# How Are Characters Born (or Conceived)?



## Legendary Sidekick (Feb 28, 2015)

I was trying to make that question sound like an innocent child asking, "Where do babies come from?" Having failed that, let me get to the topic without trying to be cute.

In a very popular debate thread, I began to think that the only reason there was a debate was that we all create differently. My character-creation process is this:I visualize a character in an instant, not just looks, but personality, skills and/or superpowers, societal status, and sometimes a group of friends and/or a complex history. It may start with an image, then I learn more. My best characters are the ones that told me about themselves, not the ones I went through an effort to create. Some appeared in dreams.​

The most hilarious character from a dream is Hanna the Barbarian. She has a look that is similar to this character, Tara from Herculoids:






And yes, that's me saying that a character I never thought of came in a dream, looked similar to a Hanna Barbera character, and was named Hanna the Barbarian. The dream totally knew what it was doing. The narrator—there was a narrator—referred to the enemy lackeys as "badly drawn men in unimaginative space suits." The evil mastermind was the Dark Amazon Queen. Her evil plan was convoluted, doomed to fail, and… well, her life was spared as was the standard procedure when dealing with a cartoon villain.
Ah, that's the detail I forgot to mention. The dream was a cartoon.

Anyway, that's my process, plus one story of how a character came to be. How do you create a character? Feel free to share the process, and even the birth of a character, if you'd like.


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## Tom (Feb 28, 2015)

My process is a little like yours. I'll have a sudden idea for a new character, and instantly they're there, fully formed, personality and everything. Over several hours, days, or weeks--however long it takes--I'll slowly expand what I know about the character, sometimes tweaking personality elements if I feel that would make the character stronger and more vibrant.

Usually I don't stumble upon new characters in dreams, but last week I had a dream that was sort of a mixed-up retelling of Peter Pan. In the place of Wendy was a six-year-old girl named Dove. She was sort of a quiet, forlorn kid, with long, ratty white-blonde hair, dirty rubber boots and nightgown, and this silver-gray blanket she clutched around her shoulders like a shawl. Her lowlife parents had been killed by drug dealers, and Peter decided to look out for her after finding her alone in the trailer park where she lived. She gains confidence all through their journey, as well as discovering that she has latent magical powers.

Really, this kind of thing is new for me. Dove's the first character I've ever discovered in a dream. Why can't it happen more often?


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## Devor (Feb 28, 2015)

I usually start with a placeholder, a role that the character is needed to fill.  I like placeholders because they let me change ideas around a lot before I find myself committing to anything.

For example, the next character I will need to figure out is the big bad traitor.  I don't know if this character is a man or a woman, old or young, or even human.  I very loosely see an unformed image of a broad-shouldered bear creature in robes, but I think that's because I saw a picture like that flipping through an old D&D book last week.  I really have no idea who this character is, only an idea about what this person is supposed to do in the story:  Turn traitor, do a lot of bad things, and die later.

But I also know that I want this character's actions to feel personal to everyone involved.  I was going to do that by letting the traitor kill the mentor, but now that I have the full mentor character, I've decided that I need to let her live.  That's probably for the best.  But now I need to find another way to make the villain personal.  If I had a full named character I would be struggling with this.  But I don't, so I have a lot of room to tinker.

It's like putting together a single puzzle from a pile with thirty boxes of puzzle pieces.  I've got a few pieces down but I don't even know what I'm looking at yet.

But once I find that personal connection, the character will come right together.  And when I'm ready to commit to the character, I'll give it a name.  And with that name the character's whole personality just comes flooding in.  It's hard to for me to change too much after that.


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## Chessie (Feb 28, 2015)

Interesting topic and I liked reading the responses thus far. Hanna Barbera is a character I'd like to read about lol.

Lil' ole me? Much like you, I also start with an image in my head, a roundabout age, and a faint personality. Then I brainstorm and get more information from this character. Usually my story ideas come simultaneously with an idea of who the protagonist is, then through time alone with my notebook, I find out more about other characters and the story in general.


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## Gryphos (Feb 28, 2015)

Damn, I just made a post explaining my character-creation process in the other thread. Ah well, I guess I'll reiterate myself here.

My method is rather similar to Devor's in that I come up with a role for the character first. The first thing I'll know is whether they're a villain, mentor, henchman, traitor, hero, etc.

After I've come up with that, I'll usually come up with a name. In doing that, I usually end up coming up with their place of origin, as well as their sex. But other than that, they're still a blank slate at this point.

It's only when I actually write my first scene with them that they become 'real' to me. When I'm describing them, I'm coming up with those details as I go. The colour of their hair, the colour of their skin, their height, their mannerisms, their clothes. In doing this I may begin to build a better picture of their personality (eccentric, practical, promiscuous, etc.). It's when I write their first bits of dialogue that I properly put together their personality.

I like this method because it means I don't get attached to any specific image of them before I've written them. If I feel the need to change an aspect of them, be it large or small, I'm able to do it fairly easily. Until I've written their first scene, a name is just a name and a gender is just a word.


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## Nimue (Feb 28, 2015)

Hmm.  For me, the plot comes first--betrayal, sacrifice, a hidden identity, a strange power--along with some semblance of a setting, and then the protagonist--generally spun from one of the dozen archetypes that I like.  I'm pretty visual, so I need to settle on a strong image, decide hair color, skin color, eye color, what they wear and how their hair looks.  Specific features often don't get decided until I'm writing a detailed description or drawing them, though.  The minutiae of their personality is the last thing that gets sorted out, because that often only happens through writing or imagining a scene.  I actually make an effort not to write down personality descriptions because I feel--rightly or wrongly--that this should be allowed to develop in my mind without locking down a preconceived notion of who they are.

The vast majority of my characters stay in my head as daydreams, purely for entertainment, and those are more vague and flexible, often turning into different characters in different stories.  Once I've started writing something with a character, though, they're set.  I don't think I could swap their characteristics at that point without turning them into a separate character in a separate story.

I may have gotten more characters from dreams, but a recent example is an image I dreamed of--a dark-haired young woman in a tunic emblazoned with a star, walking through a vast, featureless grey plane.  On the horizon was a pillar of light, always visible and always far away.  When I woke up, I started developing that into a story immediately, and it's one that I'm still grappling with how to write.  It's the story of Ysobel, who crossed the plain of Death to save her childhood friend, and returned dead in all but her soul, with the mark of Ea, goddess of Death and the forgotten Moon, shining on her brow.

...Part of the reason I haven't written that yet is because I think my subconscious lifted a bit too much from the Abhorsen series, but  oh well. P:


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## Tom (Feb 28, 2015)

Nimue said:


> I'm pretty visual, so I need to settle on a strong image, decide hair color, skin color, eye color, what they wear and how their hair looks.  Specific features often don't get decided until I'm writing a detailed description or drawing them, though.



I'm absolutely the same way. The character just isn't real to me until I settle on a definite appearance--which usually happens to be the aspect of the character that strikes me first.


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## Svrtnsse (Feb 28, 2015)

I also put my answer for this in that other thread, but I'll try and elaborate a little.

Like some others have mentioned, I start out with a concept or idea of the character. This concept is strongly linked to how the character looks - including any special powers or significant background details.

This is the case with Alene, one of the protagonists in my new WiP I'm about the get started on. She figured as a supporting character in a short story I wrote a while back. She has a background to support a fair few interesting characteristics, but I haven't gotten around to putting them into detail yet.

Over the weekend I wrote up some of the main events in her life so far as well as some information about her family, education and homeland.

The next step is to start writing flash fiction with Alene as the main character. This will be a series of short stories, probably rather dull and mundane, about her and what she's doing. I've got this idea that I'll write it as a sort of travel journal, meaning I'll get the opportunity to explore the world of my setting a little as I go.

I tried a similar approach when designing the FMC of Enar's Vacation. I even shared some of the flash fiction pieces I wrote in a thread here on the Showcase forums.


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## Russ (Feb 28, 2015)

My process is definitely theme first.  I think of "what is the big over arching message" I went to send with this book.

Everything flows from that.  Next comes setting, what setting can I use to best demonstrate this point.

Then comes character.  What kind of person has the most to lose and will be most impacted by this conflict.  What kind of person or class of people gets caught in the middle?  Then the question which person would be a good exemplar or example of that class of people?  What person has to make the hardest choices?

Physical image, skills, etc come last.  They are extensions of the theme, they exist to help explain something.

Odd thing is, despite that top down approach, quite often my damned characters become wilful and end up taking me off course.


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## Jabrosky (Feb 28, 2015)

Like I said in that other thread, I usually start with an idea of how the character looks. Very often they have their genesis from pictures I draw and want to attach to a story. The first aspects of their appearance I consider are usually their sex, race, attractiveness, clothing and jewelry, and weapons they're carrying. Those last two aren't just cosmetic details but may instead reflect the characters' occupation and cultural upbringing. For example, a jungle huntress might hang dinosaur teeth and claws on her necklaces and wear a skimpy leopard-hide bikini, whereas an empress might put on flashier gold jewelry and more elaborate, colorful fashion to show off her empire's prosperity. West African heroines might wear colorful head-wraps where their Egypto-Nubian sisters would have cobra-headed crowns.

In addition, occupation and upbringing can suggest a range of personality and attitude types. The jungle huntress could be cautious and analytical, paying careful attention to her environment with all senses engaged and stealing through the undergrowth with expert silence. Or instead she could be reckless and starved for glory, the kind of woman who would tear away from her peers and throw herself at a T. Rex unprovoked. As for the empress, she might be haughty and ethnocentric, or instead she could be anxious about the great burden of responsibility her father passed down onto her.


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## writeshiek33 (Feb 28, 2015)

for me it not one way it depends , mostly i get gest of the character and develop them as i write , i know basic stuff but how the character comes out is i am very character orintated writer i think at least for the protagonist.  my problem is getting stuff down it all in my head most of time and i think yes this nice for example the only character i had definite in mind for the hit was the butcher the other popped in as they story went


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## Mythopoet (Feb 28, 2015)

The vast majority of the time I use the "Birth of Athena" method of character generation. For those who don't know, the goddess Athena burst forth from the forehead of Zeus, fully grown, clothed and armed. Something triggers in the depths of my mind, and an image of a character simply forms. This is not generally a physical image, but more of a strong sense of who the character is, what their essence is. Sometimes it is immediately accompanied by a voice, sometimes the voice comes later. When I have a strong enough sense of the character to give it a name. Names are very important to me and when I find the right one for the right character, then it is fully born and fully real to me. Superficial physical details often come later and are less important to me. 

Characters can occur in this way to me during the worldbuilding phase, or the thematic development phase or at almost any time, but very rarely during the actual plotting phase. I almost always need to know the characters in advance to plot a story, because for me the plot always depends heavily on what my characters would do in a given situation. Changing a character requires changing the whole story. 

Right now I am having a hard time because I am working on a project that I planned to have a set number of characters. I had a few of the characters already born at that point, but most of the 16 necessary characters were still ciphers. I am struggling to try to conceive of fully fledged characters to fill in the ranks without having the luxury of just having the characters pop up in my mind, because they need to fit certain criteria for the story. But slowly the characters are still revealing themselves to me if I give them the opportunity.


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## TheCatholicCrow (Feb 28, 2015)

I really enjoy reading everyone's processes  

I usually find inspiration in dreams for situations to include. My current WIP includes a sibling rivalry between brothers (working on the family farm together) and tensions rise when they take in and eventually fall for the same (displaced) woman. The setting for my dream was a contemporary Romanian village. The character's personalities seemed so very real (a grieving stubborn older brother and the irresponsible albeit passionate younger brother) I've been playing with the characters ever since. 

Sometimes I'll watch something (or someone) and draw inspiration from that (for the aforementioned, I knew that I wanted the brothers' relationship to be similar to Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko) after I happened upon a documentary about them. Though I had already decided to include a sibling rivalry, when I saw the brothers' dynamic on film I knew it would be perfect for my characters. When I get muddled and lost, I go back to the documentary & revisit my original concepts for them. 

I usually begin writing a few chapters in the middle then go back to a real beginning. Other characters are borne out of these as their identity begins to take form. The grieving widower had a wife that he loved (there's another character), he takes care of their children (5 more characters), he used to work for his wife's father (another one), his brother was left by his finance at the altar (another character) ...  etc.  

While I consider myself a visual person in most other aspects, I suspect that for myself this is because of my background with history where you can read dozens of books and documents and not know even slightly what the individuals looked like. Even when I'm reading fiction, I'll sometimes disregard the assigned character traits and imagine them however I please. 

Assigning a personality, history, culture, and role usually comes first for me. Names and appearances are almost always last. (The same goes for the settings as well- I've had where I wrote an entire piece and didn't find a name for the city until 3rd draft - in which case I put placeholders "X"). 

I now have a running list of names and folder of images so I can flip through & find one that fits my character.


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## Legendary Sidekick (Feb 28, 2015)

TheCatholicCrow said:


> I really enjoy reading everyone's processes


So do I. I'd thank everyone with the Thanks button, but I ran out of "Thanks bullets."


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## Tom (Feb 28, 2015)

"Thanks bullets" sound infinitely more friendly than lead bullets.


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## Nimue (Feb 28, 2015)

Ohh, can you run out?  That explains why the icon disappears sometimes. :B

It's fascinating to see what people's first and last priorities are.  This makes me want to document the process next time a character occurs to me, but the buggers have a habit of sneaking up on you without warning...


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## Legendary Sidekick (Feb 28, 2015)

Tom Nimenai said:


> "Thanks bullets" sound infinitely more friendly than lead bullets.


I'll tell you all about them in my new anti-war song:

_
"Thanks bullets" are friendlier than lead bullets
They give rep points; they don't penetrate the skin
If everyone would load their guns with Thanks bullets
It'd be the one gun fight that everyone would win_


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## Feo Takahari (Feb 28, 2015)

I'd say I create patterns. 

My initial setup for _Blood Price_, just brainstorming ideas off the top of my head, was a gadget-using secret society member who opposed magic, a magic user who fought against monsters born from strong emotions, and a werewolf strengthened by strong emotions and openly hostile to technology. The pattern was supposed to be "X should hate Y, but finds him/herself admiring him/her instead, and becomes a bit more like him/her," with different variations according to the characters' different natures, building towards "maybe these people disagree less than they think they do." From there, I started changing things to make the story work better, like removing the magic user because I couldn't make him fit into the group. (I replaced him with a twelve-year-old magical girl--same goal and hate, different personality, much easier to work with.) 

The same process can scale up to larger casts (all seven POV characters in _The Seal Breaks_ have a different concept of what a "man" and a "woman" are), or go geodesic to show how the same pattern works out with different variations.


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## Penpilot (Feb 28, 2015)

Well when a Papa imagination loves a Mama imagination very-very much they get together and... Ok I'll stop now.

I'm all over the place in terms of that initial spark. Sometimes the base character just flashes into my head off a trigger of some sort. What that trigger is can be anything, a song, a picture, a tv show or movie, etc. Other times I come up with a concept for a story and as I brainstorm the world and story, I start thinking about what potential protagonists and antagonists would fit the story situation.

There are three key questions I have to be able to answer for my main characters before I start writing.

1- What do they want emotionally? (eg Luke Skywalker wants to be a jedi like his father.)

2- What do they want physically? (eg Luke Skywalker wants to rescue the princess and defeat the empire.)

3 - In regards to 1 and 2, why? 

This is enough for me to get started, but things will change for my characters as I learn more and more about them as I write.  Things may change enough that I may have to alter the plot accordingly.


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## Legendary Sidekick (Feb 28, 2015)

Nimue said:


> sneaking up on you without warning...


Bonus Track:
_

Ninja Nimue!
Whatchyu gonna do
When you're posting a rhyme
And she sneaks up on you?
_
[instrumental]
_
(CHORUS: Ninja Nimue!)​When you're posting a rhyme__(CHORUS: Ninja Nimue!)
_​_And at the very same time
Ninja Nimue
Sneaks up on you

__(CHORUS: Ninja Nimue!)​When you're posting a rhyme__(CHORUS: Ninja Nimue!)
_​_And you're out of Thanks bullets
There's nothing you can do
She's ninja'ing you_


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## Lunaairis (Feb 28, 2015)

I often draw my character before I even have a personality for them, name, or story. Its after I'm done that I take a moment to think about who they are, often starting with names. Yet there have been times I got an idea for their story before finding their name. 

Names are often the hardest part for me to come up with, I may even start writing without a name for them.


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## Tom (Feb 28, 2015)

Legendary Sidekick said:


> Bonus Track:
> _
> 
> Ninja Nimue!
> ...



This is a single from Legendary Sidekick's breakout album, _Trying My Hardest to Derail This Thread!_, released through Mythic Scribes Records. Available on 78 vinyl, cassette, and Eddisonian wax phonograph cylinder. This record will not be coming soon to the shelves of a music store near you.


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## Legendary Sidekick (Feb 28, 2015)

_It's my thread and I'll derail if I want to—_

Ooh! My thanks bullets are back! Yay!



STEALTH EDIT - Aww, I only had two. Just enough for this page.


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## Trick (Feb 28, 2015)

I, like a few others, tend to draw my characters before fully realizing them but first I have this thing I do that most people call daydreaming but I call it invisible movie watching. My subconscious creates characters, writes a scene, decides on lighting and other movie stuff I don't actually know anything about and then sticks a screen in front of my eyes, usually during something important like a work meeting or a project on a deadline, and I sink into my own little world for a bit while I watch it. 

I like to justify this by complaining that I very rarely have memorable dreams at night, which is true but...

If I like what I see, I work up some plot points in my ever-growing writing project notebook and it gets fleshed out a little bit at a time, this is where character drawings start, until I think it's ready for outlining. Then I write a loose outline, rework it a bit, and then free write from point to point, editing the outline as needed along the way. My outlines are loose but there's one for every main character as well as the over-arching plot so they're kinda long most of the time. 

These invisible movies hit me like two to three times a day unless I'm very bogged down by real life so I have to reject a lot of ideas.


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## Xitra_Blud (Mar 5, 2015)

My characters come from so many different places, it really would be impossible to say how I come up with them. Sometimes they are inspired by a doll, a picture, an actual human being, or even a character that already exists. Most of the time, I have a character and I will write a story that fits around the character but, often times, the character will come because the story called for it such as a character named Earnest in my recent project who interestingly was brought up due to another character and the way I could see them interacting. The project is one I started back in November, I believe and, mentally, the story is practically complete but I added this character only last month. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it but he's still there, and honestly, I like him. 

All in all, I can't tell you how much character development happens, it just kind of does. It's wherever my imagination takes me.


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## cjweyrauch (Mar 6, 2015)

I like to find a friend in life that somewhat reminds me of what i'd like to see in a character and I spin on that friend until it is a completely different but vaguely resembling character. Usually this all happens over the course of a minute or two and when I'm done I have a great idea of what the character behaves like. I go back and add a description of the character later once I have seen how they act and where they end up in my story. Once I get it rolling it kinda tells me what to write. I think we're hearing that a lot now though.


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## Legendary Sidekick (Mar 12, 2015)

I actually had a character whose personality was inspired by a good friend who lived on the same floor as me in grad school, and was a classmate and, a few times, a project partner. The character based on his personality (a wise-ass, but in a good way) was I intended to kill off from the start—and I did.


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