Character Creation Process?

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.

 

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 Sôl "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 Peneluplê 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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.