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Character Creation

myrddin173

Maester
I usually come up with the plot first. Most of my characters are based on people I know so generally I think where would ______ fit into this plot, the evil mastermind or the bumbling schoolgirl. I also have this worksheet-type-thing that I like to fill out for the major/viewpoint characters. http://www.arclight.net/~pdb/nonfiction/char-builder.pdf I like it because it gives me a lot to think about with the characters.
 
Do you guys ever try character questionnaires? Lots of writers say they are helpful.
Those writers must be idiots, or so devoid of inspiration they'll sink their hooks into anything which will validate their existence. Personally, I don't see the point. Yes, you can list your character's favourite tipple as tea etc, but what purpose does that serve? Are you going to mention it in your writing even though the information serves no purpose? Hopefully not. Characters should be organic, growing naturally as you write and meditate on the philosophy you wish to put across to the reader. Questionnaires are just another symptom of the malaise which is killing the genre slowly but surely. Abandon the checklist and write. That's all you need to do.:)
 
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JCFarnham

Auror
Those writers must be idiots, or so devoid of inspiration they'll sink their hooks into anything which will validate their existence. Personally, I don't see the point. Yes, you can list your character's favourite tipple as tea etc, but what purpose does that serve? Are you going to mention it in your writing even though the information serves no purpose? Hopefully not. Characters should be organic, growing naturally as you write and meditate on the philosophy you wish to put across to the reader. Questionnaires are just another symptom of the malaise which is killing the genre slowly but surely. Abandon the checklist and write. That's all you need to do.:)

Or alternatively you can just pick whatever you DO feel you need out of the questionaire instead of dismissing it entirely. The point of this particular excersise is to get to know your character back to front, so that even if you DON'T use the information in your story you know enough about the character to write them in a completely, fool-proofishly believable way. Its just another way of getting into your head WHY characters act the way they do, does it mean you have to stick to what you've written down? not in the slightest! If anything I find these questionaires are a brilliant way of organising information, I prefer to call it a character sketch (or in time honoured RPG terms, a profile :p ).

The method is what you make of it. And I don't believe for a second these "check lists" are whats "wrong with the genre", whats wrong with the genre is just bad writing, eg, people who THINK they can write but haven't spent enough time learning the craft, as people have rightly said in other threads.

Back on slightly less of a tangent, I come up with characters and plot at pretty much the same time (well ... almost). This at the very least holds true for the first couple of characters and plot points, until the point where they have both grown enough in my mind that they start suggesting their own additions. Never do I throw in a useless character, because at the end of the day it is reeeeeally obviously when a writer hasn't thought about this. Nothing turns me off quicker than a pointless character who well... is pointless. haha
 
The point of this particular excersise is to get to know your character back to front, so that even if you DON'T use the information in your story you know enough about the character to write them in a completely, fool-proofishly believable way.
You don't need a questionnaire for that. It's just another form of displacement, like drawing maps: pretending to be busy while doing nothing of worth.


And I don't believe for a second these "check lists" are whats "wrong with the genre"
Oh, they are. It's all about mentality. People who write in the genre have started to believe that the setting is immutable and that they should fit their imagination around it. I see it in my local bookshop. Bad writing will play a part in the downfall of fantasy, but the checklist mentality will eventually pull the trigger.
 

Behelit

Troubadour
You don't need a questionnaire for that. It's just another form of displacement, like drawing maps: pretending to be busy while doing nothing of worth.

Of course you don't need it, but it may work for certain individuals to explore aspects of their character whether it pertains to the story or not. Drawing maps is similar in regards, like studying it helps to write it down. Not every one is able to solely rely on the canvas of their brain to etch every thing out as it rolls along. Thats not to say I believe spontaneity of the imagination does ill to a story either.
 

JCFarnham

Auror
Of course you don't need it, but it may work for certain individuals to explore aspects of their character whether it pertains to the story or not. Drawing maps is similar in regards, like studying it helps to write it down. Not every one is able to solely rely on the canvas of their brain to etch every thing out as it rolls along. Thats not to say I believe spontaneity of the imagination does ill to a story either.

My point exactly. No one thing can be blamed for the failure of a genre (its a whole bunch of things done by people who don't know better perpetuated by a FOR PROFIT industry, right?). I completely agree with what you're saying about the "checklist mentality", but the fact of the matter is that character questionaire do not have to be used as checklists.

I believe when it comes down it we're talking about two different issues here. 1) being the genre dictating what people write leading certain people to think that there is a set way to write genre fiction and that there for rules they can follow to write a sure fire industry success (which no one has the answer to in my honest opinion even if they think they do) and 2) character questionaires as a tool for organising thoughts that you can take or leave. Some people like to rely on their brains to remember things and other people like to organise their thoughts in lists, thats not really checklisting as you're using the word. If some people rely on questionaires as the be all and end all of their imaginative process surrounding the creation of characters (there by missing important things and including the pointless) then thats their problem right? and we can laugh at them for falling into amatuerish traps. As I said previously, writing aids (which are what I view these questionaries to be) are what you make of them. At the end of the day I think you just have to try a technique and if it doesn't work out then try something else. Simple really.
 

Ophiucha

Auror
I have a few opinions on the whole questionnaire thing,

1. As with maps, I find some authors - though not all, particularly more seasoned ones - lean on them a bit too heavily. With maps, I see this in authors writing things like "John walked from X to Y" with no other information; if we wanted that, we'd have to look at the map. That's bad storytelling, and bad writing, too. With character profiles, similarly, the profile becomes the end-all, be-all reference. Nothing can be manipulated and it inevitably dictates your character's actions, not your story or writing. Avoid that, and then, as with maps, I could really give a rat's arse less how you plan.

2. There is functionally no benefit to me knowing anything on these things. I filled one out once, and I just put "---" or "N/A" for about 60% of the sections, and I barely got to mention some very, very important details about the character. I think, for organizational purposes, a character profile you create yourself is going to be far more useful.

3. If you need to have a 'stranger' (here, the author of the questionnaire) ask generic questions about your character - without any idea what your story is about - then maybe you need to flesh them out a little more on your own before you go searching for some aids.
 

Amanita

Maester
I agree with everyone who's critical about those character questionaires. I've tried to start one a few times but I never got far. What do things such as the characters favourite colour matter? They might matter in certain circumstances but if they do, I know what they are without filling out something like that. The same goes for stuff like the exact weight of someone and so on.
Many traits of my characters are influenced by their cultures and up-bringings, none of which can be worked out with general questionaires. And this kind of thing is the most important for the story, not the characters favourite food.
I’m all for adding the question: „Which chemical element would your character choose for him/herself and why?, but I doubt it would be too helpful to others. ;)

I don’t think that there can be no good stories with character questionaires. Everyone gets inspired by different things and what helps one person doesn’t help others.
 

JCFarnham

Auror
Just like to restate something; who says you HAVE to complete all of it? No one can assume what kind of information is going to be important to your writing, so every question provide is just there to please the most people. What I find equally as idiotic as letting questionaires dictate, is people who think it has to be as written or else.

I do like to organise my thoughts on characters in this kind of way, and I do take some questions from those kind of lists, but I don't bllindly follow them. I agree, not everyone needs to know that a character likes tea or whatever. I'm not sure that the authors of these questionaires ever wanted you to fill out every last bit, just use it to get the ball rolling when nothing else will do.

In my opinion its a format more than anything else and one I don't think people should dismiss without maybe using their own versions of the multitude of apparently "one size fits all" questionaires out there [versions more tailored to your specific projects]. As we all know, one size definitely does NOT fit all when it comes to genre fiction.

I hope you don't think I'm being purposefully contentious with my replies here. An opposing opinion to the majority is always welcome in a discussion after all right ;) Just trying to shed some light on the alternatives to what a number of people [no one here I'm certain] seem to think are the hard and fast rules to becoming wildly successful in fiction writing. Alternatives are alternative!
 

Fnord

Troubadour
2. There is functionally no benefit to me knowing anything on these things. I filled one out once, and I just put "---" or "N/A" for about 60% of the sections, and I barely got to mention some very, very important details about the character. I think, for organizational purposes, a character profile you create yourself is going to be far more useful.

I think this puts it best. A stock "questionnaire" might seem like a decent organizational tool on the surface, but human beings aren't so easily cut and dry on anything. It seems too "black and white". People aren't black and white and certainly don't act that way. Even if my favorite color is red, I'm not going to favor red in everything unless I'm fairly one-dimensional as a person, so what's the point in really fleshing that out? I think making a "profile" like this *as you write* would be useful, just as a reference to things you have already written, but having more than a few major details of a character on a sheet of paper will force you to attempt to write *to* the questionnaire as opposed to just writing an organic character.

I feel that character development is definitely my weakest writing point, but filling out something like this seems like a tedious exercise because I'm trying to fit a character into something. A cursory glance at the questions on there might spark an idea, especially if you might need to loosen your synapses a little, but I think it would be a waste of mental energy to devote much time to things that are irrelevant to what you're trying to do.
 
Have not read all the posts so far, but the way that I create my characters has worked for me pretty well so far.

I have a few primary characters and add in secondary ones to play off or antagonize them. When I need more info about a character, I write a short story about just them. I let my characters write themselves and tell me more about them.
 
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