Getting to know your characters...

[lonewolfwanderer]

What's the best way to get to know your characters? How do you get to know them?

Do you just write, and get to know you characters as the story unfolds, or do you draw up character sheets?

Reason i ask this, is because i'm on a scene now where something drastic happens, and there is a third character in the background watching the scene. Something bad happens, and i can't figure out whether he runs away as a result of what he has seen, or helps the other characters involved. I think this is mainly because i don't know enough about this character to make the decision.

All i know is: He is after the pendants; i want him to be seen as bad initially but becomes a good guy after realizing a few things. I don't know if he is working for someone or he has his own motives, and i'm not too sure how to work all this out...

Any advice?

EDIT: And maybe if i could ask for examples of questions one would ask when drawing up/ creating your character?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

As I write them, I get to know them. I added a new characterduring my revisions this time and until I'd written the first run- through their scenes I had no sense of him. I also sometimes write in first to start a scene off in their voice and transfer it to third later. I don't do character sheets but know others swear by them. As ever - do what suits you best.

 

[Boneman]

Although I tend not to, nowadays,* character sheets have helped me enormously in the past. I used to write everything: who his parents were, his aunts, his uncles, the schools he went to, his favourite foods, his favourite clothes, his favourite pet, his favourite music, the things he hated, who his childhood friends were, who he lost his virginity to, and how, and so on. None of it would ever appear in the book, but I got such a good handle on him, that it made his decision-making much easier. Having got him fixed so firmly in my mind, occasionally an action by him became a logical extension of his persona, rather than a coincidental plot point that might weaken the storytelling somehow.


*Mainly because I now spend at least a month or two day-dreaming about my characters before I even put finger to processor, whereas before it was 'Oh, great idea, must get it on paper today'

 

[Brian G Turner]

I used to think I understood my characters. I knew all their mannerisms, likes and dislikes, who they got along with, who they didn't.

However, approaching their Emotional Arcs I realised I didn't understand any of the reasons behind the above, or their drive for anything. Which has made it intensely difficult to write them.

My experience is that it may be more constructive to figure out your drives for your arcs - needs and wants and why to everything - and then fill in the details after. Because, if like me, you have the details first, trying to find their drive means pushing through a lot of distracting information that fills up the text without saying anything.

Am currently reading Catching Fire and paying particular attention to how Suzanne Collins handles Katniss. She's a wonderfully active character with a very clear drive and conflicts, which is almost certainly why the series did so well. We do actually know what her favourite colour is, but it is the very least of the reader's interest in her.

 

[Bowler1]

*Mainly because I now spend at least a month or two day-dreaming about my characters before I even put finger to processor, whereas before it was 'Oh, great idea, must get it on paper today'

Not just me then.


I plan and plot (daydream and ponder) my scenes days before I write them (usually while writing the prior scene) so I don't arrive at a scene unprepared. I've never been a detailed character sheet person, that's just too organised for me and I do more than enough of that every day in work. I usually get a scene down rough first and then return to it a few days later. I often change character reactions and rewrite whole scenes to make these changes later when I change my mind and so on. So nothing is set in stone and why should it be?


Write it, leave it for a bit. Review it, re-assess what you've done and change it if you want. The changing, editing and reviewing is at least 2/3s of my writing and amending character reactions is very common for me. Just because you write it one way doesn't make it right. Anyway, you get my drift, you can always change your mind later.

 

[Dozmonic]

I find character sheets and large lists of facts about a character to be the least helpful thing ever. It's great to have some information for reference, but generally I prefer a flexible approach to facts.

I do like to have an image of the character because you've then got the form of the person in mind. In early versions of a book I'll import an image of someone similar so I have it there as reference.

As far as developing them goes, it's a matter of refining over time. No character comes out fully formed any more than an entire book comes out fully formed. However, large sections of a character can emerge at once, especially when based on other people. "I want her to be like X in as much as she has this trait and that trait..."

When I have some very basic idea, I have to write them. I need their voice and their actions down, otherwise I'm just writing a generic carbon copy of everyone else. And most characters start out like that, they start out bland and I can then look at them in a scene and say that's terrible, what can I do to make them more interesting.

Then they can get developed. Bob used to play football at a high level until he had an injury. He never found anything to replace that dream so he has nothing to aspire to, making him very cynical, especially towards anybody who does chase their dream. Having kids changed him though. He still looked down on having a singular dream but really drove home to them the need for alternatives and that changed him from a cynic to a teacher, striving for the best. With a short bit of background like that, I have brought a character to the present and can then move forward. They all have motivations and are capable of change. The experiences of the book must change them in some way, or challenge them enough to reinforce that how they are is the right way to be. You don't have time to show all of this for every character, but it should be apparent for the reader that "evil mega bad guy" isn't just an out right nasty chap, unless he genuinely is and we begin to see some reason why.

So:
* image
* some background
* write and refine, adapt character until they're suited to the story and interesting to read
* provide stakes and challenges to give the character opportunity for change

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

Thanks for all your input... I really appreciate it.

Thing with where i am is, the choice is important to what happens next. i can't really move on until he makes this choice, but i don't know enough about him to be able to make this choice. So i'm yet again at an impasse.

Every scene i write fits in with what must happen next, but is determined by what i wrote in the previous scene. Like in the new WIP i've started, the girl's father was killed. Now they must hold the funeral, which will then be the place of an assassination attempt. But that was all determined by what i wrote in the first scene, and what i write is more of what is on my mind at the time of writing it. In other words, i write it on a whim- I visualize a scene, write it down and the next scene is pretty much a continuation of that. That may give one a sense of how i write... I pretty much work on what happens next rather than what happens 50 scenes down the line, although i have the outline of the plot in my head.

But with the scene i mentioned in the OP, the character in question witnesses a terrifying event. The event involves the MC and his godsister. This scene was completely unplanned and unexpected, it sort of just turned out that way. But now i need to figure out what happens afterwards, but what happens next depends on the choice made for the character witnessing this event: Does he run, or does he save them?

But i can't work it out, because i don't know enough about the character to make that choice... And there isn't much in what is already written where the character in question is involved. So practically, he is a new character, and i'm not too sure on the best way to get to know him, or even what questions to ask apart from the usual: Age, Sex, Height, etc.

 

[Dozmonic]

Sketch out some of his past in note form. With some life history, you have an idea of who he is. Just major things that happened to him, what interested him etc, it'll give you some direction.

 

[alchemate]

I get to know my characters as I write them. I treat them just like I would the story, with each rewrite I get a better understanding of exactly who they are and why they're doing what they're doing. But started out I only work with the basics: occupation, relationship status, etc.

 

[Mouse]

I'm in the 'get to know them as I write them' camp. I have a feel for them before I start, a sense of their personality, but mostly I get to know them as I go. Sometimes some come quicker than others.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I third the 'get to know them as you write them' school, but I always have physical descriptions, general info, and, importantly, how they speak sorted out before I write a first draft.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I third the 'get to know them as you write them' school, but I always have physical descriptions, general info, and, importantly, how they speak sorted out before I write a first draft.

Yeah, I couldn't write them without hearing their voice. That's the first thing, everything else comes as I get to know them.

 

[chrispenycate]

My characters aren't that well behaved. They get to know me as I write them (although some aren't even that polite). They do things I didn't plan for, go places the plot didn't need them, generally refuse to follow instructions and go bolshy when I tone down their language (I might be writing YA, who can tell?) I should try another agency, see if I get better slavish obedience, but the truth is I generally get very attached to my characters, even the nasty ones, and wouldn't really want puppets.

So, my characters, though not all of them believe in me, have their own opinions and make their own decisions from the moment I put pencil to paper, and are quite determined to maintain these. I've even had to write out a couple that flat refused actions that were essential to the plot, but that's rare; generally I can write around them, apply pressure.

But if anyone knows an agency that supplies obedient characters, particularly dragons, I'm interested.