Falling In Love With Your Characters - Writers Forum

DragonReborn · 11-11-2003, 06:08 PM

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to fall in love with your characters, how to make 'em not so shallow. Come one everybody, put in a word or two of how you do it yourself!

Gia · 11-12-2003, 06:42 AM

Well , I suppose the most obvious answer would be

to give these characters characteristics of people

that you have admired , or ever been in love with .

Take heart , writing is very difficult . Good luck !

Diamond · 11-14-2003, 02:30 PM

I think that making a character more real is really all about details. The more you know about your characters, the less shallow they will be. A personality profile including likes and dislikes can help, even if most of the information will never be directly used in your writing. It's good to know what your character is really passionate about.

Specific flaws can also make a character more sympathetic, something like a nervous habit, adiction, or phobia.

veli · 11-15-2003, 09:05 AM

My heroes are entirely one-dimensional, but protagonists......well, that's another story.

Either I'm evil, or I just funnel my negative feelings about humanity into the villain.

Kimberly Bird · 11-15-2003, 09:18 AM

Hi Dragon, your main characters should have depth, their passions, integraty and honor, their weakness should show. Why do they do the things they do. Are they protecting another, are they forced into a situation, does their vulnerability through their weakness make them enduring... All those little things make for a more intense character.

Kimberly

Chanti · 11-15-2003, 08:02 PM

I agree with one of the others who replied here. I have written a couple of stories about chickens giving them human attributes. I do this by using characteristics from people that i know or have known. Many of these are greatly exaggerated of course to add effect. The chicken stories are supposed to be comical and tongue-in-cheek.

I am not sure if this will help but it did help me.
Creatively yours
Chanti

obiwanjabroni · 11-16-2003, 08:27 PM

I agree that the best way to make your characters deep is by adding details. I'm one of those writers who like to give personality more through dialogue and actions, rather than by explicitly stating them. I also like to add small details about people; endeering details like the way they toussle their hair or the quality of their hair. It takes the little things to make the whole more believable and more lovable.

Aevin · 11-21-2003, 01:24 PM

One way of making a character more deep is to tell a segment from his point of view. If your story is told from the point of view of one character, try rewriting a scene in first person from a different character's point of view. This allows you to go more in-deapth with the character's thoughts. If your story isn't already from the POV of this character, doing this may force you to use enough imagination to understand this person better.

hollyoake · 11-25-2003, 12:06 PM

spend a lot of time People-Watching!

ltpalmer · 11-30-2003, 12:47 AM

What helps me is a very detailed character resume. What they like, what they don't like, religious beliefs, social status, tastes in clothing and art. This also helps define how a certain character will react in a certain situation. Sometimes it is the smallest detail or nuance that will help you further the development of your characters. One other thing. You don't have to always love your characters. Sometimes it helps to hate them as well.

L. T. Palmer

ThePet · 11-30-2003, 12:56 PM

Every single major character I write has something of my personality and beliefs in them. Not enough to make them like me in any recognisable way, but enough that I know it's there. I don't do this deliberately, but it means that I love every one of my characters. If I don't, I simply don't use them much.

Capulet · 11-30-2003, 02:00 PM

I fell in love with one of my characters once, but the papercuts were just too painful. We had to call it off.

_-TJ-_ · 12-01-2003, 01:34 AM

. . . personally when making a character I have to make one that I love.

I'm looking forward to writing books in the future, I know i'm not going to be rich, and i'm not going to be famous, but what I care about is the characters and the story.

If you have strong commitment you should show it in strong characters.

I have to sit down and stare at the space between me and whatever is in front of me for hours just thinking up a characters.

The first thing I do when thinking up a character, is first trying to imagine some scene where their glory shows. One of my first characters got his glory because I imagined him DYING

In my mind i had the picture of him floating up into the sky a few feet, looking as if a person had hooked his back with a fishing hook and was reeling him up. In reality a second character ripped its way through the first characters back.

thinking up events helps me a lot, and thinking up dialogue, or a COOL name, such as, spelling cool things backwards.

one of my characters has a name meaning the beginning of the world in north mythology (sorta) I have had the opportunity to make a weapons name seem like a persons name which in turn means a word describing ultimate judgement.

The LITTLE things matter a lot when creating a character.
Put in the effort to find whats GREAT about the character, and try and find out the horrible or not so horrible TRIALS he goes through
what is the purpose of the character?

I'm inclined to make Antagonist characters, and bring them to the 'good side' so its easier for me to see a protagonist character with a sucky past present and future and then say, 'well, if they were evil to begin with that would make them much more interesting'

Ying and Yang.

. . . i'm really just ranting because its too late at night. but another thing to go for

Try your best for Originality.

chameleon · 12-05-2003, 11:19 PM

I'll agree with everyone else - giving your charactors real charactoristics you've taken from either yourself or your friends is a good way of doing it. It creates a kind of relaity to the charactor you otherwise wouldn't have.

Giving them hidden depths - not just small things in their personality - helps as well. It brings out another side of them you mightn't otherwise see. It can also bring the plot into tension - like if your charactor nearly drowned as a child, they might have a petrifying fear of water. If the charactor has to cross water in the story, it could bring out their fear, which you might not otherwise see and they would have to confront their fear. Creating suspense and furthering characor development...

missdante · 12-09-2003, 02:29 AM

*nervous newbie wave* Just tossing in my two cents, as it were...

I find it easiest to relate to my characters if, somewhere in them, they have at least one of my traits. It can be something as small as liking a certain brand of chocolate, or may be that they share my approach to relationships. It won't make the characters you, but will help you begin to relate to them. If you get stuck on what kind of person they are, try thinking of what their favorite memory might be, or what scares them most. This sometimes helps to determine what drives them - or just that they happen to really not like needles. If all else fails, (mentally) roundup your friends/enemies/neighbors, and play Dr. Frankenstein with their personalities. This bit goes with this one, with this bit thrown in, a dash of this, etc.

Oh, last thought: don't make perfect people. This sounds a bit odd, but all characters really need to have some kind of flaw somewhere. A character who is absolutely wonderful in every way may be easy to fawn over at first, but sooner or later you'll want to put their head through a wall.

Cheers!
~d