'Casting' your novel

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crunchyblanket

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I sort of mix-n-match when it comes to casting, and not always intentionally. So say one character starts out physically based on Bloke X - as the story goes on, he starts borrowing characteristics from Man A, Gentleman Y and Chap G until he ends up a completely unholy mix of all of them.
 

Personal Prose

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I do this, too. I need a visual aid to remind me of voice, mannerisms and personality, or else my characters all end up the same. I don't use people I know personally because I would end up writing them, or my idea of them, instead of writing my characters (who are not them).

I don't like to use really pretty faces, unless there's a reason for it. For example, my uber-villain is supposed to be this perfect doll-like child-woman with a viciously sadistic personality. So I'm using Natalie Portman for her. I have these publicity shots of her looking just as sweet as can be. My imagination enjoys riffing off that image in horrible ways.

Otherwise, I look for people who may be beautiful but who are not perfect. People who are ordinary or normal, physically. Or people who look like the age I want, the lifestyle I want.

For my male MC, I wanted someone reasonably good-looking but kind of odd/off, kind of awkward yet interesting. Also, like my villain, I wanted an image that would contrast with behavior, rather than predict it. In MMC's case, I wanted a quiet, gentle presence that doesn't hint at but still is believable with the streak of cold-bloodedness and the physical violence. After much trial and error, I went with older Julian Sands.

My female MC gave me the most trouble of all. I couldn't find a face for her because I couldn't settle on her character. I replaced her entirely three times! Now I'm satisfied. She works with the story, the scenes flow, she seems to have a decent interplay with MMC, etc. But I needed a face so I could have her set in my brain. I wanted a woman who is physically beautiful but not glamorous, who looks "regular." Someone kind of athletic, believable in physical confrontations, but also believable being insecure and acting like a girl, i.e. younger than her age. I ended up with Jennifer Garner because there are so many paparazzi photos as well as production shots of her not glammed-up, just dressed normally, with little or no make-up on.

These are just visual aids for me, and I don't really care if the faces I choose come through in the writing, because I think the characters find their own faces in the minds of the readers. For instance, I modeled my MMC very deliberately on Julian Sands, but a friend who has read drafts insists he sees him as Liam Neeson. Totally WTF to me, but hey, as long as the character jumps off the page for him, I guess I'm on the right track.

I'm glad to know I am not the only one who has dealt with faceless characters.

Something else I've learned along the way is that it depends on the role of an actor or actress. When I finally found a face for my hero, loosely based on a certain actor. I discovered after watching him in a few other roles, it was only the first role I saw him in where I knew the physical description would fit. I like his work, and enjoy his movies, but only this one particular character transcended into mine.

I hope that made sense.
 

gapperjody

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"A picture is worth a thousand words"

I do it with both characters and setting. I thumb through magazines or surf the Web to find the faces and settings developed in my mind. I use my phone's camera to capture the magazine images and I file everything in a folder on my hard drive. Just going through the files helps guide my story line and writing.
 

owlish

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I don't do it (and I don't think it's cheating, for what it's worth), but a friend of mine who has helped me brainstorm and create characters within the novel I'm currently writing is a fantastic artist who happens to enjoy illustrating the characters we've created together. Occasionally she will use specific actors as references for her work, and we'll joke about "if the novel was turned into a film, who would play this character or that character" but as it stands, the characters are all rather unlike any actors I've seen. And I'm rather okay with that. :) Having some kind of visual representation, be it photos of existing people or drawings, can be quite useful in bringing the characters to life.
 

luxisufeili

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This is such an interesting idea... makes me sort of want to try doing it when I have time.
 

Ergodic Mage

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This could be a good exercise.
"In walks a tall, muscular actor full of charm and enthusiasm, while hiding a slight trepidation in his deep blue eyes. The role will be difficult, but he is the perfect actor for any warrior role.
The crew has dressed him in shiny bronze armor embellished with gold trimming bound by tasteful silk into eye catching knots. His sword is a heavy broadsword with runes etched on the long sharp blade. The hilt a long golden affair with an exotic quillion and dragon shaped pummel.
His robes emulate the finest of ancient nobility and demonstrate the respect such honorable warriors deserve. The elven emblems emphasize his goodness and oneness with nature. Finally the complementary soft, low cut, elven boots.
Putting forth all of his charm and acting ability our perfect candidate starts his session with 'With my honor I pledge my good spirit in this endeavor to rid the world of ... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'"
My MC swings his battleaxe and ends this stupid casting.
"I'm an ugly dwarf with a bad attitude and the most vicious axe ever used!"
"Get Danny Devito, NOW!"
 

GFanthome

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Yeah, I do this too. I don't keep a file of actor photos, but I have a general idea of who would have the right look to play characters in my novels.

Recently, I saw a woman walking down the street who was the spitting image of my MC in my work-in-progress. That was freaky.
 

DanielaTorre

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Martin Freeman
Gary Oldman
David Tennant
David Bowie
Benedict Cumberbatch
Helen Mirren
Robert Pattinson (For some odd reason that's beyond me wtf brain?)
Eva Green
Catherine Tate
Geraldine Chaplin

As for the children who are the main characters, I have no flippin' idea who I would cast in their place. :/

A girl can dream. :e2bouncey
 
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Nicrsing7

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This is a lot of fun! And all kinds of distracting too. :)

I usually do this only after I've gone through several drafts and know my characters pretty well. At that point, it's mostly just for kicks to see who out there might match up "looks-wise" with my characters' personalities.
 

victoriakmartin

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I went off and did this and had a really good time. Of the four characters I cast, I only used one who I have a vague idea of their identity (Norwegian athlete, I think, so still pretty obscure, at least to me). I definitely wanted to avoid anyone if I knew who it actually was.

Not sure if it's going to help the writing process but it certainly can't hurt. It was really fun though regardless!
 

Buffysquirrel

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Alan Rickman could play my antag. There's not much physical resemblance but the same kind of creepy presence.
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

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OK, if we're into naming actors now...

My ancient Egyptian MC: Oded Fehr. No, it's not very original. Do I care? I do not. :D

The picture that inspired my MC is now my avatar... *swoon*
 

Susan Coffin

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I wish I could jump in and say certain actors could play my characters, but I can't. That is not the way I write. I create the character and get a picture in my head of the person I have created, even if all those attributes don't go into the story.

The closest I have come to casting a character was when I asked my significant other if he would be a character in my story, name and all. He's a musician and music teacher, but in my story he owns a music store. He was very tickled about that.

I suppose I model my characters after real people at times too.

I think it's all about what works best for the writer to get their story written. I admit liking the idea of going through magazines to figure out what people, places, and things might fit in your story, but it would take up too much of my time.
 

Apologue

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*wipes drool off chin at the mention of Eva Green*

All the books I've finished are books I've cast. That said, my current NaNoWriMo WIP isn't cast at all, and I'm making good progress on it.

I don't necessarily do every character, but I usually have some idea for at least one of the main characters. As others have said, it gives me a quick reference for physical descriptions. However, I've never used images for settings, but now I'm rather intrigued by the idea of giving it a try. I've been told that dialogue is my strongest point and description is my weakest, so maybe working with some images would help me improve that aspect of my writing.
 

katci13

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I've never done actors. But this last time, I did find pictures of a couple of random models on a hair website to double check my descriptions and make sure that my idea of certain hair colors and skin tones are the same as everyone else's. Last time I pulled up a picture of some random Greek people to help me describe this one guy in my story.
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

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I've never used images for settings, but now I'm rather intrigued by the idea of giving it a try. I've been told that dialogue is my strongest point and description is my weakest, so maybe working with some images would help me improve that aspect of my writing.

To me finding images is just an integral part of research. To be honest, I can't imagine anyone NOT using visual references for things they wanted to depict in their novel. If I was painting a picture of a duck I'd go and look at pictures of ducks. To me, it's no different if I was writing about a duck. I gotta know what one looks like before I try and describe it.
 

RN Hill

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I do it as an excuse to look up half nekkid pictures of Matt Bomer.

You too? :)

My beta readers told me they were imagining Daniel Craig as my MC's love interest . . . um, dark hair and blue eyes? Who else could it be BUT Matt Bomer?! Once I showed them a photo, they immediately realized the error of their Daniel Craig-infatuated ways and came over to the dark side . . . :)
 

victoriajakes

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I cast mostly people whose voices I can hear distinctly in my head. It helps me write dialogue that doesn't all sound the same. The character I've cast as Vincent Price has the strongest, most unique dialogue in the book.
 

Beatlemaniac

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Out of the three books I've written (first two finished, third in progress), I didn't do any 'casting' except on book number two. That's because it had four real-life people in the story--John, Paul, George and Ringo--and obviously to cast the Beatles I had to, well, cast the Beatles! But the four girls in that same story came from my imagination, as has the rest of my characters (in my other books)--though my grandmother was the inspiration for one in particular.

So, I guess it depends on what story you're telling, what your thought process and writing style is I suppose...
 

Brian G. Wood

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I do this constantly. I actually had to write down my fantasy cast for an online interview, so my roommates and I had a really long discussion over whiskey where we really got into it, weighing the pros and cons of different actors and considering things like box office draw and budget.
 

Flicka

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I cast my novel and then I sort of method act the scenes trying to imagine being inside my "avatar". It especially helps when it's a character whose physical attributes are very different from my own, like say an elderly man.

I sort of mix-n-match when it comes to casting, and not always intentionally. So say one character starts out physically based on Bloke X - as the story goes on, he starts borrowing characteristics from Man A, Gentleman Y and Chap G until he ends up a completely unholy mix of all of them.

But then usually this happens and soon I have personas that are just mine and just exist in my head. Casting is a starting point for me though.
 

Barking Tree

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I always cast my A Story characters and sometimes some of the B Story characters. As has already been mentioned, current American actors are far too pretty and all look much the same, so I tend to settle on British and European actors who seem to be more down to earth. I only do this for myself, so that I have a strong image of the characters in my head while I write, but rarely mention anything but the most basic attributes in the text. Rule Number 8 in Elmore Leonard's '10 Rules of Writing' is: Avoid Detailed Descriptions of Characters [if you want to know why, you'll have to buy his book :eek:) ]

Although I cast actors and models for characters, this is only for me to have a loose idea of their appearance. As far as their personality and mannerisms go, I always base each character on a mashup of several people that I know, because that way I know these details more intimately.
 

SJNew

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I kinda do this. I mean, I don't go out of my way to 'cast' actors, models, etc for my characters cos, to me, that automatically limits how I write a character cos I'm describing a pre-existing face, if that makes any sense. But I do need to know what a character looks like before I can really get to grips with fully developing them. Sometimes I'll start to write a character and they appear more or less physically fully-formed. Others not so much and that's when I iron out a couple of defining features about them then go to google images/pinterest until inspiration hits. Even then, as I write more of the character, the appearance will change slightly in my mind.

There have been other times, though, when I've been writing/musing over a character and a specific person has popped into my head. For example, the main character in the story I'm currently working on always looks like a guy who does internet movie reviews, no matter how much I've tried to alter him. Another example happened this week, while I was thinking about writing a fantasy story. I know one of the main characters would be a knight/paladin conflicted over where his true loyalties should lie and the first image that came to mind was Tom Hiddleston as he looked in Henry V. Not him as himself or any other character. Just as Henry. :Shrug:

I certainly don't think of it as cheating. I think I even read somewhere that the human brain is incapable of just inventing faces, so it's possible that even my 'original' faces could just be an amalgamation of people I've seen on the bus/train/getting coffee/etc. And in the end, even if we have a particular face in mind/ well-known or otherwise, it's very likely that a reader will imagine someone totally different, like RN Hill demonstarted with her Daniel Craig/Matt Bomer character. :)
 

Billycourty

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For me, and this is going to sound soo emo, I don't visualise them beyound their emotions. Their anger! Their hate! What

they love enough to sacrifice all for. That I see. But I don't see faces. I think because I want to leave it to the reader.
 
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Myrealana

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My husband INSISTS that I should cast my novels.

And when I can't do it, he will go and do it for me - usually getting it all wrong.
 
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