Okay, disclaimer repeat: I am not an expert, I’m just someone who’s
made these mistakes before and am putting down how I got around them.
Alright, so the last post was
about reducing or boiling down your large cast, and the one point that I (and
everyone) kept making was to develop your characters. And that’s exactly what
this post is about.
So, the first step: actually
creating the character. All characters must be created with a specific purpose.
Like the last post said, you probably shouldn’t add a character simply because
you like their personality. They should add something to the story.
(If you could see my face right now, you’d see me in quite a bit of
pain. I hate sharing information about my story. I’m secretive like that. But I
really want to get my point across. And because I’m also quite weird, I’ll be
using nicknames only.) So, for me, all characters start out as one basic
trait. My lead character, Az, started with the basic idea of making him
intelligent. Shay was made to be energetic (and good-looking… this is actually
an integral part of his personality) and Aiku (I love this nickname!) just frankly mean. Once you’ve got the base
down, it’s time to start building.
Character development has always
come quite naturally for me. In fact, I’m always surprised when people say that
creating characters is the hardest thing for them. I’ve always found it
extremely easy, though this may be because I have quite a bit of free time, and
my mind is always circling around my story. I have never used character sheets–
never needed them.
The best way to develop a
character is to try and come up with as many scenes as possible about them. You
can write them out, but if you’re lazy like me, just thinking them up should be
enough. These scenes don’t have to be those influential to the story– in fact,
I think the mundane ones work the best. In the fantasy novel I’m writing, the
scenes that helped with the character development included campfire-talk
scenes, humourous scenes that had no place in the story, and… um… pillow talk. That
only worked for two characters though (since I typically suck at romance) but
it worked well.
Out-of-world scenes are very
useful too. My favourite one is the waiting-in-bank scene. My favourite
response was from Shay, who is a soldier. He’d just ask someone behind to hold
his place, and then go and sleep on the sofas that you sit and fill stuff out
on. One of his qualities is over-familiarity with everything.
Other scenes to use would be:
1. A
trip to an extremely crowded shopping mall.
2. If
someone were to fall sick.
3. An
interview for a job
4. A
trip to a bar. The actions of the characters both sober and drunk.
And loads more. It’s up to you,
really.
After the developing the
characters, try comparing them with the base; look at how many qualities they
gained and how they relate to your original idea base. Az is intelligent, but
he’s also embarrassed easily, generally perceptive but awkward when it comes to
women, and with leadership qualities he never recognized before. Shay is
energetic and fun, but superficial and flaky in relationships, vain and with
handicapping fear of blood. Aiku is mean and short-tempered, but very proud
with a noble air, and is very romantic too.
I don’t know if it’s happened to
other writers, but I’ve found that in the process of developing characters, the
bases can change. The original King written for the story was mature and
rational; the current and final one is shy and has unbelievably low
self-esteem. Ruki was originally noble, proud and short-tempered– he was
written as Aiku’s rival, and they clashed as they had very similar
personalities. He is now sneaky, clever and with a loose sense of morality– and
he and Aiku now clash because they’re too different.
The King’s personality changed
around the story, while Ruki’s personality changed the story. This has happened
a few times in the past, in previous stories for me, and I’m yet unsure as to
whether or not it’s a bad thing. I think it is.
Well, I hope this post helped someone. If not, I’m glad to just have
rambled anyway. Next post: Writing Mary-Sues and how to get out of it.
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