# Character Creation Process?



## Creed (Jul 13, 2016)

It's right in the title: How do you go about making a new character? What's your process?

This kind of goes along with the discussion on Motivation and Goal, as well as the McGoo/scene structure thread.

My workplace just had a 10-minute power outage (does _everyone_ have their AC on???) so I decided to throw together a new character, just for fun and practice. I have a list that changes every once in a while that includes the following:

Defining Characteristic(s): physical, etc.
Flaws: I just found a great resource here with hundreds of flaws to choose from!
Speech Patterns: may take a bit of time with the character first, may be as simple as "high" or "low"
Origin Story: always a rough draft and subject to change
Anchor them to a place (or not, equally valid)
Importance to Main Character/Side Character
Want: the immediate motivation, often short-sighted or fueled by self interest...
Need: what would give them fulfillment. How does it relate/conflict with the want?
Basic arc: how do the want/need interact with the plot? Do they choose the want (tragedy) or the need (triumph)?

I'll post what I came up with below.
Also, many of my characters were made before I put together this list, so now I occasionally put one of them through it to flesh them out.


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## Creed (Jul 13, 2016)

Here she is...

Name: Dirwath? Dirwaeth? (I usually give names more time (though that's not the name she's always had))

Human, Female 
Carries a spear 
Access to Zhyr (Element of water) 
Body is covered with tattoos, and in her spare time she adds more onto herself in an attempt to write her story on her skin 
She uses Zhyr to ink herself 
Cruel, unforgiving, and stubborn 
Incapable of realizing when a fight is unwinnable 
Tries to maintain internal balance, devout to Sea and Sky 
Origin: taken in by a Nameless clan as a child, she remembers almost nothing of who she was before. Her clan died largely of disease during the Ascension of God Kings, and she was thrown out. One of her clan members followed her and they fled to Jenedon, where they work as ship guards 
Want: to remember her past, and her name, and to reclaim who she was (not so much revenge) 
Need: to let go of the past and all the wrong done to her 
Arc/Plot: Encounters the Namagae/hive mind...

I'm already considering large changes, like what kind of magic she can access, which will inform her background. I'm also maybe on the trail of who she was before she was taken in by the clan. And as luck would have it she's fitting in with a cool idea I had for a short-story/novella in my Universe (the thing with the Namagae/water folk).

So, how do the other Scribes do it?


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## Demesnedenoir (Jul 13, 2016)

I used to do this sort of thing, but no more. But I don't build stories by looking at characters, I create characters (to a large degree) by what the story needs and I pretzel them into shapes and they lead in new directions, but the basis is the story.

I just do. I might jot down what a minor character looks like for easy reference. The majors... they're totally in my head, I don't bother writing about them unless it's in the book itself. I think I have a few "character sketches" in Scrivener but they're basically copy-paste of descriptions in the book. Now for cultures, I do some sweeping concepts and basic guidelines so I know what a new character is going to fall into for a basis.

With characters for instance, in the book out to the editor now, this is a boiled down version of how I think, only it makes more sense, heh heh: The story is about a people/culture who will be driven from their island home, and forced into a several thousand mile mass migration. Who's MC POV for this? Someone who ends up in a leadership position. The culture is (loosely) patriarchal clan structure of a sort with heavy religious influence... but the Antag is a religious figure, so... male, Clan, not a leader yet... so, third nephew of the clan chieftain, gives lots of room for arcing into leadership while also allowing him the freedom to travel without chieftain responsibility... plus, lots of people die above him to become the leader. Tragedy, that's good. 

Now I need a tragic hero, a religious figure, but young... love interest with the MC? Yes, good... female, but also an outcast amongst the holy, she doesn't get magic from the Gods, it's inborn, heresy, burn at the stake sort of offense, but she hides the truth, good... etc etc etc.

And it blows up from there as the characters point to more plot detail. He needs to look more like his dead mother than father, etc etc etc.


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## Creed (Jul 13, 2016)

Interesting process Demesnedenoir! I do something similar when I'm thinking about a novella/short story length project and/or when I'm mulling over the backstory, want, need, and character arc. The four together are how I really try to write a character with subtext in mind, how I try to dig deep into their psychology.

Do you ponder their backstories before going into the writing, or let it come as you progress? Or maybe both (which is what I mostly do)?


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## Demesnedenoir (Jul 13, 2016)

Backstory for the MC's is hammered into shape well before writing the character. Going back to the MC above:

Once I know what he is, clan-blood well away from being chieftain and a warrior... I start thinking about their past to see what connects to the story. One basis for the story is Church vs Clan, so, his father as brother to the Chieftain is Clan, so hey! his mom was a religious woman, but she's dead... a religious woman but murdered by the Church, how? In childbirth, killing the newborn daughter and the mother without suspicion... So, our MC was raised religious-clan until the age of 7 when his mother dies, then under full clan influence, but he retains his mother's faith... but still, why kill the mother? 

Background: the Pantheon of SÃ´l "breaks bones" with a hot needle, causing cracks to read the future as spoken by the Gods. 

SO: An augur interprets a bone to say that the child of PeneluplÃª that most resembles her will bring ruin to the Church, so the augur kills her and the child... this is why the MC must look like his mother rather than father, he is the one prophesied. So to speak. He is the slender blond amongst black haired conan's, and he has faith in the Gods which his kin don't share. This will make him more insecure. His brothers are boisterous, they get the girls... he's the wall flower. etc.

But, what does a young boy of faith want more than anything? to bring his father and Clan together with the Church. That's his first goal when sets out at the start of the story. And boy howdy does that go wrong, LOL.

That's how my thinking goes into backstory, naturally things can change, but mostly not. By this point, the majors are pretty set.


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## Garren Jacobsen (Jul 13, 2016)

I divide my characters into three tiers:

Tier 1: The traditional MCs almost always have a POV. These are the ones that are the focus of the story. They have the greatest depth and background to them. They take the most time to write about. I often focus on some of their basic traits (honesty, competence, etc) and give them certain worldviews that will be challenged in the story to come.

Tier 2: These are secondary characters. They may have a POV but those chapters are rare. These aren't the focus of the story but are important to either the characters or to some other portion, like the B plot. They get a lesser treatment of what I do for the Tier 1 Characters.

Tier 3: This is the most numerous group. This is every other character. These are the spear holders, the one line speakers, and the crowd. These get very little building at all.

That is how I structure my characters, but I often try to "discovery write" my characters while plotting my...plots.


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## skip.knox (Jul 13, 2016)

Like Demesnedenoir, I don't do characters sketches. I have in the past, but the real character in the story too often diverges from the sketch. 

For me, it's a dialectic between character and plot. The MC for my WIP is a spoiled aristocrat. That was about all I knew about it. An Alcibiades type, if you happen to know your Greek history (but it's not important here). So I had a kind of archetype in mind. I arbitrarily decided he hated the army and that he would wind up being the commander of a Roman legion.

To give that some depth, I decided to make his father a famous general. That almost instantly gave backstory--the son can never measure up to the father, so he rejects everything to do with his father. The relationship is worsened when his father dies when the son is about thirteen. Now the son cannot even rebel; the father is forever unassailable. So when the son is politically maneuvered into taking command of a frontier legion, he's just about the worst general you could want. And that's when the invasion happens.

The plot needed an internal threat as well as the external threat (the invasion). That's what drove the development of the backstory. But I could not have developed the _right_ backstory until I knew what the story needed. Sure I could (and did) develop a backstory for the MC without that, but it felt abstract, remote, forced.

What happens is, somewhere around the first draft or partway into the second, I do construct a character sketch. This is based not on what I thought up, but on what I actually wrote. I make this document, complete with hair color, age and all that sort of thing, because on a later edit I need to check for consistency--not only in physical details but in the details of the backstory, favorite phrases, and even stuff like whether the character has an accent or other dialog tic. Because, in the course of the early drafts, stuff like that slides around like a calf on ice.

Anyway, that's my process. Patented by Rube Goldberg, I believe.


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## troynos (Jul 13, 2016)

Depends.

There is no set in stone process.  I tend to keep all characters basic, creating what the story requires to start, and letting them and the story flesh them out.


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## Creed (Jul 14, 2016)

skip.knox said:


> Like Demesnedenoir, I don't do characters sketches. I have in the past, but the real character in the story too often diverges from the sketch.



To be expected, but I also find the opposite to be true, where new characters may diverge from what you want them to be, or what you've already formed them as. Early on, of course, this isn't a huge issue.

The basic sketch above is fairly broad and doesn't focus in on a lot of specifics. Just something to start the thinking process: What are they like? What's framing their thought processes? How do I begin to tie that in with the story, or the other way around?

I've never tried to keep track of appearances, however. That's one of the things I can keep in my head without fear of forgetting.


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## Helen (Jul 14, 2016)

Creed said:


> It's right in the title: How do you go about making a new character? What's your process?



Well, I start with a lesson.

What's the lesson the character has to learn, who are they before they learn it and who are they after it?


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## Miskatonic (Jul 14, 2016)

I just stick with the kinds of characters I like to read about, or watch on TV and in Movies. They all get their own personality tweaks and goals in the story of course. 

It all comes down to what happens to them and how they react. Hopefully the reactions are understandable based on what the readers know about them.


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## adalenia (Jul 15, 2016)

I don't really have a documented system for creating characters.

I just... create them. Granted, *some* characters are created to fill a specific role in the story, but those tend to be exceptions.


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## FatCat (Jul 15, 2016)

Am I the only one here who thinks a 10 minute character is flawed in not only reception but conception. You're character failed because they were uninteresting.


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## Creed (Jul 15, 2016)

FatCat said:


> Am I the only one here who thinks a 10 minute character is flawed in not only reception but conception. You're character failed because they were uninteresting.



You're going to have to explain this one to me. As in a character that takes 10 minutes to produce? I think the very idea of a "10 minute character" is unlikely. Indeed, I think it's probably impossible (unless you're talking about a side character that gets three pages in a novel-length work).

Characters are like essays. You can start with an outline: how the arguments logically flow from point A to B to a conclusion. You need to do research, and at the same time, you need to give the subject thought. That process doesn't stop when you begin writing, just as it doesn't stop when you start a novel. If you skip the research, you're not gonna be starting with much, but there's nothing stopping you from picking up some info along the way.

Essay comes from the French _essayer_, meaning to try. To express an idea in words, not to express the argument. And because of that it is an organic process, even if you begin with a synthetic frame. A character is the same alchemy of ideas, research, and structure. Essays change as you write them. Characters do too.

In short, I believe that if you spend 10 minutes creating a character and 10 hours writing with them, they're a lot more than a 10 minute character. That doesn't include revision for consistency.

(Sticking with the essay analogy, questions about backstory, wants, needs and arcs are not questions that are designed to be answered in 10 minutes. They're the research questions, points from which new discoveries are to be made.)


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## FatCat (Jul 15, 2016)

Starting a "10 minute character" imposes a 10 minute plot. Characters' motivations, triumphs, hardships and arch are the only reason to tell a story in my opinion. I think the idea that you can just whip up a character from a D&D sheet is harmful because the story is the character.


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## Creed (Jul 15, 2016)

FatCat said:


> Starting a "10 minute character" imposes a 10 minute plot. Characters' motivations, triumphs, hardships and arch are the only reason to tell a story in my opinion. I think the idea that you can just whip up a character from a D&D sheet is harmful because the story is the character.



You haven't contested my position, which means we're relatively on the same page. In fact, your mention of D&D character sheets only reinforces it, because in the role-playing game the sheet becomes secondary to the way the character/player interacts with the world. While the game is played, the character is changing, like an essay, and like a real organism. Stats are involved, but they're not part of the process when it comes to writing a character in prose.



> Characters' motivations, triumphs, hardships and arch are the only reason to tell a story in my opinion.


Exactly what my list encourages with the "research questions," as I analogized them. Want? Need? Arc? Relationships? Backgrounds? In short, their psychology, and how that is fit within a story. It's about potential, not stats and numbers.

So FatCat, how do you create a new character?


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## skip.knox (Jul 15, 2016)

I know I've already spoken on this, but why should that restrain me? 

I just created a character today that is pretty typical of the haphazard way I do this. Here I'm talking about third-tier characters, not major ones.

I'm in the late stages of the book. My heroes are in a besieged city, with one character, Marcus, in _de facto_ command, so he's up on the city walls a lot. I could have him converse with other main characters, but I sort of need them off doing other things. 

So there's Marcus, walking the city walls (it's Constantinople, so they are _big_ walls) and I need him to talk to someone. Arrian Silvianus. 

First of all, I have a list of Roman names in a document, so I can grab one quickly at need. Initially, he was just [A] because I did not want to leave the writing to look up a name. Did that on a second draft. Anyway, there's Arrian. They talk. I fill in a little bit about him, that he's a survivor of a major defeat from another legion. That he's Macedonian. Maybe I picked a hair color, I don't really remember. The point is, it was character creation on the fly because to jump out of the writing at that point would have been counter-productive.

Next day of the siege, Marcus needs someone to talk to. There's active fighting now. Here comes Thraso, someone from his own legion, Fourth Cohort, but who has not been on stage before. I make a small point of Marcus not remembering who else from the Fourth Cohort survived the battle. This bothers him. As I'm writing this, I vaguely remember that some time earlier I'd written a scene with Marcus talking to someone whose name was different.

On an editing pass, I try to reconcile the two. Maybe I get rid of Arrian and let Thraso be there on both days. Or the other way round. Or let them both be different, or even kill Arrian. That's all still unresolved.

I recount all this to make the point that character sheets or even just guidelines do not seem to me to be of much help. I need to be *in* the story as these people come on stage. It turns out, I do this even with major characters, but the process of creation and reconciliation is much more complex and clumsy. Or, if you prefer, organic and genuine. It does mean I need a really good continuity editor, but I just feel that the relationship between character and story is so intimate, it is impossible for me to disentangle the two.


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## Beanie_Zed (Jul 15, 2016)

Jumping in here--it's fascinating to see everyone's style.

I'm mostly a pantser when I write, so my characters tend to come about organically as well. Main characters tend to live in my head for a while until I get to the point where I _have_ to write them. However, once I start I will usually write out a quick outline (a modded version of the template in Scrivener) to keep important details straight. 

For example, in my WIP, one MC has a few aliases, so I needed to put together a quick biography on her early life to keep all her names straight. I tend to stick to high-level details (names, any important relationships, motivations/major conflicts, a night out a karaoke) and leave most outlines unfinished--unless I'm really stuck on something, then I break out the in-depth-everything-you-need-to-know chart and get into the character's head. 

For supporting characters, I tend to do the same thing skip.knox does (and I feel so much better about life knowing that I'm not the only one haphazardly creating a cast of thousands). Although, now that I think of it, I've gotten several major POV characters this way, too.


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## Letharg (Jul 16, 2016)

For me, writing a compelling and life like character is all about knowing their background. I don't sketch out their personality so much as I figure out what's happened to them before the events started. I like my characters to come fully formed, with an interesting background and events that has happened to them before the story which I can draw on to justify their actions. 

For instance: If I realize I want a grumpy sour old wizard as a PoV I begin there and start figuring out why he is grumpy and sour. What events lead him down this path. What betrayals made him distrust other human beings. Etc. 

I can't write unless I know the background. I need it to figure out the voice of that character and even the voice of the story. Not long ago I figured out that each time a story has failed for me it's because I did not know the characters involved in advance. For me, the characters are much more important to have figured out then the story, I can wing the story but the voice of the piece always become stale if I don't know the persons I'm writing about.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Jul 16, 2016)

As i've probably explained before elsewhere, my method of writing is highly organic. I think of a story as an ecosystem, and the characters as the creatures that inhabit it. 

I think it would be most helpful to say that i don't actually "go about making a new character" by any kind of "process." Not that it isn't a process, it's just not that i have a single "method" for doing so with steps and everything. I used to use checklists and information sheets and things like that, but i don't bother with those anymore. Knowing that my character has a short temper or has blue eyes is information. And it's useful information, but it doesn't help me understand who exactly my character _is._ What their inmost self is like. 

So...I don't really create them, i kind of let them grow in my mind. They might start out as an image. I might get this vision of a girl with one yellow eye and one green eye holding an antique-looking lantern with a faithful wolf at her side and wonder, _who is she? what's up with her eyes? I think she's looking for something--what?_ (By the way, i am still trying to figure out who she is.) I might be writing crap and my narrator says something that intrigues me, making me want to know more. (The narrator of a short story i wrote for fun a few months ago is going to get their own book pretty soon.) 

In an already established story, if i need a character to fill a role, I come up with a picture or idea in my mind. I might name them. Then I more or less wait. Once I've made the character, they often start to take on shape on their own. If a character needs help becoming real, I give them a quirk or weird trait. 

So, basically i meditate on them. I pay attention to how their voice might sound, what they might wear, what kinds of things they might say. Usually, i have to write them for quite a while before they really become solid, break them in, so to speak. 

Now, with characters that are central to the story, i need to go deeper. I need to seriously plumb their depths and find out who and what they are at their core. There are several ways i do this. Sometimes i talk to them. Seriously, i write out a dialogue between myself and the character, trying to find out who they are. I write about their thoughts. I write about their insecurities and fears. I find out what they think about when they're bored. What they love the most. Sometimes they don't seem to open up very easily, and those can take time. 

What i never do is try to "make " a character anything. I once tried to change my MC's personality to make the story work better. It didn't work. I had to change her back.


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## caters (Jul 16, 2016)

I make my own character sheets. I do this by searching "character development questions" and some of the results have like 100 questions for a single character.

Usually my Character sheets are of this form:

Physical
Name
Age
Gender
Height
Hair color
Eye color
Skin color
Weight(usually don't include but I decided to include in Kepler Bb character sheets)
Muscularity index(-3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3)(Not based on actual muscle mass for negatives)
Illness
Injury
Markings(Birthmarks, pigment on skin(so like painting skin), etc. Stretch marks not included)

Socio-emotional
Pets
For Kepler Bb only: Home type
Best friend
Worst thing
Best thing
Who died
Marital status
Relationship status(0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Introvert or extrovert
Worst fear
Lies okay
No. of children
Pregnant

Favs
Favorite color
Favorite place
Favorite food
Preferred weather
Favorite animal

Other
Meaning of life
Habits(eating habits like morning snacking, other habits such as being emotional)
Hobbies(Building, Writing, and Knitting just to name a few)

This is the form my character sheets are in. The history is usually covered in these other categories but even when it isn't, I don't bother with history.


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## Ireth (Jul 16, 2016)

I'm curious; why is "relationship status" a scale of numbers?


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## caters (Jul 16, 2016)

Ireth said:


> I'm curious; why is "relationship status" a scale of numbers?



This is to simplify things. As for the scale and what it stands for here it is:

0: complete stranger
1: Acquaintance
2: Friend
3: Good friend
4: Best friend
5: Romantic interest
6: Girlfriend or Boyfriend
7: FiancÃ©
8: Spouse
9: Family(So a mother-daughter relationship would be all the way over here at 9)


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## writeshiek33 (Jul 16, 2016)

for me i know some things about my characters but it comes together when i write first draft as i go it weird but that how it goes with me


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## Deleted member 4265 (Jul 16, 2016)

Mostly my characters just develop as I'm writing. Almost every major character in my current WIP started out as a minor character in another of my stories.

When I am consciously creating a character, to fill a specific role in the story or something, I usually start with a feeling or emotion. For example one of my characters was built on the feeling of elation (that's the best way I can think to describe it) so I asked what would make her feel this way and the answer I came up with was praise. So what would people praise her on? I decided I would make it her looks and have her be insanely beautiful and as a result of being beautiful terrified of losing that beauty. She also discovers being beautiful makes it very easy for her to get what she wants so she becomes disdainful of the people who blindly worship her because of it, even as she feeds off their praise.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Jul 16, 2016)

Devouring Wolf said:


> Mostly my characters just develop as I'm writing. Almost every major character in my current WIP started out as a minor character in another of my stories.
> 
> When I am consciously creating a character, to fill a specific role in the story or something, I usually start with a feeling or emotion. For example one of my characters was built on the feeling of elation (that's the best way I can think to describe it) so I asked what would make her feel this way and the answer I came up with was praise. So what would people praise her on? I decided I would make it her looks and have her be insanely beautiful and as a result of being beautiful terrified of losing that beauty. She also discovers being beautiful makes it very easy for her to get what she wants so she becomes disdainful of the people who blindly worship her because of it, even as she feeds off their praise.



That sounds cool. She sounds like a really interesting character, who I would definitely read about. I should try that technique sometime.


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## Peat (Jul 16, 2016)

Uhh. This thread has just brought home to me that I really don't know how I do it, or at least do it consistently.

I guess I have two kinds of characters. No, wait, three.

The first type are the Main Characters I dream up one day and then start searching for a story to put them in. "What if a grumpy Paladin took up fighting crime?"

The second type are the sort the story demands. "Well balls, guess I need a murder victim then. And a murderer. And some suspects. And some informants..."

The third type are somewhere between the two and it usually goes "Oh hey, this old character of mine would fit well, she could be his apprentice..." or "Huh, that's a fun trope you see there, now lets give it a twist" or "That's cool, I'm going to steal it, now where can I put it".

Or something like that.

Also, only about 50pc of my stories grow up around characters. So a lot of the time, I'm looking for characters from the story to begin with.

When I come up with a character I usually get their main ability and personality pretty quick. The next thing I tend to start thinking about is what I can do with them in the story (which often leads to more characters) and what their selling points are. Its not a very organised process. I usually don't write things down - I should. Even dumb things like "What's their favourite colour" start making you think very hard about who the character is.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Jul 16, 2016)

Peat said:


> Uhh. This thread has just brought home to me that I really don't know how I do it, or at least do it consistently.
> 
> I guess I have two kinds of characters. No, wait, three.
> 
> ...



Don't worry, there's no wrong way to do it. If anything, this forum should show you that.


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## FatCat (Jul 17, 2016)

I measure a character in their ability to forward my plot. Being interesting has no value any story can be interesting. You can add values all day long and not have a compelling character. I'd say an interesting story is personal, and the mc (going with what's published) is a blank slate to your tale. Demonize me as you will, but look at the market and what sells.


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## FatCat (Jul 17, 2016)

When does plot override character


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Jul 17, 2016)

FatCat said:


> When does plot override character



In my opinion, never, since the character drives the plot. Not sure how plot would override character.


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## Peat (Jul 17, 2016)

DragonOfTheAerie said:


> Don't worry, there's no wrong way to do it. If anything, this forum should show you that.



An inefficient way is a wrong way to do it.

Not that I think I'm being particularly inefficient - but reading my own methods back does make me wonder if I can make them stronger. Its why I'm here after all - to make myself a better writer 

Ah! One thing I did forget to mention is that I am a big believer in writing scenes with the character in to find out about the character. That to me is the surest way of finding out what the character is really like because

a) You get to see how that personality really shows itself. They're bitter, yeah, but silently bitter? Very loudly bitter? Or does it just tinge their words with an ambiguous undertone? Also, sometimes I'll read it back and think "Well, that's not fun reading, time to change the character" - or I'll really struggle to write it, which usually comes to the same thing.

b) As I write, I ask myself questions, and those are the questions that I find most compelling. "What sort of enemies would this man make?" "How does this woman react to a friend's death?" - that sort of thing

I should be more organised about it after that stage and write down profiles though - even if its just noting down brief history, mains Tags and Traits, hoped for plot arcs, and relationships with other characters.


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## skip.knox (Jul 17, 2016)

>An inefficient way is a wrong way to do it.
I'm glad to hear to hear Peat say this. I'm all for being supportive, but I think we go too far when we say, in effect, all ways are good ways. More precisely, when we say there is no wrong way (to plot, to make character, whatever), we can unintentionally send the converse message, that all ways are good ways. This will lead the novice writer into a bitter experience, for publishers and editors and agents certainly do not buy into that philosophy. For them, there are a zillion wrong ways.

Back to the point in hand, Poet should absolutely write down the profiles. Not only for reference. Not only for the sake of continuity editing. Most importantly, because the very act of writing it down accomplishes two things. One, it's _writing_. Two, it will quickly show where you are not being as clear as you thought you were. Even if you never consult the profile again, even if you diverge wildly from it, you will still have those two benefits.

Here's my own resolution on this score. I've got my character sketches. I have my stories, each in its own Scrivener project, and those character sketches are contained therein. What I need to do is create a separate portfolio of characters, from every story I've written or intend to write. I think that might prove useful in the long run (a run which keeps getting shorter every year).


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## Russ (Jul 17, 2016)

I agree with sk that there are good and poor ways of doing things such as creating characters and other tasks in writing and that we run a risk of becoming useless by not being able to discuss the merits of approaches.

Now I am going to give some advice that I have given before, hopefully not to the point of being boring.  You have to know a fair bit about yourself as a writer and your story before you can decide what is the best way to create your characters.

IF you are writing a fast paced plot driven work, the needs you have for characters and their creation is different than if you were writing a slower paced story more focussed on character development.  Since I am just back from Thrillerfest forgive me for using an example outside this genre.  Your character creation needs and methods are totally different if you are writing an international geopolitical thriller or if you are writing a domestic thriller.  I would argue that the same breadth of needs and story styles exist inside the fantasy genre as well.  If your story is very gritty and the characters are going to be very realistic than you have one type of need, or if the story is highly symbolic the characters might be very different.

Unless  you are simply writing a story about character that is overwhelming character driven you need to understand that  your character should serve some higher aspect of the story.  If you story is about pursuit of freedom in the face of tyranny than you need characters that will have the elements that make them desire freedom and have the attributes that allow them to confront the tyranny and potentially succeed.  

So it leads to what I believe the two questions a writer must ask themselves many times during the writing of a novel, or at least remind themselves of:

1) What is this story really about?

2) Who am I as a writer?

On the second point, let me use myself as an example.  Once I have developed a character in my mind I know their motivation, abilities, personality, their role in the story, etc really, really well, and I never lose them.  But I have trouble keeping track of the more concrete details like their height, hair colour, how they dress, their name etc in my head.  So if you were to open my scrivener files about my characters you would see lots of concrete details but almost nothing abstract.  That is because I have built my system to fit my own strengths and weaknesses.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Jul 17, 2016)

Peat said:


> An inefficient way is a wrong way to do it.
> 
> Not that I think I'm being particularly inefficient - but reading my own methods back does make me wonder if I can make them stronger. Its why I'm here after all - to make myself a better writer
> 
> ...



That's true. What I meant is, there's not one way that works for everyone. If you have a way that works for you, don't question it because other people do it differently. 

I do the writing scenes thing too. I don't organize anything though. I don't keep character profiles written down, and I have a LOT of characters. I have a clear image in my mind of what each character looks like, how they talk, how they behave. I've never had to write down character's traits because I can't help but see them in my mind whenever I writing about them.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Jul 17, 2016)

I do interview my characters though. However, it's a bit less formal than an interview. It's more like a conversation. I have a list of useful interview questions, but I've found it's most helpful to use them as jumping-off points for conversation with your character. If a tangent interests you, follow it. See what you come up with.


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## Peat (Jul 18, 2016)

DragonOfTheAerie, if I'm not going to question my processes because others do things differently, what's the point in talking to them about their processes?

We should all be confident enough to question what we do when we hear about something else - and confident enough to know when to say "No, I'm doing what's right for me."

Which I mostly am. I think I could get some more out of writing profiles but, really, is there something better I could be doing with that time for my story? Often, I think. We don't need perfect processes, we need really good processes that let us do a lot of work quickly. But then, the more often you do a process, the quicker it goes. So, I'm gonna play around with ideas when I get a spare moment.

If nothing else, thinking of what should go on a profile will make my mental character creation better.


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## FatCat (Jul 19, 2016)

DragonOfTheAerie, if I'm not going to question my processes because others do things differently, what's the point in talking to them about their processes. 

If I can't win why should I lose. In the end it's all just mysticism.


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## Creed (Jul 19, 2016)

FatCat said:


> If I can't win why should I lose. In the end it's all just mysticism.



I'm totally getting a tattoo of that!


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## FatCat (Jul 26, 2016)

Swag life bro. Though honestly the why of something ends with truth.


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