Yesterday, I discussed the initial thoughts that go into building a character. You can find the post here at Characters, Part 1. Today, I’m go into a little more detail.
The hardest part of creating a character is finding the motivation. Why does your character do the things (s)he does? What does the character want? How does the character live? Why is your character at this place, during this time, and ready to take on the plot of the story?
With Dodge, I had to come up with a reason why she became an undertaker. Her backstory didn’t end up in my short story, but it informed what she chose to do and why she acted the way she did. As far as why she was the one to resolve the issue? Her job put her in the most unique position to understand the problem and see all the threads coming together to form a pattern. Also, she’s just that curious and determined not to sit on the sidelines when she sees a problem.
There are a lot of websites where you can find character-building tools. The most common is a questionnaire that asks things like “What is your character’s favorite food,” “What does your character hate,” “Where was your character born”. Those are cool templates, but I find they don’t help me much. Most of my character building comes from thoughts like “Why this occupation,” “Does my character suffer from any physical or genetic problems,” “What does my character want from his / her life,” “What does my character need that (s)he doesn’t realize (s)he needs?”
Education level plays an important role in how I write my characters, what words I choose for them to speak as well as how they view the world. I had an interesting discussion with a fellow author who had eyesight problems. Even up close, she can’t describe how a person looks. But she remembers how they sound (voice, footsteps, verbal mannerisms) and that’s why she chooses to focus on tone of voice, word choice, and other verbal cues to describe her characters rather than hair color and clothing choices.
These are all important parts of your character and things that should be considered when creating the character. And if you’re writing an alien (or non-human) character, that needs to be one of the things that you should address. Writing a non-human in ways that translate for the reader without making your character so human that there’s no point to the non-human factor.
Another important thing to remember. If you can plug anyone into the story as the protagonist, then you have failed in your assigned author duties. Your protagonist should be the ONLY person who can resolve the main problem. Supporting characters can assist, and they can even resolve side issues that may seem (to the characters) to be the main problem. But in the end, the protagonist is the only one who should be able to effect a resolution and this needs to be accounted for in his / her characterization, skills, talents, or world-view.
Personality counts for a lot. The most common character mistakes I see are:
1) Too-Stupid-To-Live characters – these characters are so dumb, they should have died before the third page of chapter one. Seriously, folks. There’s stupidity and there’s stupid. If your character is stupid, make sure (s)he has enough believable skill or talent to survive the book.
2) Too-Smart-To-Fall-For-That characters – these characters are so super smart, you’d think they’d have conquered the world already. Whether they are heroes or villains, there’s just no joy in watching them resolve problems because it’s expected of them. Then they suddenly become unbelievably stupid for a moment just so the author can throw a necessary plot twist to keep the story going. Really?
3) The Obsession characters – these characters aren’t obsessed with things in their world. They are reflections of the author’s obsession with certain cultures, occupations, or sexual encounters. The characters themselves are so flat and stereotyped that it’s not even funny and the only reason they exist on the page is for the author to live vicariously through his writing of them.
4) The One-Notes – these characters only have one emotion, angry, depressed, victimized, love-sick, overly-heroic or arrogant. If I want to read these types of characters, I will go back to the classics. I don’t need to read them in modern fiction.
If you find your characters falling into these traps, please please please fix it. Here’s a suggestion. Carry around a notepad and write down all the things that you find interesting about your friends, flaws and all. Write down the things they (or you) are willing to fight over, or willing to compromise over. Note the foods or toys or events that cause mood swings. Listen to your co-worker talk about his family life and actually hear the things he hypes up and the events she downplays. People have multiple dimensions. Your characters should too. Characters should never just want one thing. They should be going after multiple goals. Some of them won’t be able to prioritize while others will know exactly how to channel their energies.
Above all, though, your characters should be real enough people that they make you (the author) laugh, cry, shudder, and grimace all the way through your story.
