How do you create characters?

GooseAmbassador · Jan 11, 2016

Ravioli said:
Draw from real life. Most of my stories are character-driven. I don't start thinking of a story before I have a character I want to exploit, unless the story is based on a topic very close to an easily created character or a person I know.

Most of my characters are based on real life encounters, often on crushes because I pay extra attention to them and imprint on them. And perhaps, because I keep falling for surreal weirdos worth a million stories. The stories are then built around the characters and their flaws. I can't even explain or describe my work process - it just happens, and people say it works.

I suck at thinking a story through in terms of plots and pace and active/passive. But characters? I should take money for coming up with characters.
My advice really is to look in your real life for people who are interesting or who you think would make for great stories. Change their names, change their location, whatever, and then write what you think their story could be or what could be a nice fictional story to fit them. Here's a few people I could write and write into stories as ready-made characters:

1. The tiny, adorable-looking loud-mouthed, bossy, pushy, cheeky army commander GIRL who melts in front of puppies, but will blow your ass into next week if you offend her friends. All she wants for Christmas? European bread rolls.

***Cut, so as not to take up too much space***

See, I'm only 32 and this is only a small number of the fascinating people I've met. If you just look around, all you have to do is change some personal info to make the person credibly fictional, and put them in a story.

Ravioli, I just wanted to say that your characters are amazing! I love this post! Yes, I know that you did not create these people, but you were observant enough to see their potential and write them down, which is a vital skill for a writer. And you wrote them beautifully, too!

From reading your posts, I can tell that you have a few concerns or reservations about your ability as a writer, which is completely natural and probably inevitable. And probably even healthy.

But I just wanted to say that your prose is lovely and you appear to have a very intuitive writer's eye for the world around you. I have absolutely no doubt at all that you have the talent and the material to produce wonderful novels, so please keep writing and push on through all your doubts!

M.N Thorne · Jan 11, 2016

My characters are based off real people and family members.

NateSean · Jan 11, 2016

Memories, observations, and a few strands of my own DNA go into the creation of all of my characters. Even the relatively minor ones have a little bit of me and the people I have known sewn together.

dawinsor · Jan 11, 2016

I do a lot of preliminary thinking about my characters, but I find I only really know them as I see what they do and say when I write about them.

Becky Black · Jan 12, 2016

I tend to start with a premise for a story and an idea of the setting (that tends to come with the premise) and then think about what kind of person is going to do something interesting in that situation? Who's going to have the highest stakes? Are they going to have to be a particular age, sex, social position or whatever to do what I think they're going to need to do in the story?

And then start thinking about the kind of personality they might have that will get them in the most amount of trouble in that situation.

Since I write romance mostly then of course I need two leads. Once I've got at least the start of an idea about one of them, then I can think about what kind of character would be fun to put beside the first one. What do they have in common that will help them work together? What kind of contrasts do they have? What kind of conflict will they have?

Once I start brainstorming like this my mind just turns the ideas over and over and starts adding layers to them. So a lot of it is extrapolation at the start and then starts to grow organically. Giving them their names can be an important stage. But in the end they only come to life when they start walking and talking - that is when I'm writing prose about them. Some will change from how I planned them. All will grow more layers.

TellMeAStory · Jan 12, 2016

I don't recommend my method except to myself.

I bumble.

It's not at all an efficient way to operate, but I do finally come up with a character that satisfies me. I write for a while, realize I should have specified a certain detail or two, go back and re-write, proceed for a while, back up and improve, polish, repeat, and...yes! THAT'S what I'd been going for.

How could I ever have missed it?

Marian Perera · Jan 12, 2016

morngnstar said:
That sounds like an effective method. It seems to start with a plot, and that drives the character. But then that feeds back and drives the plot.

Yes, exactly. I couldn't create a character out of nothing. Give me a bare stage and I'll be just as blank as the stage.

But if I get a few bones of the worldbuilding and plot down, it's much easier. That plus genre is my starting point (for a romance, my hero and heroine have to be able to fall in love with each other). And once the characters are on the stage, then they provide the meat of the plot.

Maxinquaye · Jan 12, 2016

John Buckley Rose said:
Lajos Egri, in his 'Art of Creative Writing,' says that the most basic motivation in all of humans in everything they do is insecurity. They do things because they want to be valued, loved, appreciated, remembered. That may be an over-simplification of things, but I think it's a good starting point nonetheless!

Heh. One of my biggest inspirations for character creation is along these lines, but it's a quote from the Swedish 19th century author Hjalmar Söderberg, from his book Doctor Glas: "One wants to be loved, in lack thereof admired, in lack thereof feared, in lack thereof loathed and despised. One wants to instill some sort of emotion in people. The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price."

ManInBlack · Jan 12, 2016

Generally the process starts with taking a single aspect of my personality and extrapolating on it. Not in a Flanderization, but rather taking that one aspect and saying "now what makes sense for this character, with the story I'm trying to tell, with this trait?" It allows me to very quickly get into the character's head while still being acutely aware of actions they would take that would be very different from my own.

The end result is that this often means taking characters I already identify with and twisting their personalities or fusing them with another character (for instance, a character based on my nerdy side ended up becoming a fusion of Willow Rosenberg from Buffy and Billy Cranston from Power Rangers, but with her own unique conflicts the others never faced).

tiakall · Jan 12, 2016

Interestingly, a lot of what I learned about making characters came from doing play by email/post roleplaying games. There's often a lot of improv NPC creation ("quick, I need an imp blacksmith!"), and when you have to use them more than once, you start developing them more.

Nothing quite gets the creative juices flowing like an immediate deadline. :greenie

Tottie Scone · Jan 25, 2016

morngnstar said:
In these situations my inclinations would be to cast against type. It's her great-great-great grandmother, so she only has to be 1/32 Scottish. I'd make her family Polish Jews. She doesn't have to save someone's life by defeating five English soldiers; maybe she could just find someone wounded and run through the night to the next glen to get help. No innate strength or fortitude required, just enough compassion to do the extraordinary when necessary.

Running through the night to the next glen to get help seems to imply some level of strength and fortitude! Maybe she doesn't defeat anyone or save anyone's actual life; maybe her victory is to save her great-grandmother from the amorous and cruel son of the Laird and successfully escort her to the ship which will take her into exile, and possibly the arms of her true love. Maybe her true love is a Pole that she will meet in the New World. Or maybe he is the boy she's grown up with who is shot by the vengeful son of the Laird as the boat puts out to sea.

If you want to write this story, be my guest, you've put as many ideas into it as I have at this point.

But you see how the character, for me, grows along with the basics of the story to some extent, and you have the power to swap them around to suit who you need the person to be. But they never really come to life for me until I start writing. A person is more than a list of characteristics, and that spark of individuality, that unique voice, that is hard to control. It's some kind of alchemy of the subconscious, I think.

Rose Green · Jan 25, 2016

Like many have said, I feel that I meet my characters rather than create them. I try to use a character sheet to get a bit more depth - just why does she hate purple so much? oh, because of a nightmare about an octopus that was caused by getting tangled in a purple bedspread - but mostly the cast and the story develop together.

For the first edit of my current main WIP, I found I had one character too many but I still needed her to exist, so I took her out of the main story but had people refer to her throughout. During the second edit I realized that I had a whole character missing who is actually central to the plot! I had given 'her' bits of the story to other people but the whole thing made a lot more sense when I introduced her. That was a real 'duh!' moment, I can tell you.

This is the first novel that has got past an initial draft (via Nano), so I don't know how typical it is for me to leave out a whole character in a novel. But the process of developing plot and cast together is pretty universal for Nano's and shorts.

kennyc · Jan 25, 2016

Viridian said:
I see a character I like.

I figure out what I like about them-- sense of humor, cool origin story, ect.

I create my own character.

I fill in the other details.

Over time, they develop their own quirks and backstory.

The idea of "meeting" a character instead of making them seems weird to me. How does that work? Do you ever deliberate over different possibilities?

Yeah I don't really 'get' this either. I've asked the question a number of times - "Do you characters really talk to you in your mind? Do you characters really act independently?" without you thinking about what they say, what they do, evaluating various options.

My best conclusion is that some writers/people process these 'independent actions/words/etc.' on an unconscious level and they just 'magically' pop into their consciousness. Unfortunately this does not work for me other than in very limited ways.

kennyc · Jan 25, 2016

JHFC said:
You think of a person and then have them do things. Usually related to the story.

I don't "meet" my characters because I made them up, but at the same time they develop traits they didn't begin with.

Thanks for that!

Chase · Jan 25, 2016

A byproduct of being deaf is watching people. Not merely looking at, around, or through them but studying what they do while trying to learn what they say.

Case in point: In our cluster of townhouses, most of my hearie neighbors ratchet their blinds closed and draw their drapes like they're hiding Anne Frank and her family. My blinds are up at sunrise, and my curtains are open till well after sunset. I pay attention to what happens outside. It's a deafie survival mode.

At the mall or at a restaurant, I watch people shop and eat. It's that simple.

My characters are combinations of what I see real life family, friends, and complete strangers do and say. :hooray:

Makai_Lightning · Jan 25, 2016

kennyc said:
Yeah I don't really 'get' this either. I've asked the question a number of times - "Do you characters really talk to you in your mind? Do you characters really act independently?" without you thinking about what they say, what they do, evaluating various options.

My best conclusion is that some writers/people process these 'independent actions/words/etc.' on an unconscious level and they just 'magically' pop into their consciousness. Unfortunately this does not work for me other than in very limited ways.

I can't speak for anyone else, but if I refer to meeting my characters (which for me seems like the best way to put it), I don't mean that I'm talking to a person. It's the same thing as discovering the story I'm writing altogether. It basically means I get an idea, for instance, "a homeless man is offered a home and millions of dollars but doesn't take it," and start writing or daydreaming. The process of making that idea work is what I'd refer to as meeting them. Thinking to myself, "Okay, so what would be a really good reason for this person to act this way, believe these things, want these things, or get involved in this conflict," whatever it is. For instance, the homeless person in question could be living minimally for spiritual reasons, or because he doesn't feel he deserves happiness, or whatever.

And usually, I start going for a while before I realize that it actually makes more sense for a character to be a different way than I assumed. Or that their actions actually show them to be a different kind of character than I thought they were.

I'm the same as a lot of other people I've heard say they have a much easier time if they have a little something to work with. Usually whatever I start with writing isn't nearly as effective or fleshed out as what I have after I've just taken a dive in and spent the time "getting to know" my characters.

morngnstar · Jan 25, 2016

kennyc said:
Yeah I don't really 'get' this either. I've asked the question a number of times - "Do you characters really talk to you in your mind?

Oh, no. That would be weird. How would they think of me, if they talked to me? As their creator? No, they talk to themselves, or each other, in my mind. And I see what they do.

Do you characters really act independently?" without you thinking about what they say, what they do, evaluating various options.

Well they don't do it without my say-so, but I know what they would do. I could make them do something different to force the plot in a particular direction, but that might not feel "true".

My best conclusion is that some writers/people process these 'independent actions/words/etc.' on an unconscious level and they just 'magically' pop into their consciousness.

That's probably how it happens. It must be. I don't think they're really real people.

kennyc · Jan 25, 2016

Makai_Lightning said:
I can't speak for anyone else, but if I refer to meeting my characters (which for me seems like the best way to put it), I don't mean that I'm talking to a person. It's the same thing as discovering the story I'm writing altogether. It basically means I get an idea, for instance, "a homeless man is offered a home and millions of dollars but doesn't take it," and start writing or daydreaming. The process of making that idea work is what I'd refer to as meeting them. Thinking to myself, "Okay, so what would be a really good reason for this person to act this way, believe these things, want these things, or get involved in this conflict," whatever it is. For instance, the homeless person in question could be living minimally for spiritual reasons, or because he doesn't feel he deserves happiness, or whatever.

And usually, I start going for a while before I realize that it actually makes more sense for a character to be a different way than I assumed. Or that their actions actually show them to be a different kind of character than I thought they were.

I'm the same as a lot of other people I've heard say they have a much easier time if they have a little something to work with. Usually whatever I start with writing isn't nearly as effective or fleshed out as what I have after I've just taken a dive in and spent the time "getting to know" my characters.

Yep, I'm with that. Pretty much how I work.

BethS · Jan 25, 2016

kennyc said:
Yeah I don't really 'get' this either. I've asked the question a number of times - "Do you characters really talk to you in your mind? Do you characters really act independently?" without you thinking about what they say, what they do, evaluating various options.

It's a hard thing to describe. They don't talk to me in the sense that I hear them yammering at me in my head. When I meet a new character it happens in the course of writing, and it starts as a visual image that appears in my head. Usually it's the story that summons them; I need someone to be there at that moment in the plot and there they are. Sometimes they're mere walk-ons; sometimes they turn out to be important. This can take me by surprise but I always go with it.

The more they interact with other characters, the more they begin to take on shape and substance, depths and layers. I never plan this; I just let it happen and see where it goes, which is often to some very interesting places.

Some characters spring into the story fully formed. I feel I know them from the beginning. Others take some time to grow. I either to have peel away their protective layers or find some way to crack the hard shell around who they really are. All of this takes place in the context of the story, of course. In fact, my characters don't exist outside the world of the story. I don't have conversations with them. I can't fill out questionnaires about them or take them pretend shopping to find out what their favorite foods are. I don't decide who I want them to be. And while they are my creation, there's a real sense that I'm discovering them, and they're taking on a life of their own.

Tottie Scone · Jan 25, 2016

My belief on this - and I feel like I heard somebody discuss this in a podcast or something but I can't place it - is that when we are reading/watching/listening to a story, we're using the same mental machinery that we do to model other people's thoughts and motivations in social interactions; so that when we can "feel" what a character "would" do or say next, as if it were coming from outside of ourselves, it's just because our brain has created a working model of that person as if they were real. We all know what our mother or spouse or child would say or do in certain situations, sometimes so clearly that it's almost as if we can hear their voice in our heads; I think that's the same thing that's happening with fictional characters.

As human beings, I believe we swim in a sea of personalities. We are made in such a way that we see faces everywhere, and we apply personality models to other people, animals, computers, cars, trees, anything. How often have you looked at a tree and thought it looked happy or sad? Or felt like the planets have personalities (Jupiter is clearly a pompous ass). It can't be just me - in fact, I know it isn't - look - http://www.thingswithfaces.com/ .

I think this is so fundamental to us that it's actually easier for us to interact with the world on the basis that everything has its own thoughts and feelings and hidden agenda. This is why we talk to toasters, it's why we shout at chairs we stub our toes on and it's why fictional characters seem to write themselves.

folkchick · Jan 25, 2016

It's an interesting thing to think about. I don't know if I've ever consciously drawn up a character, it's like they fill my head out of nowhere with phrases and likes and dislikes. A lot of times it's about the story, what kind of story am I writing, and the character just builds into the empty space.

blacbird · Jan 25, 2016

I don't "create" characters, either, outside the context of writing a story. Story and characters are, to me, amalgamated parts of the same whole.

That said, I do wonder if the pre-planning of characters (and other story elements) isn't, to some extent, more common in Fantasy than in other genres of fiction.

caw

morngnstar · Jan 25, 2016

BethS said:
All of this takes place in the context of the story, of course. In fact, my characters don't exist outside the world of the story. I don't have conversations with them. I can't fill out questionnaires about them or take them pretend shopping to find out what their favorite foods are. I don't decide who I want them to be. And while they are my creation, there's a real sense that I'm discovering them, and they're taking on a life of their own.

I agree. I don't see a point to giving my characters irrelevant attributes like least favorite color. I could maybe figure out how to answer a questionnaire in the head of my character, if I could imagine a story situation where they would be answering. Maybe my character needs a job, so I could give them a job interview. I'd delete this from the final draft, because it'd probably be super boring, but I might learn something.

blacbird · Jan 25, 2016

morngnstar said:
I agree. I don't see a point to giving my characters irrelevant attributes like least favorite color. I could maybe figure out how to answer a questionnaire in the head of my character, if I could imagine a story situation where they would be answering. Maybe my character needs a job, so I could give them a job interview. I'd delete this from the final draft, because it'd probably be super boring, but I might learn something.

Also, a good observation about "deleting". I've often taken stuff out of a story draft because, as the story evolved, it just didn't fit. That includes occasional information about or characteristics of a given character. I think this may be a difficult thing for a lot of beginning or inexperienced writers to contemplate doing. With the emphasis so often given to word-count, it can seem painful to take words out, once they are there in the script.

caw

DancingMaenid · Jan 25, 2016

Viridian said:
The idea of "meeting" a character instead of making them seems weird to me. How does that work? Do you ever deliberate over different possibilities?

For me, it's like an idea. Sometimes you can trace an idea to a specific thing that made you think of it, but sometimes you can't. It just kind of grows in your mind.

That's how characters are for me. They grow in my mind and the more I think about them and write them, the more they grow. It's not an intentional process that I'm consciously controlling.

Ravioli said:
These are real people and their real stories. That's the magic about drawing inspiration from real life.

I don't have any problem with the characters you listed, so this isn't a criticism of your characters in particular, but there is the phrase "truth is stranger than fiction." I wouldn't assume that just because something is possible in real life, it will definitely be plausible for fiction. In real life, coincidences occur, but in fiction, people often expect more logical consequences. In real life, we have to accept people as real, but in fiction, we depend on the writer to make the characters feel real. Inspiration from real life doesn't automatically translate to a character coming across as realistic.

How do you create characters?

GooseAmbassador

M.N Thorne

NateSean

Vulcan/Time Lord Hybrid

dawinsor

Dorothy A. Winsor

Becky Black

Writing my way off the B Ark

TellMeAStory

Marian Perera

starting over

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

ManInBlack

tiakall

lurk

Tottie Scone

Rose Green

kennyc

kennyc

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Makai_Lightning

Love Addict

morngnstar

kennyc

BethS

Tottie Scone

folkchick

Not a new kid

blacbird

morngnstar

blacbird

DancingMaenid

New kid...seven years ago!

How do you create characters?

Vulcan/Time Lord Hybrid

Dorothy A. Winsor

Writing my way off the B Ark

starting over

That cheeky buggerer

*lurk*

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Love Addict

Not a new kid

New kid...seven years ago!

lurk