CHARACTER BUILDING: Tips and Tricks

This character-building information is all very well, but what is an author to do when his or her characters simply won't behave?

I can't answer this in any sort of all-inclusive way, so please, do not expect me to! However, I can give you a few tips and tricks to make your life easier.

I highly recommend starting off with a character sheet or study of some kind. This can be as in-depth as you want it to be. I like to start out with a few basics: eye/hair color, family background, a name, a profession, age, and maybe a few character personality traits... and a little bit of random back-story trivia that might come in useful to know as I write the book.

After that, however, I like to let my characters develop a little on their own as I write. One of the questions one reader asked was, "How do you build a character, do you know who they are from the beginning, or do they evolve?" My answer is: both.

I like my characters to surprise me a little. Since my writing is a bit more on the character-driven side of things, it's fun to see how characters grow and develop as the story progresses. Some characters are easy, others are harder.

In The Orb and the Airship, for example, I knew exactly who Grayden and Dalmir were. Their characters have pretty much stayed exactly the same as I intended. I knew a lot about their back stories and who they would become. Wynn, on the other hand, was a surprise. He was sort of this secondary, background character, almost just along for the ride at first. As the story developed, though, I discovered that Wynn was much more than a background character, and much more than simply Grayden's best friend. He had a useful skill set all his own, and brought a lot to the story. It meant I had to go back and rewrite a little, but the story ended up stronger because I let his character grow out of what I had originally envisioned.

However, sometimes you've already done the character studies and you're in the middle of the plot and suddenly you get stuck. There's a very important piece of dialogue coming up, and you suddenly have no idea what your character is going to say or do. You're not even sure you know what their motivations are anymore. Suddenly, it's like your characters have all become statues, refusing to provide you with insights. What's a distraught author to do?

My personal answer to this particular problem is to put down my notebook or laptop, go outside (preferably in the rain), and act out the scene. (In the back yard, where people won't be able to see me to look at me like I'm crazy). Walking around, saying the words out loud for each character in the scene, getting myself into their shoes and mental state... all of this can help the dialogue suddenly spring forth. I usually don't use even half of what I SAY while I'm acting out the scene (partially because I don't remember all of it, and partially because it's like a pre-rough draft and wouldn't be any good if I did write it all down). But I usually do make some sort of break-through when it comes to figuring out what the point of the dialogue should be, or what it should reveal about the character or story.

Finally, sometimes the answer is to simply write through the block. Writing (and editing) is only going to get done if you sit down and DO it. Even if you sit there for an entire day and write five thousand words, and then use less than two hundred of them... that two hundred is more than you would have gotten if you hadn't written anything at all. Much can be fixed and honed in several rounds of editing, and your rough draft never has to be perfect (it won't be, trust me). But sometimes the very act of pushing through the frustrating points can help the frustration dissolve of its own accord.

What are some of your tricks for character-building or getting past a particularly nasty bout of writer's block? I'd love to hear from you!