to have something like this to go back to if, like me, you end up writing several stories with the same characters!

Another little exercise that I've found can work for some characters is to write out a series of declarative statements about them ("Jimmy has been afraid of the dark since his aunt locked him in a magic box when he was six", etc). This can help to firm up your picture of the character, as well as helping work out how they would react in certain circumstances - and, of course, you don't have to follow them religiously, just pick out the ones that you feel work best.

Finally, if I get stuck or can't quite work out why my character isn't playing ball, I'll occasionally do a gestalt interview - literally scribble down a few questions you want answers to and try to answer them from your character's POV.

Ah. Actually, there's a fourthly as well, which is that I (of course) learn about them simply through the writing process. In a way, this is the most rewarding of the lot - and if they're anything like my rowdy rabble, they'll never stop pulling surprises on you...

 

[chrispenycate]

Playing ball? Co-operating?

My characters have to be herded into situations where they can't get it wrong, or they'll avoid all the action. Not that I blame them; you have to be pretty stupid, or insane to be a saga-type hero. And some of them know they're fictional, which gives them an edge.

Take mythaxis Item . I get to know my characters as they get to know me, and I'm easier to bully.

 

[Tillane]

Love it, Chrispy. And yeah, you'd have to be either thick or mad (which tend to be translated as "fearless" and "single-minded") to be a hero of epic fantasy. Fortunately, so many of them are...

 

[Chel]

Wow, Chris, that was great.

It's very interesting to read what tricks other people use to really get under the skins of their characters.
I'm going to the cottage over the weekend. I think I'll take Sorellia out for a walk and have a good chat with her! (Although admittedly, I'd much prefer the company of Valmarian... yum.)






note to self: don't get soft on him! He still has to suffer!

 

[Toby Frost]

I always used to think that "my characters sometimes do things I don't expect" was one of those things writers say, but recently I've come to agree more and more. Sometimes you just need to see things from a slightly different angle to realise lots of stuff about a character that may not have been apparent when you made them up. For me, it's often criticism that prompts this: I have to ask myself "Why is that happening?" and sometimes "Can I justify this or does it need changing?" Often it's enough to go back to a story several months after I wrote it to see it from a sufficiently different point of view.

Other people's comments can be very helpful even when they've missed the point. I remember justifying why one of my female characters wasn't going to do backflips in a leather outfit and learning a lot about that character in the process. That said, I do make sure I've got a good idea of the character before I begin, especially if they're going to be fulfilling a role where they need to stand out from the crowd a bit.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Think about them before bedtime ; then dream about them - it's amazing what your characters will get up to when free to roam the boundaries of your mind.

 

[chopper]

they're in my head way too much.

as an example, my protagonist needs to view another character as a potential love interest. as the whole story is told from her POV, i have to think of this other character as being gorgeous and desirable. needless to say, that's causing a lack of sleep.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

(he's not gay

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

(C'mon! No Seinfeld fans..?)

I went out in the car and was cursing all women drivers from here to hell!

Who can blame you?



That's right! I went there!

 

[J-WO]

(C'mon! No Seinfeld fans..?)

My publisher is Kramerica.

 

[GreenKidx]

For my curent WIP I have been using sort of interview method. First, I think of a basic need of my story. And then I put a name into that need. Next I ask said name who are you? What drives you? What's holding you back? This method has lead me to discover hands down the most interesting antagonist ive ever written. After spending a couple days reliving her long (very very long) life, I grew to love her. I could completely understand her motivations and her anger and her pain. Now she is very close to being (scarily) real to me. In example, I was riciting part of her history... "Shee the Twiceborn Mother is the oldest living thing on Earth. Her womb has birthed hundreds of children." That was when I could hear Shee proudly interject "And I can name each and every one. Where they were born and how they died."

 

[ali565]

My characters just seem to wander into my head! I just find myself sub-conciously day dreaming (I'm quite sad really), and it's then that things will just happen to them and suddenly it's official! It's weird. Does that happen to anyone else?