How do you create you characters?

I listen to them talk about their problems.

Granted, it gets a little scary when we have a conversation about what a pain in the butt another character is.

give your characters personality. give them a vice or attitude probelms, you can make them shy or outspoken.

when you create a charecter sit down and visualize the character as he or she is standing in front of you. make them have a physical flaw that stands out.

I can't do sheets. But then I don't actually make characters. They just show up.

I find practice helps. The longer I write, the more I find my characters appear fully formed, with their own minds and their own agendas.

How do you create you characters?

I don't. They just hop onto the bandwagon and refuse to leave until their story is told. =P

And seriously. What makes characters stand out is their personality. Personality is shaped by past experience/history - just like with real people. So when you have a rough outline of a character, think about their past (or 'ask them', if you're comfortable working that way). Drag them through the mud, push them through some hardship, introduce them to a potential love interest - how do they react? Why do they react that way? Et cetera. This has worked for me in the past.

However, I've found that my characters only come to life for real in the course of writing their story. So right now, I'm okay with starting with sketchy characters - I can always go back later, when I've learned who they are and what they are like, and fix/write in whatever I need to complete their portrayal consistently throughout the story.

And that's that, really - when I started my current WiP, I had very vague ideas as to who the characters were - three chapters later I had a new main character, who seemed nothing special at the beginning, but ended up evolving so much that I realized it was, in fact, his story.

Interesting question.

I am just starting to write fiction. I have done a little outlining, tried to use various templates where you lay out your characters. But most of this was in my head rather than on paper. And still pretty unformed.

But finally decided I needed to start writing. (Partly trying to do something besides wait and fret while my first book, nf, is out on submission.)

So I've been amazed at the way simply starting to write, even a page or two, gives characters life--and an independent existence. Especially when you write dialogue. They call to you, demand time and attention, start to evolve. I'd read about this happening, but I'll confess it sounded a little hokey to me. Till I tried it myself.

Some of my characters do include components of people I know, of course. But less than I feared.

I'm especially pleased with my MC's sidekick, who is turning out to be a real smart mouth!

Susan

The simplest technique would probably be to base each character on a real person you know, or a movie or cartoon character you have watched - the idea is that if you have visual and audial memories of how the character talks and move you will be able to describe them more vividly.

Maybe people watching would work for you. That's always entertaining.

Nicole

Rhea L said:

How do you create you characters?


However, I've found that my characters only come to life for real in the course of writing their story. So right now, I'm okay with starting with sketchy characters - I can always go back later, when I've learned who they are and what they are like, and fix/write in whatever I need to complete their portrayal consistently throughout the story.

And that's that, really - when I started my current WiP, I had very vague ideas as to who the characters were - three chapters later I had a new main character, who seemed nothing special at the beginning, but ended up evolving so much that I realized it was, in fact, his story.

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I agree. Of course, it may not work that way for everybody. I started my latest with only a vague idea of where it was going or who was going to be in it. As I wrote, things began to clarify. Two-thirds through I suddenly realized that the relationship of my MC with a 13 year old girl was becoming the core of the novel, what I thought would be central was now secondary. When a new character arrives I have a good idea of what they look like, and more or less what kind of person they are. Then they begin to take shape. The story sort of evolves. I hate outlines.

I always start with my characters first, plot second, so... this is a hard question for me to answer. It's like asking how I tell my husband and my father apart. Well... they're just different people entirely! That's all there is to it!

Maybe if you focus on one character to begin with, and really develop him/her, the others will fall in place. For instance, pulling from my last WIP, let's say your main character is a computer programmer. How many siblings does he have? Was he an older sibling or a younger one? What does he do in his spare time? Etc. etc. until you know him back and forwards. Then, the rest is easy: what kind of friends would this guy attract? What kind of woman would he fall for? Everyone else should fall in line.

Their actions in the story define their personalities for me. They are created as they're written.

i basically have a stock set of characters i prefer to use generally. the ones i use depend on the story, and the characters get altered to fit the situatons and plot. these are characters i've developed over time. occasionally a new character will come into it, normally as a foil for the MC for drama reasons. rarely do i begin with a character in mind first and build around that, rather i let the premise or plot dictate the type of character i use.

watch people. i think most writers who realize it's about the character are people watchers. this is where you can find a lot of detail for your characters. you have to get out in the real world, too. you can't do, say, a biker justice unless you've met a biker, eh? obviously you have to fill in the blanks and make a lot of stuff up, but my main goal is tying to keep the characters in tune with psychology (that's why i always say skip creative writing class and take a psyche class instead).

sitting at your keyboard all the time isn't going to do much for your characters. be an experience whore. living life outside your walls and observing and listening to people blather endlessly is great. you learn other attitudes and philosophies. i like to think i've had a wide range of various kinds of people to draw from.

i think the characters and the story influence each other. sitting down and working either out without the other is, for me, pointless. i just have to get in there and see what happens to each. because it's expected that the characters grow somehow by the end, it's helped me sometimes to ponder how i want them to grow so there's a beginning and an end. after that it's about putting down the experiences in the setting that shows how that character gets from a sleazy sex peddler to being redeemed somehow.

First I come up with a main character, then I draw his/her family history. From there I think about what other characters I need, and I try to picture them from my main character's point of view. Thereby I get a sense of how the narrator would see them, rather than a more accurate neutral point of view of the character.

I take people that I've met and enjoy and tweak them. I use dialog the way they do and explain their past the way I understand it.

But I'm a damn, dirty, blatant thief.

I sit down at my keyboard, start typing, and they just spill out onto the page as distinct voices. But it's taken some practice to get to that point.

If I'm having a problem with a certain character being particularly elusive then I usually just people watch. It gives me some ideas to write and then the character's own personality will come out and I just go back and fix the stuff I've made-up.

I just make sh*t up.

My case is a bit different, as each of my MCs are pulled straight from the pages of history. Of course, being ancient history, there are huge gaps in those pages. In the two years over which my story unfolds, for instance, my main MC is mentioned precisely twice.

I worked out his personality by taking in accounts of his later exploits and forming a rough idea of who he was, how he thought, etc. Then, it was a matter of going back to the established events of the story, applying that rough sketch, and figuring out not just how, but why he got from point A to point B.

After that, after the why, everything sort of fell into place for him.

With mashed potatoes and peas. Its all fun and games right up until I have to kill my sweetheart by drowning her in gravy.

Mmmmmmm. Gravy
Like people you meet some characters don't deserve anything to say until they prove worthy. I like to write around them until even they feel a need to be in the conversation.

Sheets are only vaguely useful. Try sticking your characters in an absolutely ridiculous situation (IE: they're being chased by mutant gummi bears from planet GI-95x) and see what they do. Then ask them what they thought of the experience.

So far, I haven't created a character. They've all just shown up, baggage in hand, and asked me, "Ready?" I don't even bother to answer. I just go along for the ride.

People watching is a good idea. Read over your favorite books, pick two characters and watch how they interact with each other. Ask yourself, what makes them different, the same, what are they're little quirks? Everyone has some odd quirk and they're usually annoying.

DeadlyAccurate said:

Their actions in the story define their personalities for me. They are created as they're written.

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Same here. Every time I try to create a character ahead of time, it's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole - they just don't fit into the story in the way I want them to, and mostly they completely refuse to do what they're supposed to do. Better for me to just start with the vaguest idea of who my character is - name, age and occupation usually does it - and let them and the story evolve together.

I don't find this strange, but do any of you, when you write, visualize a real life actor/model to portray your characters? You go from their looks, not so much personality since that is up to the author, but do you look at a celebrity and think HEY! You could be a great "so and so!"