Creating Characters

Google character checklist or questionnaire. I think you'll find a few.

I find that the most important thing when creating your characters is to discover their wants, needs, and hidden desires. In relation to the story. I basically start their "profiles" with their backstory, but a lot of character design is for myself.Their feelings and aspirations are more important than what their favorite dinner is. Unless it's relevant to the story, of course.

There are so many articles on writing characters out there, best to expand and analyze all of them, see what works for there. And save and bookmark them!

For me, the most important thing about characters is conflict. Create characters that will be naturally opposed to one another. Create characters who must contend with conflicting goals and interests within themselves.

I've merged questions from two check lists offered by members here, like so:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9254701&postcount=6

Sargentodiaz said:

I have no idea when or where this was posted but remember seeing a Checklist for your Character - about 30 questions to answer to make you characters alive - and believable.

Anyone know where it is?

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There are tons of things like this on the web, so I'd suggest Google. I've never found such lists to be useful myself, both because I write fantasy (so many of the things on those lists simply do not apply to my worlds), and because I'm one of those writers where the important things about characters tend to fall into place as I write them.

But one of the things that's really cool about writing is how we all have our own process. So if you think a list like this will help you, cool, give it a try. Just don't make the mistake of thinking you necessarily *have* to use such a list to create compelling characters if doing so feels like trying to put a tutu on an alligator.

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:

I've merged questions from two check lists offered by members here, like so:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9254701&postcount=6

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Just a heads up--the link here takes me to a pw protected place on the site, and I have no idea where it is or what the pw to use actually is. I assume it's not in SYW or erotica, which are the only two pw protected subforums I'm familiar with.

Characters do not exist separate from story. Period. Think story, and characters will come along with it.

caw

I've made characters based on combinations of people I know who fit the bill. At some point, they become their own unique people. I love it when that happens!

I use the people I meet in real life as references for my characters. My characters have been...

a professor from college
my friends
an HR professional with whom I had a fight(i used him as the nagging neighbor)
a celebrity(caricature)
colleague
my relative
aunt
neighbor

For me, I've never used the questionnaire (probably should try it one of these days). I just never found it useful or relevant.

Usually, I take people I know or see and sort of build from there in a way that fits the story. As the story continues, the characters sort of become real on their own from their experiences.

Sometimes it's fun to sit down and answer questions re a character you've created. Even though my characters don't live in a world with movies, it might be entertaining to speculate what kind of movie they'd enjoy if they did exist in their world. And of course "movie" can be extrapolated into media that do exist in their world--plays, books or whatever. Though saying that one of my characters loves the book called Travels in Roksana, or a play called The Low King, doesn't mean much to anyone but me anyway.

But that doesn't mean I feel compelled to include a scene where a character mentions or thinks about their favorite play, food, color, childhood pet, or whatever if it's not something that fits the story.

Uh, okay, since nobody else is being weird, I'll take the plunge.

For me, the important part is before I write. I have conversations with my characters. ( To salvage what remains of my dignity, they aren't out loud. Although they have made me laugh at inappropriate times.)

I picture how they react in a variety of improbable situations.

And I give them a mission statement. Something they really want, and are going to have to suffer to get.

Then I try to force myself to torture my new best friend.

I'm really not sure what this says about me, but this works for me in a way a checklist doesn't. I'm sure something will work for you.

Sargentodiaz said:

I have no idea when or where this was posted but remember seeing a Checklist for your Character - about 30 questions to answer to make you characters alive - and believable.

Anyone know where it is?

Click to expand...

Is the list something you're just curious about or are you looking for ways to create characters? Could be fun for a lark, but serious character creation comes in all shapes and sizes.

I'm a (tabletop rpgs) gamer, so I generally approach character creation from a gamer point of view. Almost all of my characters start out as though I'm creating them for game; a list of stats, knowledges. quirks and so forth. This works for me 'cause I've gamed most of my life but it isn't for everyone.

blacbird said:

Characters do not exist separate from story. Period. Think story, and characters will come along with it.

caw

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strongly in agreement with this and the sentiment that a list will create artificial characters. I feel the lists tend to make characters who are less realistic and lead writers to emphasize things simply because they are there in the writer's head, rather than because they make sense "organically" for the character and in the story....

CathleenT said:

Uh, okay, since nobody else is being weird, I'll take the plunge.

For me, the important part is before I write. I have conversations with my characters. ( To salvage what remains of my dignity, they aren't out loud. Although they have made me laugh at inappropriate times.)

I picture how they react in a variety of improbable situations.

And I give them a mission statement. Something they really want, and are going to have to suffer to get.

Click to expand...

I send mine fishing and see how they react.

I usually have an idea of a character, sort of an amorphous blob. I send them fishing to see their immediate reactions to getting in the boat, baiting the hook, how they react when a fish is caught, etc. That gives me a sense of where to start.

I figure out where they fit in my idea of the story idea and plot and where they need to go. Then I start writing. As I come up on those things that add character to them but really aren't necessary to the plot (she likes mint chocolate chip ice cream, he loves to sing sea shanties, she has a fencing scar along her cheek, he has an allergy to flowers) and write them down on a character sheet. As I write, the more I get into the story, the more filled out my character sheet becomes.

That way, I don't get bogged down in trying to figure all that out first and don't feel a compunction or obligation to cram it all in the text.

I hate the whole concept of creating characters, and hate those checklists even more. Why "create" a character that's put together like Frankenstein's monster, with this part to please one person, that part to please another, while leaving out a part someone doesn't like, when there are six billion real people in the world to choose from?

"Created" characters seldom come off as real. They're too much of this, too little of that. That too good at this, but know nothing about that. They always have the right skill for whatever obstacle faces them, on and on.

If you have to build characters, build them from real people you've known, not from checklists.

Roxxsmom said:

Just a heads up--the link here takes me to a pw protected place on the site, and I have no idea where it is or what the pw to use actually is. I assume it's not in SYW or erotica, which are the only two pw protected subforums I'm familiar with.

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It's in the AW Writing Lab - Brainstorming Sandbox.

Jamesaritchie said:

I hate the whole concept of creating characters, and hate those checklists even more. Why "create" a character that's put together like Frankenstein's monster, with this part to please one person, that part to please another, while leaving out a part someone doesn't like, when there are six billion real people in the world to choose from?

"Created" characters seldom come off as real. They're too much of this, too little of that. That too good at this, but know nothing about that. They always have the right skill for whatever obstacle faces them, on and on.

If you have to build characters, build them from real people you've known, not from checklists.

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Mr. Ritchie is there anything you don't hate? You're always saying that YOUR way of writing is the best, and that everyone else is obviously wrong. I'm tired of your crusade on strawmen. None of your diatribes about the "evils" of planning have proved much of anything.
You have to know how to use those checklists if you want to use them. I agree that those checklists often contain irrelevant character traits, but they mainly exist to give people ideas for characters nothing more. It is up to the writer to decide what's important and what's not, and thenwhether the entire character is likeable--providing they need to be likeable. No one with any sense follows those things to the letter; that includes planners like myself.
As for your claim that I should base my stories on real people, I write FANTASY novels. The novel I am currently writing has a demon in it. Do you know any demons Mr Ritchie, because I've never met any. I suppose I could summon Satan, and interview him, but that sounds a like a very bad idea. And I'm not about to write people I don't like into a novel as demons. That's just plain wrong.

jpoelma13 said:

I suppose I could summon Satan, and interview him, but that sounds a like a very bad idea. And I'm not about to write people I don't like into a novel as demons. That's just plain wrong.

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If I could get a lifeline from God, I would totally interview Satan and any of his minions.

Also, unlikable characters in real life make great unlikable characters in fiction, too. And if I wrote under a pen name, I wouldn't even bother to change their first names (just their last, as needed). Oh, the joys of being an author.

Jamesaritchie said:

I hate the whole concept of creating characters, and hate those checklists even more. Why "create" a character that's put together like Frankenstein's monster, with this part to please one person, that part to please another, while leaving out a part someone doesn't like, when there are six billion real people in the world to choose from?
. . .

If you have to build characters, build them from real people you've known, not from checklists.

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I might counter that I don't know any 18 y/o male hookers, or incredibly handsome psychopaths, or suicidal college professors. I don't know people like that. I made them up. Not with a written check-list in mind, but just the same, I made up those people.

Just not in a vacuum.

jpoelma13 said:

. . .I write FANTASY novels. The novel I am currently writing has a demon in it. Do you know any demons Mr Ritchie, because I've never met any. I suppose I could summon Satan, and interview him, but that sounds a like a very bad idea. And I'm not about to write people I don't like into a novel as demons. That's just plain wrong.

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I might counter that if (for example) the character thinks, feels, emotes, acts, communicates, then that character is more familiar to the author than perhaps she knows.

Presumably.

Some writers want to solidify in their own minds who their characters are before they write their stories. Some writers trust that their stories will shape their characters.

Regardless, nobody writes in a vacuum. Every character we write comes from somewhere. Our experiences, relationships, memories, casual encounters, creativity, all of that has some bearing on our stories, whether we're aware of it or not.

That's what I think, anyway.

Jamesaritchie said:

Why "create" a character that's put together like Frankenstein's monster, with this part to please one person, that part to please another, while leaving out a part someone doesn't like, when there are six billion real people in the world to choose from?

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Firstly, I'm not sure these are the only choices available to writers: base the character on a real person, or create an artificial patchwork intended to please others.

Secondly, I'll go out on a limb here and say that even if I knew all those six billion real people, none of them would be a half-human earth elemental or Red Riding Hood.

Some writers may base characters on real people, but other writers have different ways of creating equally realistic, distinctive, interesting characters. That's all.

Marian Perera said:

Some writers may base characters on real people, but other writers have different ways of creating equally realistic, distinctive, interesting characters.

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True, but not outside the context of story, of something happening among characters that makes them worth reading about. No characteristic checklist is going to help you with that.

caw

blacbird said:

True, but not outside the context of story, of something happening among characters that makes them worth reading about. No characteristic checklist is going to help you with that.

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I don't use checklists myself. I'm just saying, I didn't create any of my characters by thinking of real people or trying to base those characters on real people.

I've never used character checklists, but I don't see how they'd make for bad characters. You can use them as a sort of jumping off point for the character. A lot of writers work better when they start out with a solid base.

Then they'll develop the good stuff about the character as the story unfolds.

jpoelma13 said:

Mr. Ritchie is there anything you don't hate? You're always saying that YOUR way of writing is the best, and that everyone else is obviously wrong.

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Oh, that's just James.


, James.