The Children of Words: A Novice Writer’s Guide to Character Creation
A "how-to" article on creating unique and believable characters, originally written for Professor Samalonis's Magazine Article Writing class.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kate sits at her desk, eyes glued to the piece of unmarred paper before her. She has the idea of a woman in her head; tall, brunette, certainly not beautiful but not entirely ugly either. But where to go from here?
The heart and soul of good fiction lies within its characters. No matter how respectable the quality of the writing, a good story simply cannot move forward without realistic, engaging personalities to drive it towards its goal. Many novice writers fall all too easily into the pitfalls of character creation. Clichés will destroy a personality and a lack of motivation will send a character spiraling into the recycling bin before he even has the chance to speak his first word. So as Kate muses about her mystery woman, what kind of techniques can she apply to turn her mundane Madame into a lively lady?
○ BECOME A LITERARY ALCHEMIST: Observation isn’t reserved for painters. Characters can be drawn from real life observations and transferred to fiction simply by people watching on a park bench. A man walks by, dragging his left leg in a very Frankenstein-eqsue fashion as he walks his cocker spaniel. Take it. A woman argues with someone over the phone and you like the way her voice slips into a high falsetto every time she says the word “liar.” Take that too. Perhaps your neighbor has an interesting quirk, or maybe you’d even like to add a bit of yourself into your creation. Fuse the looks of two friends, sprinkle the opposing personalities of three more, add a dash of backstory to it all and you’ve got the chemical makings of a new character.
○ WHAT TO DO, WHERE TO GO: Namely, what’s your character’s motivation? “The main aspect of a character is motivation,” writes Josip Novakovich, author of Writing Fiction Step by Step, “What moves him? What’s his passion, his desire, his fear?” A character with no motive remains static; more setting than personality. Create a number of new characters and imagine their motives. What drives Nelson to murder? Why does Markus visit the pier every Tuesday? How come Harry has yet to reveal to Erin that their relationship is about to take a surprising turn? Instead of worrying about your plot, first concentrate on why your characters do what they do. Let motives in conflict clash until a climax occurs; put your characters at a crossroads and see what happens from there. New writers would be surprised to learn that once a character’s motive is fleshed out, the personality will almost write itself.
○ TALL, DARK, AND HANDSOME: Clichés will turn a reader off at neck breaking speeds. In a world soaked with literature, readers are always looking for something new and exciting and originality can be a difficult mistress to tame. As an alchemist, use your powers of observation and your newly discovered character concoction to avoid clichés. “Whenever he argues his voice is as loud as a megaphone,” becomes “Whenever he argues his voice is as clamorous as a bag of cats, hissing, spitting, and clawing at whoever tries to argue back.” Telling details will paint a more vivid picture and creative similes or metaphors will aid in the active avoidance of clichés. You’re not only an alchemist, but a sculptor as well. “The word character,” says Novakovich, “stems from the Greek word for cutting grooves, etching.” Chip away, writers, and you may be amazed at what you find beneath the surface.
○ MAKE YOUR OWN EXERCISES: It’s easy to get stumped. Creating a character is an overwhelming process. You’re shaping the very soul and essence that will shoulder your story through the conflict, climax, and conclusion. If you don’t know where to go next, take a blank sheet of paper and make yourself a rubric. Start with the basics: name, sex, age, eye and hair color. The further along you create the more in depth you can get with your character. So we know that Heather Pippin is a twenty six year old woman with black hair and gray eyes. Now add some more categories to your rubric: occupation, education, place of birth, hobbies. Heather Pippin is a teacher’s aide, still in college, and she was born and raised just off of Lake Erie, Michigan. This may explain her love for fishing and boating. See, now Erin has got some depth. There will be no end to the questions you can ask yourself about your creation; mix it up for each new personality.
So where is Kate’s mystery woman now? She writes, “Diana walked with a slight limp, the weaker right leg struggling to keep up with the determined strides of its partner. Her emerald eyes, framed by gentle crow’s feet, flash humorlessly, as if daring you to ask ‘What happened?’” A character, once restricted to the musings of a fresh writer, is born. It will require a lot of work and attention to fully flesh out a complete personality, but now that an idea has become concrete, the rest will fall from your fingertips.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kate sits at her desk, eyes glued to the piece of unmarred paper before her. She has the idea of a woman in her head; tall, brunette, certainly not beautiful but not entirely ugly either. But where to go from here?
The heart and soul of good fiction lies within its characters. No matter how respectable the quality of the writing, a good story simply cannot move forward without realistic, engaging personalities to drive it towards its goal. Many novice writers fall all too easily into the pitfalls of character creation. Clichés will destroy a personality and a lack of motivation will send a character spiraling into the recycling bin before he even has the chance to speak his first word. So as Kate muses about her mystery woman, what kind of techniques can she apply to turn her mundane Madame into a lively lady?
○ BECOME A LITERARY ALCHEMIST: Observation isn’t reserved for painters. Characters can be drawn from real life observations and transferred to fiction simply by people watching on a park bench. A man walks by, dragging his left leg in a very Frankenstein-eqsue fashion as he walks his cocker spaniel. Take it. A woman argues with someone over the phone and you like the way her voice slips into a high falsetto every time she says the word “liar.” Take that too. Perhaps your neighbor has an interesting quirk, or maybe you’d even like to add a bit of yourself into your creation. Fuse the looks of two friends, sprinkle the opposing personalities of three more, add a dash of backstory to it all and you’ve got the chemical makings of a new character.
○ WHAT TO DO, WHERE TO GO: Namely, what’s your character’s motivation? “The main aspect of a character is motivation,” writes Josip Novakovich, author of Writing Fiction Step by Step, “What moves him? What’s his passion, his desire, his fear?” A character with no motive remains static; more setting than personality. Create a number of new characters and imagine their motives. What drives Nelson to murder? Why does Markus visit the pier every Tuesday? How come Harry has yet to reveal to Erin that their relationship is about to take a surprising turn? Instead of worrying about your plot, first concentrate on why your characters do what they do. Let motives in conflict clash until a climax occurs; put your characters at a crossroads and see what happens from there. New writers would be surprised to learn that once a character’s motive is fleshed out, the personality will almost write itself.
○ TALL, DARK, AND HANDSOME: Clichés will turn a reader off at neck breaking speeds. In a world soaked with literature, readers are always looking for something new and exciting and originality can be a difficult mistress to tame. As an alchemist, use your powers of observation and your newly discovered character concoction to avoid clichés. “Whenever he argues his voice is as loud as a megaphone,” becomes “Whenever he argues his voice is as clamorous as a bag of cats, hissing, spitting, and clawing at whoever tries to argue back.” Telling details will paint a more vivid picture and creative similes or metaphors will aid in the active avoidance of clichés. You’re not only an alchemist, but a sculptor as well. “The word character,” says Novakovich, “stems from the Greek word for cutting grooves, etching.” Chip away, writers, and you may be amazed at what you find beneath the surface.
○ MAKE YOUR OWN EXERCISES: It’s easy to get stumped. Creating a character is an overwhelming process. You’re shaping the very soul and essence that will shoulder your story through the conflict, climax, and conclusion. If you don’t know where to go next, take a blank sheet of paper and make yourself a rubric. Start with the basics: name, sex, age, eye and hair color. The further along you create the more in depth you can get with your character. So we know that Heather Pippin is a twenty six year old woman with black hair and gray eyes. Now add some more categories to your rubric: occupation, education, place of birth, hobbies. Heather Pippin is a teacher’s aide, still in college, and she was born and raised just off of Lake Erie, Michigan. This may explain her love for fishing and boating. See, now Erin has got some depth. There will be no end to the questions you can ask yourself about your creation; mix it up for each new personality.
So where is Kate’s mystery woman now? She writes, “Diana walked with a slight limp, the weaker right leg struggling to keep up with the determined strides of its partner. Her emerald eyes, framed by gentle crow’s feet, flash humorlessly, as if daring you to ask ‘What happened?’” A character, once restricted to the musings of a fresh writer, is born. It will require a lot of work and attention to fully flesh out a complete personality, but now that an idea has become concrete, the rest will fall from your fingertips.