Inhabiting Personalities

Maybe take acting lessons?

I took Drama in secondary school not because I was particularly interested in becoming an actor, but because at the time it was the only arts class that didn't conflict with anything else that I had to take that year. Looking back, I think it really helped.

Either that or just picture them as people you know or have just met in life. Try to hear what their voice sounds like or the cadence of their speech and the sort of words they choose, figure out their general attitude or traits and so on.

Some people go so far as to do 'character interviews', though I don't like them personally. Whatever works.

Quite often it's a matter of perspective. A character's background plays a huge part in what they say and how they act. Immerse yourself in that and you'll understand the character enough to write him/her convincingly.

I agree with Wilde. Acting lessons are a great way to get to understand characters in drama. I took both acting and musical theater when I was in school, and it helped me to understand characters like Beatrice and Benedick from "Much Ado". It is not until you play those characters that you realize how truly funny and interesting they are. And it helps to get the creative juices flowing in the sense that "I can create characters that are like that, that lively, that funny." It is certainly worth a try.

Try to pretend to be your characters in the situations your created for them.

You have to be a Chameleon, and work hard at it. Never finish trying to perfect your work and make it better until you run out of time. Surprise yourself.

I totally agree with you. It’s tough not throwing your own disposition into all characters you create. There’s usually one character in every story that a writer fully puts he or she’s personality and or traits into. I give myself that one role in my fantasy world. If you provide an individual to satisfy your inhabitation needs…the rest should be easier to separate. Just look at it as if you’re planting acquaintances around yourself (you being the main or a secondary character) to keep the story going. You still need to know what the others are capable of, but that comes with development. Give yourself a role…it helps.

Jedi

This, to me, is mainly about what they call "frame". During preparation, you get to know your characters, and during writing, you totally take on their "frame", which is the context they put the world into. How they feel and what they see through their own eyes.

It's not easy to decribe what I'm trying to describe here ("frame"), but as one writes more and more, he/she gets into the habit of taking on different frames easier. I also think that the problem for many people is a lack of preparation - they just don't know their own characters well enough by the time they start writing.

Additionally, it helps to talk to a lot of different people with a lot of different personalities - and by that I don't mean you should only talk to schizos!

When you are at the dinner party, talk to that self-absorbed business man who can only talk about his business, try to soak up his personality, the way he perceives himself, the way he perceives the world, the way he judges, the way he takes decisions! Then next time, talk more to your brother-in-law, who is a day-dreaming artist-type and painter.

You have a lot of opportunities in life to do this, for everybody's favorite topic is themselves! People love to talk about themselves, and you just sit in and listen. That job is similiar job to a bird watcher's...

Hope that helps.

Day Agent said:

Great storytelling is to no small degree about mastering the ability to inhabit characters and leave your own personality behind; one of the most difficult aspects of writing to me. Many an industry writer speaking of having 'nailed' a characters 'voice', seems to underline similar problems by highlighting success with the outer forms. How do you get out of your head?

Click to expand...

I don't think you ever stop getting out of your head. Maybe someday. I doubt it.

I've always tried to find a weakness in the character I want to write that is similar to my own personal flaws. It seems counterintuitive, but for some reason that helps me see the aspects of the character that are different from my own.

I'm with you, nonetheless. It seems to be the hardest part of good writing, and given that the foundation of an exceptional story is an exceptional character, it may be accountable for the death of many intriguing concepts. The writer simply couldn't remove their own persona to substitute a more appropriate 'voice' as you say.

Succumbus said:

Try to pretend to be your characters in the situations your created for them.

Click to expand...

I agree with this sentiment, but something I would add in is to try to pretend to be your characters in 'everyday situations' as well.

Does your character have to drink coffee before anything else when they wake up? Do they shower everyday? What's for breakfast? How do they get to work? Are they late? Do they hate that bitch Jenna who works in the office? When do they go to the bathroom?

Even characters in fantasy settings can benefit from this. Often I find writers who have an issue with creating believable characters neglect the banality of existence. They either make people who do interesting things all the time or people who seem to be nonexistent except for the 5 minutes in which they're on page doing something interesting. No matter how crazy the world, these people feed themselves, have friends and enemies, and go through daily routines. If they don't, they're not really alive.

TL; DR: Daily Bullshit helps you understand every character better.

If you know your characters intimately then you should have less problems in your writing, ie, you already have established what their wants and needs are, what their personal moral codes are, what they've experienced in the past that will shape their decisions in the future.

If you have all this already figured out and arrive at a crossroads for a particular character, it's far easier to ask yourself what you would do in this new situation if you were that character, given what you know about that particular character's past and his inclinations. And the beauty of all this is that your character may go against what he should do, given his past, his traits, etc, because the elements of the story force him to now think differently and act accordingly.

There's countless possibilities available in that reagrd. So try to know know each of your characters intimately before putting them into situations and decide which ones act according to plan (their makeup) and which ones forge a different path from what they are expected... with the right amount of inspiration, of course.