What is your method in creating a character?

I don't really have a method. The inspiration for my novels usually come from visualizing a scene. For my first book, it was visualizing a scene where a group of teens are climbing trees for a class. That became a book about teenage assassins. My second book, which ended up being trunked, came from a scene where a boy was eaten by a monster. Third and current book, the triggering scene was a dream I had where a little girl shoots her kidnapper in the head.

After that, I thought a bit more about these characters and a possible plot. I don't do character bios or anything like that. I tried, but for me, it ended up being about as useful as a chocolate teapot. I get to know them better as I write the story, and I write fantasy as well. I don't think character creation depends on genre at all. It just depends on the individual writer.

No real method, but almost certainly madness.

I start with my main character. Simple enough. Once I find out their name, I wait 'til they tell me more- where they are, what they're doing there. Once I know that I roll with it and the rest of the cast just let themselves in when they feel ready. They've started to check out of their own accord, too.

I know it's subconscious, all my doing, etc. etc., but I don't give it all that much thought. So long as I'm writing and making headway, that's good enough for me.

Rick rubbed at the scar that ran down the length of his face. It was fascinating -in a weirdly fascinating way- how it felt to touch after all these years. Or how it didn't feel to be touched.

me: Wait. What? Rick, when did you get that scar?

Rick: Oh, this? One of those fluke accidents involving a crossbow. I was lucky I didn't lose an-

me: Crossbow?

Rick: Yeah, we were out hunting and-

me: Hunting? You're a hunter?

Rick: Well...sure. Why wouldn't I be?

me: But...but...but...

Rick: *winning smile* I think it makes me look daring and roguish.

me: *deep breath* Okaaaay *makes a note on character chart and to go back to fix character description earlier in text and keeps writing*

I get a story idea. Characters show up. I have no method for creating them.

Oh, man. This is a lot harder to answer than asking me how I plot. My characters shapeshift wildly. I do fill out a character sheet, mostly to keep myself from unconsciously falling back on cliché standard character types by asking questions related to my known bad habits, but a lot of times I have to go back and change or tweak the answers to the question as the MC undergoes body horror worthy of The Thing. I could list a character as male and elderly all the way through the outline, only to have a teenaged girl stroll onto the scene* when I actually start writing.

*That was Bad Princess. Sophia LaGuardia was originally Sinclair, and forty years older. Likewise, the Princess herself was outlined as a refined, elegant Maleficent sort of villain... and in practice, she kicked down the door wearing a pair of grungy old trousers, spat on the ground, interrupted one of the surprise-true-villains when he tried to give her a "Hannibal Lecture" by knocking him down, and then... well... this exchange happens:

“Stand up.”

“I know you too well. You wouldn’t stab an unarmed man.”

“Who said anything about stabbing? I intend to crush every bone in your body with my bare hands. Stand up!”

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Then she actually counts the crunches and reports them to her LI after the fight, sadly musing she missed a few.

ETA: On the subject of making sure none of my characters are overpowered and/or Mary Sues, I have a habit of getting every single character into at least one situation where they would have been killed without help, and make sure I avoid the standard Sue-Signs, since they also tend to overlap with just plain bad writing ("He was the most handsome man in the place. Everybody stopped to stare when he walked in. The President choked off his speech mid-sentence. Jack The Joke and Petty Bob grit their teeth with envy and fury, realizing their plainness and inadequacy in the face of this newcomer. Villainous Ms. Marlowe was intrigued, watching on her spy camera, and immediately ordered all her forces to shadow this dangerous person. Everyone else lit cigarettes and were not arrested even though the place was non-smoking because the cop was also lighting a cigarette, as was the President."). I've heard other authors talk about marking scenes with different colors for each character, then going through and looking at the colors to see who's over- or underrepresented and tweaking accordingly, so there's that, too.

Hm. I don't know. They just . . . are. The characters kind of come along with the story I'm trying to tell. My current WIP underwent massive changes, so the characters did, as well. At one point, the slave-owning "bad guy" was a rather mild-mannered doctor (ha!). The male lead was originally meant to be a real Rhett Butler type, but while he kept his sense of humor, he's far from Rhett.

I... Don't... Understand... The... Question.

I don't DO anything to create the characters. There is no method.


They just spring to life fully formed.

I have a very basic idea of the characters based on my story outline. Like, a nurse during WWII who falls for a man who keeps time traveling. Or a medieval peasant woman with amnesia who is going to fall in love with the king. To figure out who the character really is, I'll fill out a profile. It covers everything you can imagine, from physical appearance to personality, to childhood traumas, to whether they prefer living in the city or the country. It might seem like a waste of time, since all these details won't end up in the story, but in a way, they do, because they shape who the character is. And sometimes I'll come up with some great plot ideas based on something I "discovered" about the character.

Like, (surprise!) my male MC has a wife back on his home planet. Who would've guessed? That kind of puts a damper on his relationship with the female MC, doesn't it? When she finds out, fireworks ensue. Except, marriages on his world are business transactions, done for a limited time and for a specific purpose (joining of estates, begetting of heirs, etc.) By the time he meets the female MC, his marriage contract has expired and he's a free man. Everything's good. But his ex-wife isn't going to be real happy when she meets the new missus . . . and more conflict ensues.

I only do these kinds of detailed profiles for main characters. I do an abbreviated version for secondary characters. Tertiary characters and bit players only get a simple bio and that's often written later, just so I have a record of every character in the story.

BethS said:

I don't write bios or character sheets. I don't give characters psychology quizzes. I don't take them shopping to see what they'd buy. I don't ask them about their childhood. They are born in the story, and that's where they grow, mature, change, and sometimes die. The world of the story is self-contained, like a snow globe, and they never leave it.

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Exquisitely said! Like Beth, I reach first for a culturally appropriate name, but then tinker with it until I think it "sounds" write and I can write it automatically.

I also like "gray" characters, because real people are imperfect - the best have flaws, the worst have redeeming values. Their imperfections sometimes surprise me, but usually exist to move the story in a specific direction.

And, yep, when I'm in the snow globe, they are very, very real.

For main characters I usually have the role pre-determined for them, but secondary characters get put in as necessary, sometimes to die horribly (well, usually) or to provide information or impetus to a scene. Secondary characters can also provide backdrop to a scene (a university science lab, for example, is not a quiet place even during most off hours and there are constantly people coming and going).

I usually have some image of the character in my head, but often as not the image is left vague on purpose to allow the reader to envision the character in their own minds. I don't go into a huge amount of character description beyond certain basics.

Names I get from the phone book, tombstones, off the Interwebz, or just come up with out of the blue (or so I sometimes think).

My stories start as a situation, so my first step in creating a character is to determine what kind of person would've gotten themselves stuck in such a situation. What sort of traits are necessary? What traits are expected, but not necessary for that type of character (these I'll try to mess with)?

Next, I'll give the character a goal (if it wasn't self-evident in the situation) and a few basic notes about backstory (any defining moments in the character's life).

Then I write and see what comes out. Usually, I have to tweak the character a bit during editing for consistency (or to make them more palatable), but most of my character development is done while writing.

Appreciation

Once again, these forums have helped me out of the corner I'd backed myself into. I've been unable to start my new novel because this time I wanted to do it "right" and save myself all the rewriting of my previous books, so I've been struggling with finding time to write the long character bios and character diaries. It's not much fun and it's not getting me any closer to writing my book--in fact I've started avoiding writing altogether, which I've never done before. So to hell with it all! It helps to know I'm not alone in approaching fiction in a more organic way. I'd rather write and rewrite the actual novel than spend the next year writing 40 pages of back story for every one of my main characters. So thanks to everyone who's posted here!

Zeno, writing fiction requires an imagination.

The good news is, everyone has an imagination.

But, like children, they require nourishment if they are going become a useful adult.

Imaginations are nourished by the words of others.

Before becoming a writer, become a reader.

JFitchett92 said:

My characters appear to me first of all. I see their physical appearance, then I come up with a name that fits. That can take a while as it's all organised in the back of my head long before I start writing. I outline some more detailed features (scars, tattoos, etc.)

As for development, I take where they are, and put them where I want them.

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This may be close to what I do. I don't think I have a method.

I picture a character and make a mental note of their physical traits and features (usually tall ), then personality quirks, emotional tendencies, and mental health. It helps me write the character in their story and environment. Naming them is the pay-off for me. It has to fit them. I try to create fully realized human beings, you know, fictionally.

Originally, I was pretty stubborn about character creation. They would come to me pretty easily and I would go with the flow.

Whilst there's nothing wrong with this, I've been having a lot of success using a profile (of sorts) somebody linked from Twitter. I don't believe in profiles that go into ridiculous details such as favourite gum (an example somebody mentioned further up), but I definitely think it's a good idea (in longer works) to step back and answer questions relating to motives etc.

For example, what does the character need? What are their fears? What helps and hinders them?

These sorts of questions have really helped me figure parts out when I've been stuck. For example, I recently struggled understanding why (aside from lust) two characters were attracted to each other - but after doing a quick scribble of motives, I realised that they had some similar qualities and beliefs that were not immediately apparent.
I’ve also found doing this can help you uncover some hidden guns. After doing this, a whole new story arc emerged in my latest WIP.

It's not always so much about coming up with stuff, it can be about examining the little nuggets of awesome your subconscious already left there - the discoveries you make can breathe new life into things.

So... yeah. Even if you think you're a natural with characters, if you don't consider what drives them and get it down on paper, you could be missing a trick.

I usually start with a story idea, and then the character is just the person who would fill that role in the story. I don't know that I'm very logical about it though. Some characters have more backstory than others, and a lot of it never makes it into the story, but most of it I don't sit down and figure out... it just makes sense. I do character sheets sometimes, but I don't fill in all the blanks for every character. It really doesn't matter when characters' birthdays are unless their birthday needs to be a part of the story, for example.

Names... well, my current WIP is set in Japan, so the names are Japanese and they all mean something, based on the character's personality or role in the story. I don't expect my readers to know what they mean, but if they DO, they should understand why I chose that name. I also write a lot of SF/Fantasy and I find those names incredibly hard to come up with. *sigh*

I take bits of myself and my personal experience and give them to some of my characters. I take bits of people I know, famous people, fictitious characters and mix them in. It's a completely illogical and unscientific process though. They just come to life.

Hmm, interesting question - I'd say my characters are born by being rattled around in a partially opaque box until I can grab them. I need a solid image for a name and a name for a solid image, so the actual "method" varies... but it moves on this axis. By image I don't necessarily mean physical appearance per se, more like... I can see their expression (which always defines their personality the instant it's formed) and fill in the blanks, or I see their physical nuances and add in the expressions. Sometimes I don't get it. The name feels right for the story, but the expression is wrong, or vice versa, then I rattle the box some more, change their hair from short to long, the only thing that's definite is that as soon as the name, expression and physical look is "locked" I've got it, then they just do whatever they want to do and I tag along to watch their story.
I do tend to start out from a basic personality stereotype in the beginning, which I then scramble as soon as I've seen enough of their story so they can become their own, unique selves. Sometimes the stereotype drags out for a long time, as in chapters upon chapters, but I always hit a point where they simply outgrow it and the shell falls away without any interference from me - if I try to force it, it usually ends up skewing it and the image fades dangerously, so I don't, I just wait and comfortably edit the beginning to fit the end.

In some instances I also find video games helpful - I create a "template" character in some world and if it inspires me, they get used. Not always a good idea, however, since playing said character influences them, it's much more difficult to step away from that and let them flourish in my own world; but it has happened that a character inspired me so much that it outgrew everything.

Create them? They float in a quasi-invisible cloud just over my head. Once I snag one out and throw it down on a page, he/she begins to weasel into my dreams. Some of them have been riding on my shoulder for decades. --s6 (Does this sound paranoid ?)

They pop into my head, really. Right when I'm first hashing out ideas for a story. Usually I see them in my mind - their age, general type "looks wise" and so on. Even some essence of their personality appears at that moment too.

Most of the time they are some amalgamation of people I've met in my life, along with famous people.

If I had to choose a method, I'd say for a main character I start with a central concept and personality, and work forwards and backwards from there. The most important thing to me before history or profession is how they think and how they interact with other people.

It's like, I have this one guy, with a certain personality or way of looking at the world, and it doesn't really matter if he's a wizard, or a scientist, or a scam artist, or all three, I'd tailor whatever he does to that central idea.

Sometimes a character will appear almost fully formed in my head (or so I think), sometimes I know nothing about them and just start writing the story. In the latter case, a few chapters in I will have formed a good picture of them. However I start out, there will usually be a lot of character inconsistencies by the end of the first draft. That's when I start putting serious thought into what traits I want to keep, what I want to get rid of, and anything else I want to add it, and the character can sometimes end up being completely different, even if I thought I knew exactly what I wanted. Sometimes I end up changing the story quite a bit because of these new personalities.


Sometimes I test how developed I've got them by putting them through personality quizzes, or trying to imagine how they would react to a situation I'm in, or whether they would like a place I'm visiting. I find that helps.

ElisaC: What’s the first thing you do when an idea of a character comes to mind? How do you go about naming them? How do you avoid Mary Sues or Gary Stues? And lastly, how do you develop your characters (primary and secondary) throughout the story?

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My characters come to me like manna from heaven, I know who they are, what their names are, I know everything about them. All I have to do is write it all down. None are Marys or Garys, some are flawed, all are beloved.

Anyone else ever actually see the little critters? --s6