CHARACTER BUILDING: Getting Started

Next in my series of blog posts on my writing process, we will dwell with characters for a bit.

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.”― Joss Whedon

The question was: How do you build a character? Do you know who they are from the beginning, or do they evolve?I'm going to sit here for a couple of posts, because there's a lot more to that question than meets the eye. To begin with, I'll give a general overview-type answer the actual question, and then come back later to do some more in-depth discussion of a few dos and don'ts of character creation. (All my own opinion, of course, but nobody ever complained about a character being TOO three-dimensional).For me, the plot is equally important to the characters, while still remaining secondary. The best plot in the world will not appeal to me in any way if I cannot love (or at least like) the characters caught within it.

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”--Ray Bradbury

For me, creating characters is the most fun part of the story. The story is the catalyst by which I get to know my characters better. I can truly identify with the following quote:

“It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.”--William Faulkner

Some of them step into my mind fully-formed. I can picture them easily, know exactly what they would say or how they would react in any given situation, and have no trouble writing about them at all. Others are more of a struggle and require a lot more investigation before I can write about them.An example from my own books:Brant, despite the fact that I never intended for him to be a main character, was very easy for me to write. As soon as I started writing him into a more central position, I knew exactly who he was as a character. I didn't know all his secrets, but I knew what he looked like, how he moved, how he spoke, the expressions that crossed his face, and what he was thinking in any given scenario.Oraeyn, on the other hand, was far more difficult. I knew who I wanted him to be, and how I wanted him to think/act/behave/speak. But he simply, and courteously, refused. Every time I wrote a scene with him in it, I felt that it came out feeling unpolished or awkward, and then I had to spend quite a lot of time re-writing, editing, and struggling over the issue in order to make it flow better. It wasn't until the major re-write/edit that I began to understand the problem I'd been having. I didn't really know who Oraeyn was when I wrote the first book. By the time I went back to edit book 1, I had finished book 4, and knew a lot more about the character and had a far easier time writing about him. He wasn't at all who I'd tried to make him in the first book, his back-story had fleshed out, his character was very different than I'd envisioned, but I liked him a lot better than my original idea - which, I'll have to admit, was rather flat. One of the best ways to get to know a character is to create a solid and detailed back-story for them. But we'll talk about that in the next Character Building post!