Cast of Characters

[vox]

I recently read a story breakdown of the first Harrry Potter book that touched on the character attributes of the three MC's and how they complimented and strengthened each other. Also, a writer's blog recently featured a post about the author realizing she needed to roll two characters together to make the story work better.

This got me thinking about my characters and wondering if I could make my story stronger by being a little more intentional about their strenghts and weaknesses.

So, I'm wondering...how do you go about creating your cast of characters? Do you let them evolve naturally, or do you intentionally give them attributes that make them a "whole" when they are together and something less when they're apart?

And if you are intentional, what traits do you use and how do you decide on the mix?

[blacbird]

I let them evolve and crawl out of the primordial slime to see if they can stand on two legs or, better, fly.

caw

[CheshireCat]

What the bird said.

There's never anything "intentional" about my characters. I start putting them together -- name, general description, sometimes occupation -- and they evolve.

[scarletpeaches]

This will sound incredibly wanky; nevertheless, it works for me.

I don't tell the characters what they are. They tell me.

[Stew21]

that's exactly how it is for me, SP. They appear in my brain fully formed. I just have to put down with words to show someone else.

[scarletpeaches]

I like it when characters appear fully formed, but then whisper, "Actually...I didn't tell you this about me," and it's not an add-on, just something they held back, which fits in with what you already know about them.

Now sure, I know all this comes from inside my own head, but it's cool when it feels so real, like an existing person letting their guard down and spilling their secrets.

[Stew21]

i like the little surprises too. When you find out something you didn't think you knew about a character and my reaction is always, "of course! Why didn't I see it sooner!"

[vox]

This will sound incredibly wanky; nevertheless, it works for me.

I don't tell the characters what they are. They tell me.

It doesn't sound wanky at all. In fact, it's what I sort of expected people would say.

I was just curious to see if in the preliminary stages, people had such a macro view of their cast that they knew going in they'd need X to compliment Y and contrast with Z.

If it can be overthought, it will be overthought by me. :)

[scarletpeaches]

I don't try to fit the whole group dynamic into my plan, I just think, "Ooh, if I pair Character X up with Character Y, there'll be fireworks!"

So it's not that I plan to have a group of people who together will accomplish X, Y or Z. I just cause them as much trouble as possible and watch them try to get out of it. :D

I suppose it's the difference between having a recipe and buying the ingredients to fit, or just making do with what you have in your kitchen and trying to avoid food poisoning.

[RG570]

Since I like to know what's going to happen before I even start writing, I have to do a lot of this characterization at that time. It's not romantic and writerly, but I have to make sure the plot is driven by the characters' interactions, and it's annoying having to slow the writing to figure it out on the fly.

Most of the time they fill out and expand out of their sketches during actual writing, but I like getting the broad strokes done in an outline. Otherwise it just makes for too much revision later on.

[Chasing the Horizon]

A lot of my characters just come to me fully formed. Sometimes I'll start with some base attributes I want a character to have and let them develop from there. A lot of times it ends up that the MC just came to me, and then some of the supporting characters were started with personality traits that would compliment the MC. If I want to create a romantic subplot (or main plot) I'll almost always have created one of the two characters to compliment a character who just came into my head. The odds of having two characters spontaneously come to me who happen to be romantically compatible isn't good (though it has happened by accident a few times, including couples getting together in books who weren't originally supposed to).

[sunandshadow]

I used to intentionally make charts such that one character in my cast represented each side of whatever my themes were - maybe one believed in Truth with a capital T, while the other believed in diplomacy and little white lies, maybe one was a halfblood and one was a pureblood of one half and another a pureblood of another half, and one was prejudiced and one wasn't... It works pretty well when you know you need more characters but don't have a vision or inspiration for them.

I don't do this so much any more because I have about 6 character archetypes that I've learned deeply and come to love, and mostly I want to write about those, not make ones up from scratch.


Edit Aha I knew I had written something about generating casts of characters from theme a while ago:
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=400706

[katiemac]

This got me thinking about my characters and wondering if I could make my story stronger by being a little more intentional about their strenghts and weaknesses.

So, I'm wondering...how do you go about creating your cast of characters? Do you let them evolve naturally, or do you intentionally give them attributes that make them a "whole" when they are together and something less when they're apart?

Like others, I don't intentionally create my characters with complementary traits. But no two characters should serve the same purpose in the story, and I think that's the key to remember.

[vox]

But no two characters should serve the same purpose in the story, and I think that's the key to remember.

Maybe it's these purposes that aren't clearly defined in my mind. Is there a general set of archetypes (like sunandshadow mentioned) that people just naturally work from? I've read a couple books on writing, but haven't seen anything that really breaks it down like that. Again, this probably borders on overthinking, but I'm wondering if there are some big picture things that I could learn and benefit from knowing.

[katiemac]

Maybe it's these purposes that aren't clearly defined in my mind. Is there a general set of archetypes (like sunandshadow mentioned) that people just naturally work from? I've read a couple books on writing, but haven't seen anything that really breaks it down like that. Again, this probably borders on overthinking, but I'm wondering if there are some big picture things that I could learn and benefit from knowing.

You could force-fit any existing character into an archetype, but I don't know that many people who consciously use them. I think of archetypes as one of those things readers developed to analyze fiction, not to help writers write it. That being said, knowing some of the general archetypes and why they're considered so probably isn't a bad idea for a writer as long as you don't get so overwhelmed trying to make something "fit."

As for me, I can look at the Potter novels and say: Harry's very brave, but also very reckless and sometimes single-minded. He needs Hermione to see the bigger picture and (at times) slow him down. He needs Ron to be supportive and loyal. Bare bones, but they're serving a purpose, and of course that purpose changes sometimes from book-to-book.

But that doesn't mean that when I'm writing my own pieces I'm looking at Character Z and seeing that he's rushing into things too quickly, I should make sure he has a Character X to slow him up. It does happen, for me, more naturally. But in the editing phase I will go back and make sure that Character Z isn't running to extraneous Character P for help when X can serve the same function better. Bearing in mind, of course, that a character should serve a function that doesn't contradict his or her personality - I won't make Character X the one who magically solves the problem for Z if it's outside her abilities to do it.

[tilt190]

I don't start writing a character into the plot until I feel they have been developed into a real, live, person--maybe even a bit more complex as a real person. I try to make each character separate, but there's never the stereotypical nice-guy and stereotypical bad boy. The two can blur into each other, because no one in real life is a cleanly-cut stereotype or just black and white.

[sunandshadow]

Maybe it's these purposes that aren't clearly defined in my mind. Is there a general set of archetypes (like sunandshadow mentioned) that people just naturally work from? I've read a couple books on writing, but haven't seen anything that really breaks it down like that. Again, this probably borders on overthinking, but I'm wondering if there are some big picture things that I could learn and benefit from knowing.
I searched everywhere for a list of character archetypes. No such list exists. The closest there is is TVtropes wiki, and also there's a psychology/self-help subject called 'personal mythology'. Or you can try to work from something like the Meyers-Briggs personality type index, or descriptions of astrological sign personality types, or a similar system of folk belief.

[Karen Junker]

There's a romance writer who's written a book with a list of character archetypes for romance...I'll go look around for it and get back here if I can find it.

[Karen Junker]

I found an article by Tami Cowden on a website...I don't know if it's against the rules to post a link here...

[Karen Junker]

And there's the book The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

[Libbie]

45 Master Characters is another great book to read for this kind of thing.

I have to say, though, characters tend to come to me telling me what they're like. The MC of my current WIP is sweet and dutiful but terribly flawed in that she acts on religious feelings without really thinking about how her decisions will impact those around her. She's also a hormonal teen-ager at the moment, and that makes things tricky for her family. I didn't sit down and plan her out this way. It became clear as I wrote about her.

I do think that those of us who say "characters tell me what they're like" are extra observant of people in general. We like to people-watch, and we love to analyze what's going on inside another person's head. We are also likely to be self-analytical in the same way, always thinking back over why we did X, Y, or Z. At least, I am that way, and I don't have a hard time coming up with characters who work together well (or not so well, when I need that to happen!)

So, my advice is to people-watch. :)

[tilt190]

^Read that book, was very insightful. But be warned--don't just copy word-for-word the characters on the page. Branch out a bit.


Ah, people-watching. Like listening in on a conversation at B&N/Starbucks...I love doing that. :)

[M.R.J. Le Blanc]

It starts with an image. Then it becomes a sort of 'discovery' process - I go with what feels right for the character. If a strength or weakness doesn't flow with the character in question, I don't use it. All throughout the story it's a constant discovery, although some discoveries aren't relevant to the story. My favourite discovery about my vamp character is pretty damn funny though even though it likely won't show up in the stories anywhere. It might show up as a flashback though, because he really wants to tell someone (and consequently, so do I lol :) )

[vox]

Great stuff! Thanks everyone. I'll definitely check out the suggested books.

Karen, posting links is done frequently here, so I wouldn't worry. Of course, you could PM me with it if you'd rather.

[downtherabbithole]

For me, I'll get an image in my head of the character (a very basic one). The problem that presents itself usually comes to me before the characters, so I base them off of what they are dealing with in the novel. They'll usually come armed with two or three distinct characteristics, but then they evolve as I write.

[Blackest_Nite]

I've learned to let my characters be themselves. Sometimes who I think they are and who they actually are turn out to be two different things. I fill out character sketches on my MCs and important secondaries, but a lot of the blanks are left empty until I know the answer for sure.