How far do you go in creating your characters?

ficklefictionfest · May 21, 2018

I have never really delved into giving out the tiniest details about my characters since I let my own writing dictate what their personality is but not what they look like or what they wear and stuff like that.

I'm writing a chaptered story right now and while my characters are teenagers, I don't know how to give them goals and priorities when my story doesn't really give much ground for all of them to develop said goals and priorities.

How much do you think about in creating your characters in your stories?

Harlequin · May 22, 2018

as much as necessary.

if your characters are forced into being set pieces by the demands of the story, it might be worth looking at restructuring the story. People without much agency do exist but they're tough to do novels about.

in the early days, taking some of those detailed personality tests (for my characters) was a useful if slightly weird approach. Mostly because it highlighted flaws. For example, I took a conflict resolution test, answering form the POV of my MC at the time, and discovered she was completely passive/avoidant. That doesn't actually work for a book character so I changed her up.

DanielSTJ · May 22, 2018

Harlequin said:
As much as necessary.

Yes! I absolutely concur with this point. It depends, too, on the specifics of each and every story.

Maryn · May 22, 2018

By the time I finish a first draft, I generally know an awful lot about the major characters--stuff that never makes it to the page, but informs how they behave, react, etc. Since you're dealing with teens, whose goals are all over the place, you have the luxury of knowing that while Stuart wants to be surgeon like his Uncle Stu, living in a huge house and having a beautiful wife and and perfect life, he also entertains the notion of being a famous chef on TV as well as getting a really high score on the SAT in a couple of months. The odds are good his actions within the context of a story involve only the SAT, but he might cook something everybody really likes, because you alone know that about him.

Maryn, whose goals are pretty down-to-earth these days

indianroads · May 22, 2018

I think the goal of a character profile is to get to know them, that way they are alive when you write about them. As such, they not only appear a certain way, but have behavior and speech patterns.

TinaG · May 22, 2018

I thought of my most current characters for almost a year before I put them within the pages. I always think of my characters in every aspect of life, what they look like, what they talk like, the food they like, and finally I put them in my life everything that happens to me I think what would the character think or do if... Crazy but it worked for me

KTC · May 22, 2018

I try to know everything and share only what's necessary to the story on the page. I do diary entries from characters' POVs that never get added into the story. But reading their diary entries helps me to know who they are. I'm a little precise in getting to know them...and well aware a lot of who they are doesn't get into the story, but it gets who they are into the story.

Lakey · May 22, 2018

A while back someone posted a little questionnaire for people to answer about their characters. I tried a few of the questions on both my main characters, as though they were being interviewed, and I found it surprisingly inspiring for developing their voices. Their answers really sounded different - they weren't only different in content. The particular questions weren't anything special, as I recall; I suppose if you were doing this exercise you could come up with your own set of interview questions of relevance to your story. But even with generic and not particularly probing questions, I got pretty far with developing voice.

More to the point of the original question: At this point, nearly two years into writing my novel, I feel I know my main characters and two of the secondary characters extremely well. I know the ins and outs of their psychologies, and have a solid idea of their life histories. (Whether I manage to get that on the page is another question!) Though, sometimes, new details of their life histories still occasionally emerge when I'm working on a scene.

The remaining secondary characters, I don't feel that I know as well, yet, and it's a serious problem, a weakness in the book that I'm going to have to fix before I can call this thing ready even for beta readers. They happen to be the men in the story, and I find it much harder to get into their heads and understand them. I'm having a much harder time making them fully rounded people.

For the tertiary characters, I am aiming to have them strongly characterized, rather than fully-rounded characters with developed backstories. If they are distinguishable from one another, memorable, and entertaining, I'll be satisfied even if I haven't developed every detail of what makes them tick.

edutton · May 22, 2018

In the first draft, I just started writing and let the characters emerge as they would. During the revision process I did all the character exercises (interviews, off-page scenes, profiles, etc.), and used that to deepen them and make them more consistent across the following drafts.

BethS · May 22, 2018

ficklefictionfest said:
I'm writing a chaptered story right now and while my characters are teenagers, I don't know how to give them goals and priorities when my story doesn't really give much ground for all of them to develop said goals and priorities.

With respect, if your characters don't have something they're striving for or else are desperately avoiding (or both), you don't actually have a story. What characters want, what they do to get what they want, the obstacles they have to overcome along the way, and what they stand to lose if things don't work out--all of these are the ingredients that go into making a story. Without those, all you have are a series of events and descriptions, but nothing to connect them.

Story derives from character. So in creating your characters, the first thing you might consider is to give them a goal. And then you have to consider how they will react and how it will test and change them when they're thwarted and have to struggle to attain that goal.

ficklefictionfest · May 22, 2018

BethS said:
With respect, if your characters don't have something they're striving for or else are desperately avoiding (or both), you don't actually have a story.

I phrased my words wrong, I apologize. I DO have my main characters have goals; the thing I'm worried about are my secondary characters, that if I give them goals, they won't be explored much in the story since I only plan to move forward my main characters' goals.

cbenoi1 · May 22, 2018

ficklefictionfest said:
I don't know how to give them goals and priorities when my story doesn't really give much ground for all of them to develop said goals and priorities.

You are on the right track.

Below is a recipe for "grouped heroes" I got acquainted with years ago. Take what you need and leave the rest.

What you want is:

a) Stakes that will last the entire story. (Cut & Paste from link ) If at any point your Heroine has the option to call it quits, then the stakes are not high enough. One way to achieve this is to have a Death Threat(tm) of some kind, which can be sub-divided as:

Threat of physical death - the bread & butter of most thrillers out there.
Threat of emotional death - losing love or respect from a close relative (ex: Leslie Lehr - What A Mother Knows)
Threat of economic death - losing a fortune, the family company (ex: Largo Winch)
Threat of social death - losing status, a career, being framed. (ex: Michael Crichton - A Case Of Need)
Threat of psychological death - losing honor, feeling empty, falling into eternal sorrow, revenge. (ex: Josin McQueln - Premeditated)

You are golden if you can mix two or more along your storyline.

You are doubly golden if each Hero has a different threat for the same problem.

Ex: Group Heroes must find a kidnapped kid.

Hero # 1 is secretly in love with kidnapped kid.
Hero # 2 : kid was kidnapped while using Hero # 3's motorbike. Bike is nowhere to be found. Parent are coming back from Mexico in a week.
Hero # 3 want to prove the older brother he/she is not a Loser (with a big L) by helping find the kidnapped kid.
etc.

b) A set of weaknesses that are personal and social. A good mix of both will usually do the trick. Make the social weaknesses at the core of the conflicts between your main characters. Make the physical weaknesses the main weapons of the Opponent.

Ex:

Hero #1 is physically weak (P) and questions every group decision (S).
Hero # 2 is afraid of the dark (P) and a pedant know-it-all (S).
Hero # 3 stutters (P) and is a defeatist (S)
etc.

c) A set of intertwined redeeming qualities. There has to be something for which - as a group - is the only way to defeat the Opponent(s) but taken individually will cause them to have many setbacks.

Ex:

Hero # 1 is a hacker.
Hero # 2 can pick locks.
Hero # 3 is an acrobat.

As an exercise, you may want to pick apart the characters in The Avengers: Infinity Wars along the template above and see what you get. As a second exercise, try The Magnificent Seven.

Hope this helps.

-cb

TinaG · May 22, 2018

cbenoi1 said:
You are on the right track.

Below is a recipe for "grouped heroes" I got acquainted with years ago. Take what you need and leave the rest.

What you want is:

a) Stakes that will last the entire story. (Cut & Paste from link ) If at any point your Heroine has the option to call it quits, then the stakes are not high enough. One way to achieve this is to have a Death Threat(tm) of some kind, which can be sub-divided as:

Threat of physical death - the bread & butter of most thrillers out there.
Threat of emotional death - losing love or respect from a close relative (ex: Leslie Lehr - What A Mother Knows)
Threat of economic death - losing a fortune, the family company (ex: Largo Winch)
Threat of social death - losing status, a career, being framed. (ex: Michael Crichton - A Case Of Need)
Threat of psychological death - losing honor, feeling empty, falling into eternal sorrow, revenge. (ex: Josin McQueln - Premeditated)

You are golden if you can mix two or more along your storyline.

You are doubly golden if each Hero has a different threat for the same problem.

Ex: Group Heroes must find a kidnapped kid.

Hero # 1 is secretly in love with kidnapped kid.
Hero # 2 : kid was kidnapped while using Hero # 3's motorbike. Bike is nowhere to be found. Parent are coming back from Mexico in a week.
Hero # 3 want to prove the older brother he/she is not a Loser (with a big L) by helping find the kidnapped kid.
etc.

b) A set of weaknesses that are personal and social. A good mix of both will usually do the trick. Make the social weaknesses at the core of the conflicts between your main characters. Make the physical weaknesses the main weapons of the Opponent.

Ex:

Hero #1 is physically weak (P) and questions every group decision (S).
Hero # 2 is afraid of the dark (P) and a pedant know-it-all (S).
Hero # 3 stutters (P) and is a defeatist (S)
etc.

c) A set of intertwined redeeming qualities. There has to be something for which - as a group - is the only way to defeat the Opponent(s) but taken individually will cause them to have many setbacks.

Ex:

Hero # 1 is a hacker.
Hero # 2 can pick locks.
Hero # 3 is an acrobat.

As an exercise, you may want to pick apart the characters in The Avengers: Infinity Wars along the template above and see what you get. As a second exercise, try The Magnificent Seven.

Hope this helps.

-cb

I like this thank you for sharing it

neandermagnon · May 22, 2018

ficklefictionfest said:
I phrased my words wrong, I apologize. I DO have my main characters have goals; the thing I'm worried about are my secondary characters, that if I give them goals, they won't be explored much in the story since I only plan to move forward my main characters' goals.

It doesn't matter if they're not explored much at all. In fact, I'd discourage giving secondary characters too much prominence or they can take over the story from your MCs (learned that from experience, lol!). However, the purpose of developing them as characters is to make all the dialogue and action that they're in more realistic. Without it, they can come across as just being there to serve the MC and like a cardboard cut out - the MC may as well just be talking to him/herself in the mirror (learned that from experience too, lol). Or they all end up being basically the same person, copy-pasted into the relevant bits of your story. Giving them a little backstory, their own personality and way of communicating, and some things they're concerned about in their own life, and their interactions with the MC and they'll come across as more real, and different from each other.

neandermagnon · May 22, 2018

Harlequin said:
in the early days, taking some of those detailed personality tests (for my characters) was a useful if slightly weird approach. Mostly because it highlighted flaws. For example, I took a conflict resolution test, answering form the POV of my MC at the time, and discovered she was completely passive/avoidant. That doesn't actually work for a book character so I changed her up.

I do that too, and usually just for giggles. I never really thought of it as a way to develop a character. But you're right, it is. That's what I'm doing. I'm not wasting time answering silly quizzes for my ~~imaginary friends~~ characters. :greenie

Enlightened · May 23, 2018

I have different tools I developed. I have a Word document with slides from one extreme to the other (e.g. charity to cruelty). I have 28 slides for each character, and use only pertinent ones (or all for main characters). As I begin to write, I can change their starting slide positions based on how their character arcs change. I can, following a lot of characters, always know where I left off with each character I create slides for.

I created a character bio template (one for each character). It has many things, such as a SWOT analysis, who they killed (and what book/chapter), how they died (and who killed them), and so forth. I created a motivations database for the characters that allows them to change motivations and shows when (chapter, book) these changed.

I like to account for my characters from start to finish.

To answer the prompt, I like to evolve the characters as I write. I know their motivations, but I don't know how each will evolve until I start writing.

Bufty · May 23, 2018

Enlightened said:
I have different tools I developed. I have a Word document with slides from one extreme to the other (e.g. charity to cruelty). I have 28 slides for each character, and use only pertinent ones (or all for main characters). As I begin to write, I can change their starting slide positions based on how their character arcs change. I can, following a lot of characters, always know where I left off with each character I create slides for.

I created a character bio template (one for each character). It has many things, such as a SWOT analysis, who they killed (and what book/chapter), how they died (and who killed them), and so forth. I created a motivations database for the characters that allows them to change motivations and shows when (chapter, book) these changed.

I like to account for my characters from start to finish.

To answer the prompt, I like to evolve the characters as I write. I know their motivations, but I don't know how each will evolve until I start writing.

Interesting, Enlightened. It will be even more interesting to see what happens next month when you start applying these data bases to the actual writing of the story. :Hug2:

BethS · May 23, 2018

ficklefictionfest said:
I phrased my words wrong, I apologize. I DO have my main characters have goals; the thing I'm worried about are my secondary characters, that if I give them goals, they won't be explored much in the story since I only plan to move forward my main characters' goals.

You use secondary characters to either support or interfere with (or both) your main characters. And in order to do that, the secondary characters need to have their own agendas.

screenscope · May 23, 2018

Characters are the very last elements I introduce to a story and I flesh them out as they react to the predicaments I have placed them in. It's certainly a fun and spontaneous way to develop them. As long as they end up as 'real' and believable people, the method isn't important.

indianroads · May 23, 2018

BethS said:
You use secondary characters to either support or interfere with (or both) your main characters. And in order to do that, the secondary characters need to have their own agendas.

Agendas and motivation. No matter what terrible thing a character does, they have an internal justification for doing it.

indianroads · May 23, 2018

screenscope said:
Characters are the very last elements I introduce to a story and I flesh them out as they react to the predicaments I have placed them in. It's certainly a fun and spontaneous way to develop them. As long as they end up as 'real' and believable people, the method isn't important.

For me, characters drive the story. No matter how compelling the plot, if I don't care about the characters then I don't care about the outcome of their predicament.

the.real.gwen.simon · May 23, 2018

Okay, so I was just going to suggest Holly Lisle's 'Create A Character Clinic' as a way of building really, really detailed MCs, but after reading the thread it looks like you're actually struggling with the SCs.

The thing is, a supporting character doesn't know they're a supporting character. You don't think you're a supporting character, do you? Of course not, you're the MC with a love interest and kid brother sidekick. (Or whatever, roll with it.) But to your kid brother, he's the MC and you're the big brother mentor. Your love interest doesn't factor into his story at all, we wouldn't hear about them at all in a book from his POV. Every single character is like that, because every single person is like that.

Now, your readers probably don't care that Suzie Secondary wants to be a vet, probably won't know it at all unless it comes up. But if you know, maybe it helps you write Suzie when she and Paulie Protagonist are sitting at the bus stop and they start talking about the dead body in the gym last week. Knowing more about your characters than the Reader is totally fine. It's basically guaranteed.

ikennedy · May 25, 2018

When I plan out a story I plan out what the main characters do. As I'm writing the first draft the secondary characters fill in gaps and develop naturally. Then, as people have said, in the subsequent drafts I refine all the characters' characters and make sure it all fits and works together. I certainly don't plan out my entire characters' personalities. I have an idea how they should be and they react accordingly as I write. But it all depends on thorough redrafting later.
I also find that if I plan a character's character too much, it locks them in and if the story changes direction from how I have planned originally, the character will not fit. It has to be organic.

Odile_Blud · May 26, 2018

Most stuff about my characters never make it into the story. Some characters never even get a story, but I just like building characters and their upbringing and all that jazz. Kind of the same reason I like play Sims.

screenscope · May 26, 2018

indianroads said:
For me, characters drive the story. No matter how compelling the plot, if I don't care about the characters then I don't care about the outcome of their predicament.

I agree totally.

How far do you go in creating your characters?

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