bringing characters to life???

Living characters DO interesting things. They ACT as well as react.

Some things are really that simple.

Well, you could do a few things.

When you're tired and about to fall asleep, think about one of your characters. Picture her. What does she look like? What's her favorite thing to do? What's one of her quirks?

That brings me to another thing you could do. Give each character a quirk. It could be just biting on a pen, chewing a fingernail, humming a tune.

Or you could go here and fill in a few things about each character (you don't have to fill in the whole form. You'd go nuts).

As the story progresses, you will find that your characters will talk to you in some way. You'll get a feel for each of them and how they might act. I say "might" because there will be times they'll fool you and do something totally different from what you'd expect. But that's good. It means they're becoming more "real."

I think about my characters a lot. I see them through scenes, watch them talk, bitch, play, eat, drive, change channels on the TV; anything I can to get them so seated in my head that they're real. I try to imagine them as much as possible to get how they might act/ react to situations. By thinking about them as if recalling my past days events I start to get more details about the story and them, how they talk or look at other characters, etc.

The more I pretend the more real they become.

I think you have to figure out who your character is-- including what they feel, want, hate, love, think, and so on-- to help them come alive. Also, why they feel, want, hate, love, think and so on about certain things. Give them a situation-- how do they react, why?

What is it that your character wants more than anything else in the whole world? Why? What are they willing to do to get it?

Think of what defines you-- and what defines your character. And why. I think the why is important because it gets beyond the surface level. Ex. Protag hates people. Okay, why? Becuase she's doesn't like insincerity and is afraid of believing in someone's veneer only to find that it's a sham. She has serious issues with trust, clearly. Ah, but why-- because her parents were too wrapped up in themselves when she was young, this led her to be both independent and distrustful. Most of this would NEVER end up in the text, but when you write your character, you can keep them true to themselve (unless you're purposefully changing who they are for their personal growth.)

For character development I write scenes with a lot of dialogue between the characters, even if it won't ever make the final draft. Sometimes you'll be surprised by what they say. Also, give them a past. People do things and act the way they do based on their experiences.

One question, have you even began to write the first draft?

The reason I ask is sometimes if you get the story out where you can see it. You can go back into it during your editing and bring your characters to life.

I look at it as this, the first draft is the skeleton that you attach all the meat to as you polish it. Also it allows you to see and get a feel for your characters to help breathe some life into them.

The best things you can do for your characters are:

- Listen to them
- Trust them
- Let them teach you
- Let them tell their own story

You're their advocate, not their gaoler. Be firm with them, but fair. Let them make mistakes and make them clean up after themselves. Don't force them into a storyline they're not comfortable with. On the other hand, don't let them run completely wild, either!

Have fun with them. Talk to them. Argue with them. They'll soon reveal their own voice.

One of my favourite methods is to discover what happened in their past -- and how that past influences how they behave today.

So you've got some guy. What if twenty years ago he fell asleep at the wheel and his wife and kid died in the resulting crash? How does that make him feel / act today? Does he refuse to take any responsibilty for fear he will fail / kill someone by accident? Is he viciously sarcastic with everyone because he hates himself so much? Does he refuse to drive, or go anywhere in a car? If he catches someone else driving badly does he have to restrain himself from punching them, or rant at them about how they are going to kill someone?

Or take me. I hoard food. My freezer and larder are always full. Why? because my first husband always spent the rent money on records/ beer / something frivolous, so I would stock up on food when I did have money, as insurance against what I knew was coming -- the days( or weeks) we didn't have enough money to buy food. I still do it now, because, well you never know when you're going to be short of food money.

Every living person is a conglomaration of the past events in their lives. If you find out what those past events were, and how they feel about them, then you will have a good handle on your character, they will seem more real rather than just an amalgam of ooh that's a nice quirk, or how about I make him sarcastic? They become more real, you will know why they are as they are, and as a bonus will know how they will react to certain situations.

Why is possibly the most important question you can ask of your characters.

DeleyanLee said:

Living characters DO interesting things. They ACT as well as react.

Some things are really that simple.

Click to expand...

'nuff said.



and, you can always try...

giving them a cause - tree-hugging, animal rights activists

giving them an affliction - injured in a car accident, he always carries a cane. taps it on the floor, fondles the handle when thinking, etc.

giving them mannerisms - an eye tic, knuckle-cracker

pick something that illustrates what you're trying to convey and your adding a layer of flesh to the bones.

What IdiotsRUs said. Figure out who your characters were before your story began and you'll learn a lot about who they are now. I find this method far more useful than lists of likes and dislikes and random traits.




-Michelle

Hi IdiotsRUs,

I agree.

If you think of your own quirks and what has caused them you can often translate these into your characters.

Sometimes it's good to use this as a reveal - let the character and thus the reader learn why these quirks exist through the story. It's endearing.

*waves*

see you soon!

I don't try to paint the picture of my characters. I let people imagine their own players in the story. I only describe the necessary aspects of their character or physical appearance.

What do they want?

(Without reading the other replies, hence I might be echoing somebody...)

Put yourself in that character's head. Basically, pretend/make believe that YOU are that character.

I do not mean make yourself the main character, or make the character behave like you yourself would. I mean that you pretend that YOU are THEM, not vice-versa.

Then, start writing. The writing will just be pretending, but on paper.

That's how it works for me, at least.

I find the best way to make a realistic character is to stop and think how they'd react to a scene. If you want your savage warrior (example) to be coldhearted, think about how he'd react a given situation, such as a friend being held hostage. Would he save his ally, or simply walk away? Etc.

I would advise you to stay away from 'giving each character a different quirk', in my opinion that just makes them much more 1 dimensional. An example would be like "she twists her hair around her finger". BORING! Unless like previously stated in this thread their quirk is explained later in the story and doesn't come off as cheesy.

I agree with the idea of giving them a past! Even if it doesn't come up in a big way in the story, know what happened to him or her in childhood on.

I like writing characters who show up again in later novels in some minor capacity. When they do, because they were major characters in another story that I came to know exceedingly well, even as minor characters they come off as very three-dimensional.

It can also be helpful to imagine real people that you know and think of the characters in your story in relation to them. "MC Tommy is a lot like my brother-in-law Chip. What would Chip do in this situation?"

--Q

I always think about their food preferences.
My books are never about food, and the food doesn't play a key part in the story either.

But still, my main character will always have a food preference or hate. He can't finish the day without yoghurt (that's autobiographical, basically), he thinks people who don't like ice cream aren't human, she hates chocolate, etc.
Just a small detail in the story, but it makes the characters more human.

DeleyanLee said:

Living characters DO interesting things. They ACT as well as react.

Some things are really that simple.

Click to expand...

Very good advice. Actions speak louder than words.
As others have mentioned, be sure your characters have fears, wants and desires. This may seem kind of hard to put on the page, but it gets easier over time. A good starting point is to start with reasonable characters. What I mean by that is would a reasonable person do the things they're doing? Are they afraid when met with danger? Do they try to run from their problems, or procrastinate? Do they get hungry, cold, wet, tired, etc.? And, as many real people do, when they're backed into a corner and have no where else to go, do they put up a fight?

And of course there are reasonable people who do crazy things for fun, who care about their friends and families, who get depressed when faced with impossible problems and who have enough discipline to go do their job no matter what it costs them, even their lives.

That's how people live. They'll come to life for you if you give them an opportunity to live on the page.

Is there a specific problem that you're having in terms of the characters not coming to life for you? Do they not seem real in a specific way? Do they just not want to do anything? Because it occurs to me that it's possible that your characters have plenty of life--they just may not want to jump through the hoops. That happens a lot.

IdiotsRUs said:

Why is possibly the most important question you can ask of your characters.

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this is what I was going to say but IdiotsRUs said it much more eloquently.

WHY WHY WHY

All my MCs have a bit of me in them, soon of my good, and some of my bad (often exaggerated). If side characters are flat, I add a quirk that will play off well against some of the other characters. Otherwise I observe the people around me, make mental notes, and that fills the sandbox that I then pull out characters and breath life into.

Personally I like to use a lot of lightening, and a tall tower on the outskirts of a community that shuns my existence.

But that's just me.