Character development.

Go get a copy of Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. Great information in there.

I like to just get characters talking about themselves. Sit them down over a beer and say, "Tell me about yourself." I don't like character charts (you know, name, date of birth, educational background, height, weight, bleh.), but some people do. I suggest trying one and see if you're in the like it or hate it catagory.

I talk to them.

Try this Developing Realistic Characters

There's more on that site that might help. And, as Birol said, talk to them. Really. It works.

Less is more. Let your characters flirt with the readers. And I don't mean in a freaky breaking-the-fourth-wall sort of way. I mean you don't have to tell me everything right away...you just have to give me someone to pay attention to.

Good thought I read lately: Know what each of your characters notices. Somebody knowledgeable about mechanics will notice that engine running rough. A gardener will be eying the greenery and will use metaphors of growth and development and pruning. The ideas person will be listening to what someone says and be oblivious of how they're dressed and most of the environment around them. And so on... It will help you develop a unique voice for each one.

Let the characters do things. They will eventually show their true colors.

As a more drastic measure, toss your characters in a bar fight (or some other potential life-threatening situation) and see what they do

My characters develop themselves, much to my relief.

I talk to them, spend personal time with each of them (especially the cute ones) but keep most of that to myself - I like the reader to learn about them gradually, leaving some mystery. We don't walk into a room, meet a stranger, then spill our life stories, do we?

Well PeeDee does, but . . .

MidnightMuse said:

I talk to them, spend personal time with each of them (especially the cute ones) but keep most of that to myself - I like the reader to learn about them gradually, leaving some mystery. We don't walk into a room, meet a stranger, then spill our life stories, do we?

Well PeeDee does, but . . .

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I can't believe you'd say something so mean, after all I told you about my life and medical history...!

Make your characters face situations in which no palatable choice of action exists, and you'll see what they're made of. If it's psychology you're after, try to make these choices internal rather than imposed from without (the threat of losing someone's love rather than the burning fuse on the dynamite), though they could be a mixture of the two.

Characters

Stop thinking of them as characters, and start thinking of them as real people you've know. Don't try to make them do anything. Let them do, act, feel, think just as you let all the real people you've known do these thing.

Good characters are always real people, singly or amalgamated, put down on paper. How would Uncle Bob react to, be affected by, a given situation?

....if I don't have an Uncle Bob, can I not be a writer...?

*turns in his pen*

Oh, c'mon, PeeDee, everyone knows a Bob.

My father was Bob - does that mean I am a writer?

*rubs hands together with glee*

About 90% of my uncles are Bobs... heh.

Anyway, on character, I tend to write a lot of biographies for them in my notes, even if some of the details aren't going to be used in the actual plot. I just find it helps to figure out someone's attitudes and personality if I've got into my head how they grew up, what their relationship with their parents was like, etc.

I try to think of smaller characteristics and quirks they might have too, usually things drawn from people I know in real life, such as phobias and the like.

I have an uncle Bob. But he's dead.

Just talk to them and Bob's your uncle.



Sorry.


Yes, I think of them as real people. I often pick someone to model the character on and go from there.

I use index cards to keep track of characters and their traits, which I often discover as I'm writing. I sort out the important stuff like: He's married with no kids. But I rarely know all the little details until a character blurts out in a coffee shop: "Milk, two sugars and a splash of vanilla."

I wish that were all my characters blurted out. No, we're just flowing along, everything's grand, and suddenly one of them says something to another that has a major impact on the story. Something like, "Did you ever get rid of that body in the trunk? We're going to need that space."

Whoa. What? Excuse me? What body in the trunk?

"Oh, didn't we tell you?" Yadda yadda yadda.

*&%$#@ characters.

I usually start thinking about their history first, what brought them to this point. For main characters, I will use a questionnaire set-up. Name, age, occupation, hair/eye color, identifying marks (tattoos, scars, moles), hobbies, social network, notable past events. By that point, I will turn it over to the character and let them talk (1st person) about what's happening now and how they feel about it. I'll imagine conversations with myself and with other characters.

Minor characters come on the fly, though. I'll make up their names, appearances, personalities in the moment they arrive in the story. They can bring up unexpected things about the main characters, too. One popped up and started calling my MC Gina-mina, which was apparently Gina's childhood nickname. I'd never thought about childhood nicknames before...

Birol said:

I wish that were all my characters blurted out. No, we're just flowing along, everything's grand, and suddenly one of them says something to another that has a major impact on the story. Something like, "Did you ever get rid of that body in the trunk? We're going to need that space."

Whoa. What? Excuse me? What body in the trunk?

"Oh, didn't we tell you?" Yadda yadda yadda.

*&%$#@ characters.

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Yeah, I'm with you. One of my protag MCs mentioned in passing that he was once in a serious relationship with my antagonist. That made my eye all twitchy, but to tell you the truth my antag's actions made a helluva lot more sense after that.

My characters show up with everything. They may not tell me everything at once, but it's already there and I'm just writing down what they're doing. That way, things come out organically.

I found that if you try to 'make-up' characters, they read like paperboard cut-outs. Like some others have said, think of them as real people who have quirks and memories and had a life before they wandered into your story. Some people write notes, others 'interview' their characters and if that works for you, great. I just start writing what the characters tell me and see where it goes. They key is not to start out with a checklist of characteristics you think a character should have. Let them tell you what they're like.

Shadow_Ferret said:

My characters develop themselves, much to my relief.

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Same here. That is part of the wonderful adventure. Characters can take on an unintended life of their own, often for the best in my experience.

www.donaldmichaelplatt.com

There's no better thrill than suddenly seeing one of your characters blurting out the seeds of a situation which would have taken you months to dream up.