how do you create a "living" character from the ground up?

Personally, I like to 'pretend' to be the character. And this bout of pretending is more than just 'acting' like him but being him. Thinking like him.

For instance, lets say I'm writing a guy who is the world's biggest geek/nerd.
Well, how did he become that person? He must have a history that made him who he is.

Out of his history I craft a mold of his personality and thought processes and all his dialogue, actions, thoughts, etc will be based on this mold...

So, while I'm in this mode, I'm asking myself a series of why why why questions. Why for everything. Why and How. How come he does this? How comes he says that? Why does he believe this? Why doesn't he do that?

You keep asking these questions and the answers will flush out this character and make them real.

The answers can come from your personal experiences, from what you've observed, read, saw on tv, etc

Anyways, there are about a billion ways we come up with our characters. Some writers use worksheets, some like to write histories and background sketches.

I like to 'become' the character. Male, female, young, old, black, white, doesn't matter. But that is what works for me.

Good luck

Mel...

Why don't you create a bio for your character? Try to include as much detail as you can:
what is his/her birthdate, where was she born, what is her nationality, is she blond, tall, fat, what are your character's likes and dislikes, what does she like to eat, etc.

Be very specific. You can also look through magazines for pictures of people that you think are simular to what you think your charcacter looks like.

Once you get all the information down, refer to it during your writing. You'll be sure to know when you're writing something that is totally alien to your characters personallity.

For instance, if your character is afraid of spiders and you're writing a scene where she has to enter a dark cave, her reaction would be completely different then if she was an Entomologist.

Hope this helps.

The more detail you have in your characters bio, the easier it will be to write those scenes.

I never wrote anything down about my current main character, but I have her with me all the time. I know what drives her to her main goal, and why. The rest always seems to come together. As I am writing, I will suddenly discover the little things about her, from the way she likes her toast to the way her heart aches when she thinks about her mother, and they all make sense.

You're going to get a whole lot of answers because it's different for everyone. For me, I toss characters into the story as needed and they begin to take shape as the story does. It's kind of a magic--I don't plan anything out. It's more like, "Ooh! That sounds cool!" and I add it in. The characters bounce off each other and off the story. I also use a lot of humor, mostly in the way they react to things and how they talk.

Characters come to me naturally, so it's hard to explain how to do it

But ever since I was a child, I've noticed all sorts of things about real people that forms kind of a catalogue of traits. Do that enough, and you'll know what goes with what well.

You might try combining traits of two people you know who seem similar. Then change some of the traits to something fictional, but similar. Like the person who loves baseball could love fishing instead. Just switch things around all over that would have the same motivations.

I still base all of my characters on real people -- just a whole lot of real people

You shouldn't try to create characters out of nothing. Characters are products of their worlds. If you take a real person and transport them into a totally different situation they might not make sense. Same goes for a character cut from whole cloth.

What kind of culture did the character grow up in? What social class? Are there social classes? What kind of skills does the plot require - and what kind of person would acquire them?

I'm like backslashbaby, the characters just turn up, and they're usually the first to arrive when I'm writing a story. They develop as the story progresses.

There's no right or wrong way to 'build a character', do what works best for you, what feels right.

Linda Adams said:

For me, I toss characters into the story as needed and they begin to take shape as the story does.

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This.

I find a character archetype that suits, use that as a foundation, then build on it. Normally I use people I know or a combination of two. I always start with reality and build my fiction from that.

I often use tweaked versions of previous characters. But starting from first principles, I try to start by identifying what makes a character unusual - whether that be unusual for the genre, or unusual for the setting, or whatever. I like to be able to put my finger on exactly why someone would read about this character when there's so much competition.

I've found for me that creating a character independently of their story is generally a bad idea. One fully developed character in a half-developed story causes problems and not in the good conflict way. I've learned that the hard way--I have one extremely well-developed character in an underdeveloped world and now I have to go back and try to build said world based on the character, instead of the other way around. It's difficult and the character doesn't really feel organic.

Ever since I realized this, I've stopped doing character bios and spending three hours searching for the perfect name and all of that. I let them grow with the story and work from there. I note details as they come to make revisions easier but other than that I try not to develop my characters in any particular way.

For some reason, I always start with physical characteristics. I need to picture a character in my head before I can give him or her a soul. Once I can visualize what he or she looks like, I can start to work on things like motivation and characteristics.

I'm very new at writing and I struggled quite a bit with creating "living characters". I've tried quite a few different techniques but the one I think gave me the most was to create scrapbooks.

I loved the process to make a scrapbook for my characters, it gave me a lot of details that I later can draw from. I even "found" a new character that I hadn't thought of before. One who actually makes the story better.

I wrote a blog post about it the other day that's available at my blog: Tanja Gustavsson - Character Scrapbooks

I tend to jigsaw my character.

I start knowing there's an overall profile picture (somewhere) but I piece it together through the scenes themselves. For instance I'll put my main mc in a scene with his missus, and get him to interact way with that setting; in the next, with peers, colleagues, I show interacting there. We all walk, talk and act differently in different contexts; many parts building up the collective whole. Showing subtle shifts (change of language, tone of voice, dress code, attitude) it helps give character, dimension.

satyesu said:

I know often writers base characters on real people, but aside from that how do you make up a personality from scratch and then expand that to every nook of the character's life?

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I don't make up a personality from scratch, and I don't expand anything into every nook of a character's life. Fiction isn't about reality, and characters are never real people. Both are simply the illusion of reality. This means nothing goes sin that isn't needed, even if it would be there in real life.

Basing a character on a real person should mean using a real person that you know well enough to get on paper, including their good and bad habits, manner of speech, likes and dislikes, areas of expertise, strengths and weaknesses, etc. We all know many people well enough to keep an endless supply of characters going strong.

But no matter how well I know someone, what goes down on paper is only what the story calls for, and only enough detail to add verisimilitude. But it's the tiny, and relatively few, details that are important.

A live character must have a life outside the story. Just because a character is forced into a position where he has to save the world doesn't mean that's all he is. He still drinks too much, or has a bad back that hurts most when he first wakes up, or has an ex-wife who's after child support, or can't pay his mortgage, etc.

But I don't think about any of these things, and I sure don't want a list of such things before I write the story, else I may try to force them in because I've written them down.

Every good story with proper pace presents opportunities to put such details in based on what the story is, and where you are in the story. I prefer letting the story give me the character detail, rather than pre-planning a character detail and trying to force it in.

I agree with what James said. For me, detailed character sketches that outline everything from what kind of coffee my characters like to how frequently they get their hair cut, are a waste of time. Just one more thing to distract from the actual writing. They might help some people, but they don't help me.

satyesu said:

I know often writers base characters on real people, but aside from that how do you make up a personality from scratch and then expand that to every nook of the character's life?

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I work out who I need to have for the story. If it's a story about two rebel teen gangs, obviously I need at least one character from each gang. So, perhaps these two really hate each other.
Then for a balance there'll have to be some people who don't agree with the fighting- let's say, one from each gang. Why not make them become friends, or even partners?
And if the leaders aren't already characters, what are they like?

That gives me some starting points for their personality. Work out what they need to do in the story, and then work out 'why'.

I agree with not having too many intricate details. You get insights into people because of how they act and interact, not because of their favourite crisp flavour.

Since I write fantasy what I like to do is create a character in an online fantasy game and then roleplay them for a while. Helps me get to know the character better.

I think of a new character as a newborn baby.

I start with a name to give it an identity based on gender. (and race, and historical timeline...the stuff you know just by looking at them.)

Everything else develops naturally as it grows into the story.

At the beginning, the story defines the character but, at some point, the character begins defining the story (especially if I re-use a character in another story).

satyesu said:

I know often writers base characters on real people, but aside from that how do you make up a personality from scratch and then expand that to every nook of the character's life?

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It is my opinion that all characters are based on aspects of the writer's own personality, even if they think they've based the characters on other people. You and I can never really know what goes on in the heads of our friends or family members. We can get pretty darn close to understanding, but we can never truly know what it's like to BE another person. Therefore, we extrapolate a whole lot based on our own experiences and reactions. That goes for trying to understand people we know, and it goes extra for creating characters.

I think the best way to create a true and believable character is to meditate on what your character wants in the story and what he or she is willing to do to get it (and not willing to do -- just as important). Ask yourself what you'd think and feel and how you'd react if you wanted this, and if you were willing/unwilling to do X to get it. You might think that will make all your characters cookie-cutters of yourself, but you'd be surprised. We writers are seldom in the same situations as our characters, and we may have very different ideas about what's moral and what's not. Once you identify what your character wants and what his limits are, a very important piece of his persona is defined, and that will drive how he sees the world...and how you see the world as you write in his POV.

icsjohn said:

Why don't you create a bio for your character? Try to include as much detail as you can:
what is his/her birthdate, where was she born, what is her nationality, is she blond, tall, fat, what are your character's likes and dislikes, what does she like to eat, etc.

Be very specific. You can also look through magazines for pictures of people that you think are simular to what you think your charcacter looks like.

Click to expand...

Personally, I've never understood what this will do for a writer in terms of actually developing a character. Character, in my opinion, is much more about thoughts and emotions than looks and history (although history can certainly play a big part in shaping the character's present thoughts and emotions.)

I know a few writers who save pictures of interesting-looking people just because occasionally peeking at those pictures helps them imagine new characters, but I believe few of their characters were actually developed and fleshed out off of said pictures.

Of course, this is just me. I've never understood the value of a "character bio" type of thing, but obviously there are many methods out there, and whatever works for a writer works.

firedrake said:

I'm like backslashbaby, the characters just turn up, and they're usually the first to arrive when I'm writing a story. They develop as the story progresses.

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Yep, that's how it is with me. The characters show up fully formed. I may not know everything about them, but they do.

Character, in my opinion, is much more about thoughts and emotions than looks and history (although history can certainly play a big part in shaping the character's present thoughts and emotions.)

Click to expand...

I concur

And how do I create a living character? I see things as they do even if it's in opposition to my own feelings on a matter. I feel them. I hear them. I breathe with them.

YMMV.

There' such good info here, you could use it to write a how-to article. So, I'll keep my half-cent to myself and slink away.