Character Creation... The Center of the Character

Yes, I said the center of the character.

I'm sure it sounds weird, but it'll make sense in a moment.

A few years ago I finally got to take the class I'd been waiting for.  Creative Writing.  I was stoked.  Being a business major, you have to pick up the arts when you can.

Boy was I off on my excitement.  The teacher has a highly narrow view of how to write, and is one of those 'follow all these rules, and you'll be good.' only to correct you if you don't follow them.  All this added up to me having 0 creativity in the class, and for a month or so afterward.

I did take one thing away from it.  He told us that a good character can be pulled from any world and tossed into another, and survive.

At the time, because I wasn't enjoying the class, I thought he was an idiot.  Then a friend and I wanted to take our characters [Ezio and Mal] and use them in another world.  Some random place we'd make up.

Turns out, he was right about that.

I took Ezio out of a modern world, as an outlaw biker, and stuck him on another planet.  But he's still Ezio.  Yes, there are differences but what I call the center of who he is, is the same.

What makes him... Ezio?
He's an artist.  Kid is freaking good at it too.  He can paint, draw, sculpt, and do other forms as well.  Art is in his blood.

He can't cook.  Blows up kitchens.  Not sure how, but he does.  Unless is French Toast, have 911 on hold if you let him. [which is stupid, because he'll blow up your kitchen.]

He's good at reading people.  This works its way out in different ways.  Sometimes he's a seer, sometimes he's just good at it, sometimes its hardly around.  Unless someones interested in him, that he can't notice.

He's a fighter.  This is harder, since I tend to put him in the role of Traveler or Roma [Gypsy] a fair amount.  Often, he's been kicked out because he'll fight.

He's gay.  Yep... Always.  His exact words from having normally slept with one woman in his life, is that girls are squishy.

Those are the keys to Ezio.  No matter what world I plop him into, those things pop up.  In some worlds he's more broken, others he's more promiscuous, but those are the key to him and always show up.

Its a good idea to learn the heart of your characters.  What key elements do they HAVE to have to be them, and what could they do without?


You can also do it with things like... Druids, Fairies, Myths and the like.  If you're gonna change them some, research the various truths, myths, and legends of that theme and find what's always there.  Then you can change them some, but always keep those key elements in place.

Hope this has helped.  Remember, its only my thoughts on the whole thing, not a rule or a have too.

Kristy C

Character Creation... Making a Normal Person and Character Study

I had someone tell me once that they didn't understand how to create a 'boring' or normal person.

The best stories are about the boring and normal people who save the world, because they're not all that boring, if you give them the right chance.

Here's an example...

Everyone adores Harry Potter... But aside from the whole 'Living when he shouldn't have', he wasn't good in school, had a few friends and sure excelled at Quiddich, but that's not enough to make you super amazing.  

Neville was just as boring and yet given a chance, did amazing things.

The characters that draw you in, aren't the ones who start out amazing. They're the ones that become amazing.  They aren't seeking it, many don't even want it, but when the moment happens, they step up and do what's needed.

So how do you go about 'creating' a real character, who's not a Mary Sue?

You can start anywhere, a photo, a name, an idea, any of it.  From there, you think of a back story.  I have a character names Ezio Kaito Kelly.  Yes, his name is weird, but I explain it as his parents looking up names and liking the meanings of Ezio, Eagle and Kaito, Soaring Over the Ocean.  Which is why my little Irish/English kid from Canada has such a weird name.

If you can make it seem normal, go for it.  I know someone who named their son Sequoia Ocean and another friend who named their daughter Serenity Rain.  So strange names by normal people isn't unusually.  So long as you can explain it in a reasonable way.

Ezio's heritage is English and Irish.  But his family at some point moved to Vancouver, B.C. and that's where he grew up.  While his parents were loaded, he's a fairly simple guy.  He lived a normal, boring life with his parents and 2 adopted sisters, and best friend from age 12 on.  Compared to the others in the world he's from, he's short at 5'6", he's young at 22 [when it started, he's now 26] and he's not covered in tattoos or piercings [weird for an outlaw biker].

He wasn't abused, which can be normal, destitute, which can also be normal, or sickly.  His best friend, Chloe Faith Moretti however had a different life.

Her older sister is a good 15 years older than she is, her mother died when she was a teen and she never met her father.  She grew up around bikers and was often babysat by little old ladies who barely spoke english.  It was there that she learned to cool.  They didn't have money growing up and so much of her life was spent barely getting by. Her mother bought a house on the outskirts of the good part of town to get her into the best school she could.

Both are normal people.  Sure, they've got issues over the years.  She's insecure about plenty and its taken time to get past that.  He's broken and twisted in the head, but is also skilled at art and is a loving person.

Not gonna say the broken parts don't come out.  They do.  Ezio has a love of a good fight and often needs to release something pent up inside of him.  His good friend Mal will go out bar hopping with him, looking for a jerk in need of being beaten.  And yes, he is picky about who he fights.  It needs to be someone who can defend themselves and has been acting like an ass.

And then, Ezio will beat them up and most likely win.  He is skilled, but I was able to explain that as well.  Years of Martial Arts training, mixed in with Brawling and you have a scary fighter.  He's also taken lessons from friends who were in the military or on the force.  At 26 he's good with a handgun, throwing knives and big knives for hand to hand.  But given a choice, he'd rather just use his body.  Why?  That's the one thing that's always creeped me out about the twerp.

You can't hear the bones breaking when you use a gun or knife, and he likes to hear that sound.

Didn't mean to get side tracked, but an author should have a love of their characters that leads them to this place of exploration.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna talk about Character Creation - The Center of the Character

Kristy C

Writing.. Character Creation, Character Understanding and Character Background

I'm working on the backstory and research of my characters for 'I've Always Known'.  A few months ago, I got Erik Tesar, The Mage, mostly figured out.  May not know everything about him, but I've got some good ideas on who he is and how his powers work.

Up until recently, he was the only character with a name.  I had general ideas on what the others were supposed to be like, but actually building them?  Nope, nothing.

Then I did CTC29 and started putting some more thought into who the heck they were.  Each one got a name and an idea picture or two.  A few of the prompts I worked on, dealt with them and gave me a chance to understand each one a bit more.

But there's still a lot I don't know.  I have ages for three of them, but dates are off when you look at the recent backstory and the previous timeline I've built.  Meaning, more detail is needed.

Now, my goal is to better understand them so when I start writing, its not blind.  Normally my stories have 1-3 characters, this one has 6 PLUS the Antagonists.

I've worked enough on I've Always Known to get the plot line and even a good chunk of the way it'll play out.  Which is weird for me, since I'm what's called a 'panster'.  I don't do this whole 'plot' thing.  I also don't write out to order.

But as another author was editing her story commented, each one has a voice and a path all its own.

So, what did I do for character creation, understanding and background?

1, I searched the web and found several creation guides I liked.  Some are a bit over the top in detail, but I figure its better to have too much than have too little.

Here's a list of the ones I've used so far...
Writers Write: How to Create a Character Profile
Jody Hedlund: Character Worksheet
The EPIGUIDE.COM Character Chart for Fiction Writers
TheChugsBoson: Blank Sheet 1 of 2 TheChugsBoson: Blank Sheet 2 of 2 [1 has descriptions of what he feels should be one each question, while 2 has a downloadable version to preserve formatting.]

2, More research to find 1-3 visual images for the characters.  If at all possible, look up actors or human images, as well as search Deviant Art or other sites.  These are GUIDES! Don't ever ask someone to 'redraw' art, so you can claim its yours.  I use them to get an idea, before I edit and create around that.  As the character expands and becomes its own person, those images will actually start to not work.  Trust me, I've seen it happen more than once.

3, The last thing I did was write simple stories with them.  Find prompts and jump into their world.  You'll never know or understand them, if you don't write.

I know 2 of the characters very well, without having worked on creation or stories.  But through the stories, two others have become more formed and now I want to badly work on those guides to turn them into something more substantial.

No matter how much time I spend with a character, I seldom know every detail and facet of their life.  Erik's never shown an interest in romance, so I have no clue if he's gay, straight, bi or just.. Not interested.

Do I think that's a bad thing?  While its just my opinion, no. Characters aren't 2 dimensional, they have more going on and I don't even know every facet of myself, why would I know it about a stranger taking up space in my head?  That's how I see them when you have a name and an image.

Its the same as walking up to a stranger at a bar and saying 'Hi, I'm so and so.'  They give you their name.  As right then, unless you're Sherlock Holmes, you know a few things.  Their name, what they look like right now and perhaps a drink and/or food preference.  Yes, from that initial stage you could learn more.  If they're wearing a sports jersey, you might assume they like that team and sport.  But they could also have been drug along and put in the shirt to 'get out of the house'.

Here's why I loved the random prompts.

It got me out of a comfort zone, and into their heads.  I started one, and the story took a turn I didn't think of.  Why? Because the characters opened up and shared.  And it was actually a pretty bad moment they shared.  But it gave me insight into who they were, what they wanted and what subplot there might be in the full story.

Not bad for a story barely 2 pages long based off a simple prompt.

I should have started off with this, but maybe putting it here's better.

3 years ago at a writing workshop, one of the author said '90%of what I'm about to tell you, won't work for you.  And that's fine.'

Advice is a dime a dozen.  And advice on writing, seems to be even more than that at times.  Some of them make me feel as if I'm not a writer, because I don't live how they tell me I should live.  And that's bad.

Yes, I've thought a few people were what I call 'playing at writing', but that's because they never seem to write.  They talk about it, they plot and worry about the more minute details, but they never actually write.

But I'd never tell them to give up.  In fact, I encouraged one and offered her help as best I could.

What does all this have to do with the theme of the day?  This is how I create characters.  It works for me.  It may work for you.  If so, wooo!!  If not, s'all good.  Keep searching and find something that does.

Kristy C