Thread: I’m curious about how people here create characters

Originally Posted by RoundEye

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?

Alaska -- Boroughs

My ideas for stories just seem to pop into my head, and the characters come along, almost fully realized. That's not to say they don't evolve over the course of writing the story.

I just poke around in my head and say, "Hay, I need somebody new. Any takers?"

That's when I'm needing a character spur of the moment--like very not pre-planned D&D games or other role-playing sessions. Most characters just pop in on their own and leave me in their wake, going, "Hey! What's your name!?"

Names have so far been one of the most difficult parts of character creation for me. Character maintenance and psychoanalyzing and baiting and coercing... those are much harder than creation for me.

Originally Posted by RomanticRose

Alaska -- Boroughs

Yep. A lot of people in Louisiana think we are the only state that does not use the term counties. As you know already know, Alaska doesn’t either.

I was about 11,000 words into a story about hurricane Katrina when I was in a bookstore one day and noticed I already been beat to the punch by writers much more proficient then I am.

I still have a nagging question about the term “Parish” even after all the research I have done. Why do we use it? Is it because of political or religious reasons? I have some theories but I still don’t know with certainty as to why.

Names come from the phone book. Once in a while I spot one I like online. The sound of the name always denotes the character to me-I am very sensitive to word color and texture and that extends to names.

Originally Posted by moderan

...Names come from the phone book...

That’s actually a good idea unless it’s a very unique name. When I was a kid, before caller I.D. my dad had put our phone number under a fake name, Z. Zzylch. We were the last name in the phone book for years. Man did I ever answer some late night drunken crank calls. A friend of mine had his under a fake name too, O.J. Absolut, yep he liked vodka.

It's especially good for ethnic names. I hate when every character in a story has a WASP surname, and a good name can give me a head start on backstory. Defining heritage can definitely give clues as to mental outlook, possibly location of origin...for example, if the character's name is Szykowny, there's a pretty good chance that they come from Chicago, and are of Eastern European origin. A Battaglia can be from somewhere east, Joisey if you like, or NY state somewhere. Mr. Sigurdsson is from St. Cloud, Mn. See what I mean? You could reverse those geographical stereotypes as well. Just something to give me a leg up on character creation.

Yeah I never really thought about a name giving a clue to a character’s heritage. For a male character that would be fine. For a married female character it may skew the story some if it’s not explained further. Then again, sometimes a person’s heritage is irrelevant to the plot anyway.

Very true...but I like to know everything I can. Even if it doesn't get into the story, every bit of knowledge informs the text. For female characters I work out a maiden name if they're married. I do a lot of characterization (obviously) before figurative pen hits figurative paper...

Heritage is a big part of naming charactes. Obviously if you have a chinaman and and english man you want them with different names.

For some reason reading through all of these has been hugely inspiring!
My characters have usually been a disguise of myself, or a variation. I write characters on the same wave length mentally, but I give them attributes that I aspire to have, or put them into situations that are unlikely to occur to me personally.

That's not to say they're all two dimensional, or mirrors of myself, the similarities are never superficial and are often hard to pick. But I can tell them. In every piece I write (thus far) I subtly project some kind of longing or issue that i have into a character. It's kind of fun, actually, I get to live out scenarios I would otherwise never have the chance to (that sounds rather sad, doesn't it?).

Thus far characters haven't been of the utmost importance to me. Since I write shorts mostly, they are pretty much vehicles or pawns for the tale to unwind. I don't have the word limit to really flesh them out, so they are always fairly static. That is unless I'm disguising a problem I myself am having, then I explore the "character" with introspective authority.

Physical traits never really come into it, nor does heritage. Names are ALWAYS an after-thought. My character names make me cringe, they're either disgustingly commonplace, or far too out there to be believable. But I don't lose much sleep on it. Until lately things like characters or settings always seemed like superficial padding to a story. It's only now I've developed the confidence to write longer and deeper pieces, that I'm beginning to see value in them. It's also alot of fun, as some have mentioned.

I particularly approve of Stephen's method.

My mind uses my imagination to show how it works, and from that it began developing characters as means of defense. Personally I think watching anime and listening to music helped aswell. But hey, everyone is different.

My latest novel I literally dreamed up. I think in images mostly, so I "saw" my storyline, got a vague impression of what the characters were like, and I named them based on that impression. Then I just start writing and both the characters and the storyline mold to each other as I go. I'm open to changing the name if a character stops behaving like their name. Usually I draw out the character and keep that image of them in my head as I write the story; sometimes I go through several drawings of the character as the story evolves.

I try to imagine what they would do in the situations I am in. Or I try to think of how they act around others and why. There is always a reason for behavior.