Forming characters...

[Vidar]

I've read a few different guides on forming or creating characters but every time I sit down with a questionnaire etc and try to give birth to a living breathing (Imaginary) entity I really struggle to get anything I am happy with so I have just tried to continue writing and to my surprise main and ancillary characters seem to be bursting forth from my imagination as the story goes... I make a note of their particulars for future reference and then move on, but apparently this is a sure fire way to come unstuck....

If so why is it the way that feels most natural to me?

 

[Penpilot]

I don't really do questionnaire. Knowing the answer to the question "What do you want?" is enough to get me going. I think what you're doing works and feels more natural to you is because you're seeing your characters in action when you write. The character is living their lives doing what they do and you're making observations about them. You not sitting there thinking about who this character is you're observing them in their natural environment.

Obviously, you're just using your imagination, but in writing, it's just about getting your brain to do the work and sometimes you need use mental tricks. There isn't a one size fits all to do things. That's why there people who outline and others who just pants it. In the end they both get the job done but they go about it in different ways.

 

[The Dark One]

A technique I invented for myself, but don't always use, is to write a short essay (or even just a paragraph) about a character. Certain fine details and quirks might be included but they don't necessarily all get used. It's all about making the character real in your own mind so that you are actually living their story as you write it. The deeper you know the characters the richer will be the tapestry you weave.

 

[JCFarnham]

Perhaps your secondary characters feel more "intune" because they've grown out of the plot itself, created as needed to fulfil a role. I think you may be tying too hard to make the perfect protagonist. To use another cliche metaphor... to me it sounds as thought you are trying to jam square pegs into round holes.

Take a step back, and forget about the protagonist you "want". Take stock of your plot. Who is the best equipped person to drag through this story? Might be that all you need to do it promote one of your secondaries and tell the story from there.

I'm speaking as someone who used to do this too. I come from a roleplaying background. The characters had to be perfect and the story had to exist for them, it had to work for them, you know? So I flipped my thinking, where I used to create a character and put them in situations, I now throw out a culturally-logical name and start with a blank template. I ask, where does this person have to go to make the plot work? They fill out as I write and as I need them to.

It may sound stupid, like it's almost too simple to change anything. I mean, that switch in thinking changed me at least.

Sometimes I still create characters before plot, character I think would be awesome... but I have to work a lot, lot harder to get them to fit into a story (damn square pegs).

Oh Oh, new metaphor, think of the protagonist as needing to be like an amorphous blob, then they can slide into whatever hole they need to (then they can be fleshed out, turned into the right kind of peg of course haha)

 

[Ireth]

I'm not a huge fan of character templates, despite doing a lot of RPing in the past and present. Not everything I include in each template actually gets used, whether because I have a hard time portraying it or because it just never comes up in the plot; and sometimes things get added as the characters grow and evolve as a result of the plots. I treat my characters as distinct human beings (though only in my head), and they tend to keep secret or reveal things about themselves as they wish, often unexpectedly. It wasn't until almost a year after I first created the character of Vincent Hawk for one of my first RPs that he revealed his allergy to housecats (and certain feline shapeshifters). The allergy pops up again in the novel Winter's Queen, when Vincent encounters a Pooka who prefers a feline form.

 

[Mindfire]

I am somewhat in agreement with JC. Start with the plot first, then figure out what characters you need to fit it. Many people believe starting with character first makes the story more organic, but I find the opposite to be true personally. Start with the big picture. Sketch out the general plot first, then decide what tools (characters) you need.

 

[PrincessaMiranda]

I use a template only to remember minor details. Like favorite food, eye color, height, weight etc. If I want to add or change something it helps to keep things organized as well as a reference to the traits that could be confused between characters. Its a great organizing tool, but you create it so, of course, it isn't set in stone. I suggest using both methods.

 

[Jabrosky]

I plead guilty to normally creating my characters before generating my plots. However, I agree that trying to force certain characters into certain plots is like trying to squeeze square pegs into round holes. Often I find myself struggling to contrive of ways to get characters to do what I want them to do. On the other hand, character concepts, especially visual images of characters, come more easily to me than plots.

 

[Varamyrr]

A technique I invented for myself, but don't always use, is to write a short essay (or even just a paragraph) about a character. Certain fine details and quirks might be included but they don't necessarily all get used. It's all about making the character real in your own mind so that you are actually living their story as you write it. The deeper you know the characters the richer will be the tapestry you weave.

This is pretty much the same technique as mine. Basicly, what I did is the following:
I made a perl script in which I included all the last names of the families. I then start filling the families up - ad random - using a secondary list with contains first names. Once I have my names I start building the family tree. With each member I then start adding characteristics and eventually I start expanding them with a backstory.