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| Creating Believable Characters; A helpful guide on how to conceptualize and write your characters | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 31 2014, 02:02 AM (79 Views) | |
| ThePokeman92 | May 31 2014, 02:02 AM Post #1 |
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We've all read that book. You know, the one with characters so bland and boring, you have to wonder if the author spent any time coming up with them at all, or if they just randomly threw a bunch of people in the story to move the plot along. Not having believable characters is a sure way to turn me away from a book or story in particular, so I have a firm belief that character development and creation is one of the most vital aspects of storytelling. Of course, I am only an amateur at writing, so I often see this lack of believable characters in my own works. In my search to come up with better characters, I've been searching for ways to get inspiration, without directly copying the personalities of people I know in real life (this could be a problem if said person reads your book, and then that character does something they would find embarrassing or out of place...). Here's what I do or think of when creating characters for my stories: What are some distinguishing traits, features, etc.? One way to create characters that persist in the minds of readers is to give them something to be remembered by. Maybe it's a spoken quirk or personality, or even a physical attribute that other characters notice. Regardless, most memorable characters have one. For example, Harry Potter has a lightning-shaped scar, Ford Prefect from Hitchhiker's carries a towel with him at all times, Bean from Ender's Game is incredibly short and incredibly mature for his age, and Rincewind from the Discworld series is very cowardly and inept. Note that these don't have to be extremes, but in real life you will often find that most people you know have something that stands out about the way they are, or have something they excel in. By exploring your character and finding traits that fit your vision, you can build on those traits and use them in conversations and actions, making the character more complex and more believable. Backstory, backstory, backstory! Everyone has a past, and it has shaped who they are today. Yes, other factors play a role, but this is the big one. When I write a character, I try to think about what I want in their personality, then think of events that might shape them into the kind of person I'm looking for. For example, in a recent Pokémon story I am writing on another forum, I have a teenage character that is somewhat disconnected from his life. He doesn't like his parents, and he would give almost anything to start over and shape his life into something better. At the same time, he is also afraid of certain Pokémon. In order to further define the character from these distinguishing features, I crafted the story of a somewhat solitary past involving an unfortunate encounter with a wild Ursaring (a large bear). When the main character was around 5 years old, he had wandered off into the woods while his parents were away (another part of the backstory, but I won't get into it here). He accidentally got too close to the Ursaring's territory, where it's Teddiursa cubs were resting (Teddiursa are smaller bears that "evolve" or change into the Ursaring bears as they grow). The Ursaring mother/father attacked the main character out of self-defense to protect their cubs, and the main character received a very serious head injury as a result. The traumatizing experience left him with a skull fracture requiring extensive recovery, as well as the three clawed-out scars on the top his head, and a debilitating fear of intimidating Pokémon (those with sharp claws or teeth). The events of this person's past has shaped his overall personality, which shapes each of the actions taken and words spoken as the story progresses, meaning the back story (all of it, not just this event) basically allows you to follow through with this next step: Making Characters Work With the Story Yes, you can make literally anything happen in your stories. However, just because you can do anything doesn't mean you should! For example, if you have an elementary school teacher who loves teaching and is very firmly rooted in her little town, but suddenly decides to skip out on her job to travel to Jamaica, the first question that would pop into my mind as a reader is, "Wait, why?" This goes against everything this character is and does! Immediately, the illusion of a real character is shattered, and you are left with an unconvincing story and an unconvinced reader! I admit, following this rule may be hard to do in some cases. Perhaps you have a story where you want a character to help solve a murder mystery. If they aren't a professional private investigator or police officer, you MUST come up with a good reason why they would do such a thing before you can even think about making it happen. You can't just write a character and give them traits unrelated to what's going on, and then expect the reader to just be OK with whatever the character decides to do. As an example, let's say the character was a single Mom who works as an accountant and is very family-oriented. Why in the world would someone like this go on a dangerous quest to solve a murder? If you don't have a good reason for it, then it really shouldn't happen, and you either need to rethink the character's personality, use another character, or come up with a series of events that gives them a very good reason to accept (or leaves them no choice). For example, if I were using this single Mom here, maybe she is up to her neck in debts and is being offered a large sum of money by someone who was affected by the murder, or maybe her own kid's lives are at stake when the serial killer names them as the next victims. Whatever it is, it needs to provide a good motivation for the character to follow through, especially if their own personality would lead them to do something else with their time. Oftentimes the premise for a story is having a character go through something they would never want to do in a million years, and that's where external events and influences need a part to play (and where conflict arises, another important aspect of writing that I won't get into detail with here). Dialogue and Relationships When people talk to each other, their responses and ideas are always a direct result of previous experiences, their existing relationships, and their personality. In written stories, the spoken word is doubly important, as the reader will glean most of the information about a character through their words and actions, or their inner monologue. In order for their actions and words to match the personality you want, the characters need to react appropriately in every situation. If you write a character that has a crush on someone else, what happens when the two meet alone? If the character is very shy, they might think about all the things they want to say to the person, but stumble over small talk in the actual conversation. If they are very outgoing and brave, they might confess their attraction and ask the person out on a date. Likewise, how would the other person respond? Their personality and the dialogue of the other person will dictate what they do next. If the person they are talking to seems like a creep to them, they might run away, or act grossed out. Similarly, if they have the same feelings and were shy about it, they might really want to say "yes," but struggle to do so. Ultimately though, their dialogue and reactions to other characters must fit the rest of their personality Putting it all Together All of this conceptualizing is great, but it means nothing if you are unable to use these skills and ensure the reader comes to the same conclusions about the character as you. Ultimately, a character is what the reader sees when reading the story, not what you conceptualized. That doesn’t mean the conceptualization isn’t important though, because it really is! The conceptualization of a character is usually more for the author and less for the reader. It lets you, as an author, establish a set of ground rules for the character, namely what they are inclined to do, how they will do it, and how they will respond to situations. When backstories become important, they will be told, but even if they aren’t you can still create a memorable character using that backstory. As an example, I'm going to give you two short paragraphs about a fictional character named Jack, then we will explore exactly what *I* conceptualized about him and his situation before writing the paragraph. For the purposes of this exercise, I was writing this paragraph to be the initial introduction of Jack, as if it were the first page of a story: Example, no notes So, believe it or not there is a ton of information in here. Note I didn’t do any dialogue in this (aside from a single word Jack uttered to himself), but there is an instance of distinguishing feature and several actions that you probably made a mental note of. Now, what I would like you to do before reading this next section is to quickly post a reply in this topic telling me who you think Jack is and what he is doing in this creepy old house. This is partially a bit of an experiment to see how well I can convey the character I had in mind with limited space, but also (hopefully) to show you how you can make the most of each situation and develop your characters no matter what situation they may be in. Done? Good! Now I’m going to underline everything I placed in these paragraphs to give you clues about the character, then I’ll break them down: Example with underlines So, our two paragraphs have a lot of underlining! Let’s explore who Jack is and what he is doing here: Breakdown Anyway, I hope this has helped you a little bit in understanding how characters can be written well in stories. There’s a lot more than this involved in making a good character, but that’s about all I have on the subject at this time that I’m comfortable writing about. Let me know if you have any questions or additions/changes to make to this guide! Edited by ThePokeman92, May 31 2014, 02:14 AM.
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| NewDenverCity | Jun 1 2014, 02:23 PM Post #2 |
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Ooh, nice guide. Also going along with the backstory thing: make the main character relatable. If they aren't, then they become not human, even with the dialogue and backstory. If people can relate to the characters, they become more attached. |
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2:57 PM Jul 11