What drives a story? Is it the plot or the characters? Characters!
Characters are the biggest reason someone picks up a book. I might hate the plot where the people never leave a room the entire time, but it keeps me reading if the characters are unique. So how do we make characters people will cherish?
There are many ways to do it, but some basics ones are:
Dialogue. People will know if your character is from the Bronx by how he talks.
Thoughts. What is the thought pattern of your character? Does he/she jump from one topic to the next without any pattern?
Action. This is a big one. If a character throws a ball at someone's head for the fun of it, that gives me a lot of information about him.
Other character's impressions. If you have someone muttering about your main character it will make the reader see things from a different perspective.
Appearance. Yeah, yeah. Looks aren't everything, but it gives a great insight into a character's mind. You automatically have a character type when you see someone dressed in the same clothes as yesterday. What style of clothes does he like? Does he really like old clothes? Why?
Social class. I know, this is America and we're not supposed to lump people into classes. The fact of the matter is the First Lady is going to act differently than Harly, the leader of a drug ring.
Get to know your character as much as possible before starting to write. Fill up at least a page with what he likes to eat, what kind of people he likes, what kind of clothes he likes, what he thinks about other people, what his hardest moment has been in life, etc. You probably won't use a majority of this information, but it's still invaluable. You'll how a character will react to a situation.
Creating believable characters will make you look nuts sometimes. If you've done your job well, he'll be real to you. I'm writing a book now, and I love coming to parts with this particular person. He does things I wouldn't have predicted. There's a story of one writer who was actually going to buy something for her character, till someone reminded her that person wasn't real!
The way to get out of plot driven stories is to let your characters have control. Do you have him doing things out of his personality? Should he be angry at a particular spot? We supply the difficult situations for our characters, and they do the rest. Sometimes it will be nothing you imagined.
If your characters are going to be real to other people, they have to be real to you first.
Does anyone have any confessions about going crazy?
13 comments:
Great advice...how long have you been writing for?
Debbie :)
Hey man, that is great advice; I've been struggling with developing characters.
One of my characters is a half-reflection of myself, but he's getting a bit unpredictable. Now, another character that just sort of popped into my story is really crazy...."I'll be quicker 'n a wheel-drawn watermelon", he says at one point. He seems 90% of the way to being insane, since he keeps saying stuff like that and comparing everything to vegetables, but I've learned that he's one heck of a warrior!
No matter how much you plan your character out, I find, they will always surprise you somehow. I've begun to just make out their frame and see where they go on their own. I like to learn about my characters rather than just creating them. Hey, it's working!
:)Ian(:
Interesting movie to watch: 12 Angry Men. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but it was AWESOME character movie. They, LITERALLY, never leave one room. It's a fascinating older movie, and one that I highly recommend for any author, for two reasons: Characters (as you've mentioned) and Plot. After all, there has to be SOMETHING important going on!
Check out the synopsis at IMDB.com
The movie hinges on one character, who manages to change the minds of the other jurors in the room. Strength of character? You bet! Highly recommended.
Anyhow, great blog today!
Characters have a way of doing that. I had one girl that I planned as a sweet, supportive sister, if not the brightest. One day I was out for a walk and realized, "You know, Rose doesn't want to be that way." She's really not that mature, and kind of teeny-girl, if you know what I mean. It was sad, because she was supposed to be nice, but alas, she is not.
Maddee
Hey thanks y'all! Sorry I've been gone all day.
I had a case the other day where I found myself actually talking to one of my characters. I was in the woods, OK, and I was alone.
To answer your questoin Debbie, I've been writing for 4-5 years.
I know what you mean by finding yourself in your character, Ian. It hit me a couple times in a book I'm writing; this guy is me!
Yeah, I hate doing those character outlines because they just bust out of the framework in no time anyway, Maddee
Oh yes! I've set a character down and watched them run in any which way. Many people are outline based, and although I know where I want my story to go, I much rather prefer writing as it flows from my head.
~Elliot
Hey, I forgot to say thanks for the great Character advice!
Great stuff! I've done a few posts on characters...check them out on my blog...they're under the label "The Writer's Guild."
Write On!!!
Shelby Marie
Um, quick comment, Jamin - under your favorite movies, you wrote 'Killer Angles' instead of 'Angels'. So unless there's a documentary out there about the evils of geometry...
Cool...I just now caught the link to my blog. Thanks so much! :)
Debbie
Tepees litter I my wringing...soup me.
Thanks for linking to mine, Debbie!
It worked! Sorry, I just took the questions and interviewed my main character. Who knew that he liked pancakes and could eat a whole field of blueberries!
~Elliot
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