I’m curious about how people here create characters - WritingForums.com - Writing Forums, Writing Challenges, Critiques and Help for Writers

RoundEye · 05-31-2009, 02:41 PM

I’ve done some online research but I’d like to get some feedback. Things like do you loosely base them on people you have met in the past or yourself?

Do you make up some sort of FBI profile consisting of all their good and bad points?

How?

Strotha · 05-31-2009, 04:59 PM

Creating characters seems to be one of my biggest gifts as a writer. I'm pretty creative with it. It's interesting because I utterly despise people. They're parasites.

Every character I create takes something from myself. Alot of them are influenced by friends and people I know, and other fictional characters. If they're named after someone I know, I usually try to get their permission to use their name.

I usually write a little biography for them. One of my favorite writing exercises is looking at random people on the street or other fictional characters and making up my own little backstory for them. It really helps and it's alot of fun, too.

Creating characters is my favorite part of writing.

S-wo · 05-31-2009, 08:30 PM

Most of my characters I take from video game characters that i love and put a spin on them and everyone gets at least a little bit of me in them, but my current book consists of mostly characters inspired by people that I personally know.

RomanticRose · 05-31-2009, 09:42 PM

I write biographies, profile them, interview them, put them inside their most treasured fantasies and their most dreaded nightmares, essentially do anything and everything to crawl inside their heads and see the world through their eyes.

Beja-Beja · 05-31-2009, 09:51 PM

Osmosis. I dream them up at night, if they are compelling they continue to evolve in my head. If not, then goodbye.

RoundEye · 06-01-2009, 01:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strotha

...I utterly despise people. They're parasites...

……and yet here I am trying to suck knowledge from your brain.

moderan · 06-01-2009, 07:24 AM

I've used this template for many years-it amounts to the same sort of detail that Romantic Rose writes of above:
Height/weight:
Sex:
Hair (color, length, style):
Body type:
Face (shape, expressions):
Eyes:
Mouth:
Distinguishing physical characteristics (scars, tattoos):
Poses and Posture:
Imperfections:
Age:
Birthplace:
Home (this is often imaginary and sometimes done in great detail):
Habits:
Name:
This provides the beginning of a character that still needs a great deal more work. I might set this aside, filing these notes and coming back to them at some future point to fill out the details. Sometimes this deeper work takes place right away. The deeper work takes the form of questions I ask myself about the character. Sometimes these are random "what if" questions, sometimes they are more pointed. There are a few questions I ask about every character:
What does this character want?
What is this character willing to do to get what she wants?
What fears does this character have?
What "role" does this character fill in society?
Does this character have siblings?
Parents still living?
A significant other?
Children?
Random questions might follow:
How does this character react in a crisis?
What would this character consider a crisis?

Dayshayde · 06-01-2009, 11:46 AM

Those are all very good ideas for character creation. I usually just name my character and run with it hoping they'll take shape as the story progresses.

Katastrof · 06-01-2009, 03:44 PM

My characters come with the situation I'm writing about. They develop with the story, although I usually have a good idea about what they want, and what they are afraid of before I set out to record their story's.

However, if I ever get stuck on a story, I usually sit down and interview them; helps me to make them more realistic and can get you out of a bind if you get into that blank stage or writing, also known as writer's block.

I think the most important thing about characters, is that as an author you shouldn't put words in their mouth or censor them. Like, if they say fuck or bitch, let them say it and don't try to rework it. I think there's a saying or something that goes like, "Your first instinct is your best", and although that's not always right, I prescribe to it with the way my characters act and talk. Characters evolve, but your first impression should always be somewhere in there.

StephenP2003 · 06-01-2009, 03:51 PM

I fill out a gratuitous character questionnaire and never look at it again, since the characters change when I start plotting the story. So, I build my characters based on my plot, and then the character I built alters part of the plot. It becomes a cycle of characters shaping the story and the story shaping the characters until I have a solid, complete, thorough story outline, which will change again as I write.

Also, I give my characters personalities different from my own.

RoundEye · 06-01-2009, 04:19 PM

I’m finding in my studies about writing that it is a very personal experience for each and every person. There seems to be no set rules that work for everybody. Some may help but we each have to find our own way.

Ironic too, since my recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, since it is a nerve disorder, it effects everyone differently. Yes there are some common problems but for the most part, it deals everyone a different hand.

I feel that everyone who sets out to write does have a few common rules to follow but for the most part how the story makes its own twist and turns is up to the individual. There are some great tips here, some I’m sure I’ll follow, others are not for me.

It’s all just ironic and surreal to me.

Stephen, are you a resident of Baton Rouge or are you there for school? I’m grew up and reside in the New Orleans metro area.

StephenP2003 · 06-02-2009, 10:43 AM

I grew up in Central, which used to be part of Baton Rouge. I graduated from LSU and settled down in Central with my wife. Though I wouldn't still be here if I hadn't been able to find a well-paying job as a technical editor/writer.

Eluixa · 06-02-2009, 07:30 PM

I will just say I have to have a name right away, and it has impact on my creations, according to my feelings for names and sounds. I have read thoughts on how people develop according to our names, have feelings of my own about it, and how we react to certain names.
Otherwise agreeing with StephenP.
I have written a page on them, but they change so often...and I am usually too busy to go change the page again and again. In fact I have a heck of a time pinning them down.

RoundEye · 06-02-2009, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenP2003

…Though I wouldn't still be here if I hadn't been able to find a well-paying job as a technical editor/writer...

I lived out of state once and Dorothy had it right, “There’s no place like home” I’m still of the mindset that Louisiana, New Orleans metro area in particular, is about the closest you can come to entering a foreign country without crossing a border.

Here’s an off-topic trivia question for you: Louisiana has parishes, 48 other states have counties, what other state has neither? And what name do they use to divide up their civil municipalities?

ThePinkBookworm · 06-02-2009, 10:08 PM

I sometimes base my characters on characters of other books, but only once in a while because I like the personality. Most of the time, they are either based on myself, what my dream guy would be like and just regular stereotypes(if you want to call it that), like for butlers, etc.

I also like making profiles of each of my characters(the main ones) for fun, and so I can really get in their head. My current book is in diary form, so I HAVE to know how my main character thinks. But she is basically a lot like me, so it works out well

Li Li