Going to bed last night I was bombarded with images of my various characters. Which, of course, got me thinking about the whole character building aspect of writing.
I've heard of writers basing their stories around characters, while others base them on the plot. Others will base their stories on a specific 'what-if', while others will base them on a very specific scene. I tend to combine it all.
I usually know approximately what I want to happen, whether in the middle, beginning or end. Then, I close my eyes and picture the scene, and whoever plays it out becomes my characters. Sometimes, they 'tell' me their names, while other times I have to conjure up a name, even if temporarily, to fit the need at the time.
In Repeated Life I couldn't come up with suitable names, so I just inserted generic names for the time being. By the end of the story, though, I knew exactly what their names would be. Well, great, but what about the characters themselves...not just their names? Good question.
When I'm writing a book, just like with the scenery, I close my eyes and see who pops in there. With Repeated Life, the heroine is a petite, but not short, dark haired woman, with brown eyes and lots of flaws. She's insecure, neurotic (in a good way), indecisive, emotional, and can't seem to make up her mind. The male, well, let's just say Kevin Durand. When I picture the hero in Repeated Life I picture a tall, muscular, masculine, grey eyed man. Kevin Duran continuously pops in my head when reading the scenes. In my newest book, yet to be named, a tiny, thin woman with long curly hair and blue eyes popped in my head. She's flawed, yet gifted beyond belief. Hey, how many people can feel and see people's energies and auras?! The hero, Jason, is a six foot tall Choctaw Indian man who has a secret...he's a Skinwalker.
So, there's my little blurb on my characters. How do you build yours? Do you have a pattern or a formula? Or do you, like myself, let them tell you about themselves?
My characters tend to reveal themselves to me. I know some basics at the start and get to know them the same way I get to know my friends. Character blogs are useful tools for character development.
ReplyDeleteMy characters come from hidden traits within me. Either they are who I am, who I would like to be, or they come from some dark place that I only dare explore through them.
ReplyDeleteI start with a name -- although the name often changes as time goes by -- then I start with character lists that go into complete physical and character trait detail until I know the person so well they start coming alive to me. It's often at this point that they start fighting me in the scenes and I have to make adjustments to my outline ...
ReplyDeleteI start with the telephone. Silly, huh? I've been an insurance broker for 34 years and I talked with strangers all the time by phone. From the beginning, I made a guessing game out of what the other person looked like. How old? What kind of name is it? Russian, Italian, German, Afro-American, Indian (dots), Indian (feathers), Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.? And it can be completely off for women, because I did't know their maiden names. It was fun, often wrong and sometimes surprisingly accurate. Now, I use the same curiosity to "discover" my characters.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think of my characters as jigsaw puzzles slowly being assembled, and seeing more of them as I go along.
ReplyDeleteI love how many very different ways to create our little friends there really are!
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