Characters in a Book

I never base a character on someone I know, but more than once I've seen someone and invented a personality that seems to fit him while serving my purposes.

Generally, I don't visit websites dedicated to a single book. A site about the writer, with a page on each novel seems more apt, but hey, that's just me. In any case, be careful not to give any spoilers for the novel or any sequels within the character bios. I'd hesitate to use photographs or even realistic drawings, since the reader will have formed his or her own ideas on each character's appearance based on the descriptions in the novel. I'm not going to like it if I've envisioned Johnny Depp and you show me Steve Buscemi.

Maryn, not at all sure this was even slightly helpful

I take people I know and put a SF & F spin on them to turn them into characters.

Although I didn't design any of my characters with any real person in mind, I do often find them to be an hybrid of identifiable character traits of people I do know. One of them even conjures up the image of a BC comic strip character from a visual standpoint, but not in personality. I suppose if we have any single real person in mind, we could be (even unconsciously) limiting our character in will and action to what we think that real person might do.

If the book is new and there is still more character development you'd like to do with continuations of the story, then detailed bios on a Web site might be premature. You could be limiting yourself from adding an unexpected twist to the character down the road. Don't know what your intentions are, though, so I'm not sure if that helps.

Hi Mark!

You'll get some more good answers to your questions by visiting this link to the Novels FAQ. There are all sorts of good posts there about Characters and Development.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=657708&postcount=4


I have a peculiar method of character creation that works wonders for me, but YMMV. Often I start with the story idea first, and then go searching for images of actors/actresses/models to fill the roles. I like having a distinct visual image, even though it may not be the precise image my reader eventually has.

Personalities often come as the story demands them, developing more and more layers as the novel is written. The novel that I completed yesterday ( <--- me) began as five photos and a smidge of a plot. At the end, half the outline was tossed out, one character deleted, a new one added, and the novel is much better for it.

Characters should serve the story you want to tell, and likewise, the story should reflect who the characters are.

Good luck!

One of my characters was originally intended to be a cross between Eleanor of Aquitaine and T'Pau of Vulcan - an imperious old lady that you didn't argue with. When one friend read the story, he said "But that's Sue!"
So I didn't intend it, but she did end up being very like someone I know.

My characters just kind of come into my life, like meeting new people. They're usually fairly well evolved by the time they get to me, and then I can give them specific traits that make them Mine. Occasionally, I'll think, "Yanno, I'd like to write a story about a teenager/old guy/android who has an adventure in space/Hell/LowerRabbitania" and then the characters come from the story itself.

The one time I specifically remember creating a character was in my teen witch MS, when the mc needed a best friend. She needed to be brutally honest, funny, and outgoing. I started writing her and then looked at my teenage daughter and said, "Whoa, this is you." I had to make some changes so that she wasn't TOO much like my own kid.

I'm genearlly don't pick someone famous to be a template for a character, because I know that everyone sees a character differently. Where I might see him as Russell Crowe, my best friend might interpret him as Tom Hanks or the sexy Frito-Lay guy from Krogers.

PattiTheWicked said:

My characters just kind of come into my life, like meeting new people. They're usually fairly well evolved by the time they get to me, and then I can give them specific traits that make them Mine. Occasionally, I'll think, "Yanno, I'd like to write a story about a teenager/old guy/android who has an adventure in space/Hell/LowerRabbitania" and then the characters come from the story itself.

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Yeah, that.

Bios on a website? Maybe. Pictures? No. Who would the pictures be of? You'd have to get model release forms from all of them, lest you open yourself to a lawsuit. I think that would be time better spent writing, but that's just me.

The best Characters just walk in

markchandler said:

Alrighty There People.

I'm writing a book for young adults. I've got a query regarding characters in the story.

How do you come up with your characters?

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Some are constructed as the plot requires. The best ones just turn up as I visualize a scene: they just walk in.

Basing characters too closely on reality is a really wonderful way to get yourself shot on the way to the mailbox.

I don't generally have to do any work. My characters come to me and they are people when they get here. Usually. Sometimes, I have stories like this short story I'm working on right now, where I don't know the damndest thing about this guy Dillinger, except what he's telling the writer, Zachary, whom I didn't even know was called Zachary until Dillinger called him by his name. In those cases, the joy of the story is in getting to know the people as well as seeing what they're getting up to.

When I did serial stories and I had to prep the characters in case someone else had to write them, I would do a basic little bio sheet with a little "excerpted" scene from stories about them that I'd never written.

These days, I don't think you could get me to do a bio like that at gunpoint.

I've always been a short story junkie, using people in my life as key characters.

My current work began as a simple children's story and the character's had no base in reality...until I realized I had more to say. So it quickly turned into a short story. Nope, scratch that, still more rambling needed. Suddenly I recognized connections between me and my characters that I hadn't seen before. I had begun incorporating family members, friends and even my ex husband into my characters. My characters began quoting these people verbatim. I answered the way I wished I had when my sisters put me on the spot as a teenager. It was all becoming very Freudian. The short story turned into a novel.

OK, so it might never be publishable but it's cheaper than therapy!

OH OK...well, in that case, my answer is nowhere NEAR as interesting LOL...

Once I know WHO my character is, s/he simply appears. I've never see them before they come out of hiding to appear in their scenes. I've read posts from people who have this ability with names, personalites, whatever...my gift is visible. I see my characters before knowing their complete purpose within the story.

me too

Cerridwen said:

OH OK...well, in that case, my answer is nowhere NEAR as interesting LOL...

Once I know WHO my character is, s/he simply appears. I've never seen them before they came out of hiding to appear in their scenes. I've read posts from people who have this ability with names, personalites, whatever...my gift is visible. I see my characters before knowing their complete purpose to the story.

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I can't write at all until I visualize the scene. Characters appear more or less along with everything else..though often without proper names or proper hats or whatever

Normally I don't even try to base characters on anyone I know in Real Life. My characters become so real in my head, I know them far better than anyone who lives outside my imagination. But now and again, it does happen.

Several years ago, I was a member of a critique group. We were a close-knit bunch, all friends. For some reason that has long ago faded from my memory, we all decided to "kill off" the same guy in our fiction. He knew about it, and appreciated the joke, so off we romped. One guy eviscerated him, someone else wrecked his car into a phone pole which impaled his chest, and I ran him through in a swordfight.

The book with that swordfight is coming out in January 2008. I offered to change the name and description of the character, but he was tickled about it, and insisted it remain.

For your website: bios, yes; pictures, no.

I'm a great believer in fairly vague physical descriptions. Or none at all. As a reader, I like to fill in the details myself. General build and colouring is usually enough for me. As a writer, I throw in more details only if I think it's important for some reason. My qualifications as a reader are much better...

markchandler said:

Alrighty There People.
Personally, I chose someone I know, so that I can get a physical description written down on them. Personality and character traits I draw up myself. What do you do?

Secondly, when I finish this book, I intend to have a website dedicated to it. I would like to have bio's of all the characters, with pictures attached. Now, would that spoil it for readers? It's just, when I read a book, I see the person in my mind, and then if I see a picture of the person, it may not be how I imagine it. Or, I could just use silhouettes of people.

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I tend not to base my characters after anyone I know personally - this is a simple act of self-preservation should they discover the similarities. Instead, I try to develop my characters in terms of motivations and go from there. Their physical attributes play a big role in the character's personality and behavior. Now and then I find a photo of a person that displays some of thoe physical attributes but beyond that, I shy away from using real people as templates. I prefer to let readers fill in the rest.

Some popular authors use a celebrity's photo as the physical inspiration, or photos clipped from a magazine. I know a few who have taken those pictures and made collages out of them, to help them during the writing or rewriting, and they've shared some of the collages with fellow writers. Sharing with readers, not so much.

If you've ever been on a popular author's message board or yahoogroup, you mist have seen discussions of "let's cast the movie of Book X (written by the relevant author)." And the recommendations are all over the place. And one person will say "yuk" to the next person's recommendation. It seems that everyone has his/her own definition of "rugged, dark-haired and silver-tongued" or whatever the description is.

Jenny Crusie has publicly answered fans' questions about who she's used as the original inspiration for assorted heroes (with the caveat that those are just the original inspiration, and by the time she's done with the book, the hero is just himself, not the original celebrity), and on occasion a fan has said something like, "Yuk. I'll keep seeing him as my own chosen image."

There's also a theory out there that, once in print, the story doesn't entirely belong to the author any longer, because the reader brings something to it (including more detailed images of characters, as well as more metaphorical stuff). By posting the "real" pictures of the characters, you may be working against this interactive aspect of stories.

JD

Personally, I don't believe in letting the narrator speak for the character. I think that is a wrong way about it. BUT that is just my opinion. What I do believe is letting action dictate (and speak for the) character. Why? Because I get more out of it rather than quirkiness and other traits that would appear to be more of a gimmick. Even a restaurant scene holds a lot of potential, despite being boring and not having much physical action. For example having the character listening to someone talking in the booth behind them. That right there tells much about the MC, yet it doesn't involve him solving murders and fighting bad guys. Yet I still consider it action. Even if he places an order to the waitress without looking at the menu is another sign of something, but not quirky. You can easily begin to build a picture of this guy with just these two. But I suppose if you're gonna have something slip in dialogue, it might as well be considered telling, unless he is a good narrator himself, not very realistic though. Nothing bad, it could add up to the description of, "I try to come to this restaurant every week." More info is revealed which describes his behavior and sets more tone.

To make the point, all these actions build the character throughout the novel. So this makes it easy for me to not have to build traits and character sheets. I focus more on plot progression and what can happen in it that involves much of the character. I think the interaction will be more than enough to come up with a character just by the choices he or she makes and the simple things he or she does. As a reader, I forget the physcial description after the first few chapters. It's just one of those things. But I don't forget about details like what he overheard at the restuarant if it's really funny or sad, which would again give me a perpsective on something else later, if you add on to what he just did by listening in on someone's conversation. (Say he looks into someones briefcase when they open it next to him.)

Hope this gets across how I'm trying to present my process of building a character.

What non-human thing or creature do you identify the character with, in terms of their internals? Try basing the descriptions off of that. A character based on a hamster would be round, tall, and fuzzy, with sharp teeth; a character based on a fireplug would be short, squat and hard-headed; a character based on an azalea bush would be extravagently dressed with wild hair.

Every character I create is a piece of me. I pump up some of my characteristics with steroids then sprinkle in other personality traits from people I know, or think I know. Sometimes the character is more me than I would like, other times the character takes on a life of their own. But they're all my bastard children.

Browse Jasper Fforde's website. He's recreated the world of his novels on the Internet...it's great!

How do you come up with your characters?

The supporting characters start out sort of as place holders: "the guy who's wrongly accused", "the love interest", "the wife", "the rigidly conservative cousin". But then I have to come up with reasons that they're not stereotypes-- and that starts fleshing them out and making them more human. When your MC's sweetie has big feet and a fear of public speaking (and a passing resemblance to Janet Reno) it humanizes her a bit.

JanDarby said:

Jenny Crusie has publicly answered fans' questions about who she's used as the original inspiration for assorted heroes (with the caveat that those are just the original inspiration, and by the time she's done with the book, the hero is just himself, not the original celebrity),

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Exactly. The celebrity image is a starting point. By the time I finish the manuscript, the character has become its own entity.