10 Days of Character Building: Wrap Up

Thanks to all of you who took part in 10 Days of Character Building, either in the comments or on your own. It was a fun little project, one that I might revisit (I still have a few ideas running around in my head). For the sake of convenience, I am posting links to all of the individual topics here. For those of you participating in NaNoRriMo, good luck and good writing!

• 10 Days of Character Building: Character Bio Sheets
• 10 Days of Character Building: Basing Characters on Real People
• 10 Days of Character Building: 12 Questions
• 10 Days of Character Building: Building a Character Using Multiple Perspectives
• 10 Days of Character Building: Brainstorming
• 10 Days of Character Building: Interview
• 10 Days of Character Building: Biography
• 10 Days of Character Building: Possessions
  
• 10 Days of Character Building: A Day in the Life
• 10 Days of Character Building: Defining Characters By Their Roles

10 Days of Character Building: Character Bio Sheets

This is Day 10 of 10 Days of Character Building

We have reached the final day of character building, and I have saved one of the easiest character generation methods for last. The character bio sheet is not only a simple way to develop a character, it is a simple way to keep track of the characters you develop. When you are writing a longer work, such as a novel, it can be pretty easy to forget a minor character detail. If you aren’t careful, the blue eyes you described in chapter one can turn to brown eyes by the end of chapter twenty.

Using a character bio sheet, you can write down all of the essential details for your character and keep it in a single place so that you can check it and change it whenever you need to. As your story progresses and your characters continue to evolve, you can use this sheet to keep track of any changes you have made to the character. If you keep track of all your details on the bio sheet, your editing process will go much more smoothly.

When you fill out a bio sheet initially, don’t feel as if you have to include a detail for every category. For example, the lies category may be empty when you begin, but if your character is forced to tell a lie on page fifty-five you can add that to the sheet. On your first pass, fill out all of the details you are comfortable with and leave the rest. Also, feel free to add your own categories. My items are merely suggestions.

• Character Name / Nicknames / Aliases:
• Birth Date:
• Place of Birth:
• Residence:
• Height:
• Weight:
• Measurements:
• Clothing Sizes / Styles:
• Hair Color:
• Hair Length:
• Eye Color:
• Handedness :
• Jewelry:
• Tattoos:
• General Appearance:
• Relationship with Family:
• Key Family / Relatives:
• Relationship with Friends:
• Key Friends:
• Key Enemies:
• Educational History:
• Work History:
• Skills:
• Phobias / Fears:
• Bad Habits / Vices:
• Quirks:
• Best Qualities:
• Worst Qualities:
• Key Childhood Experiences:
• Key Teenage Experiences:
• Key Adult Experiences:
• Sexual Background:
• Favorites (food, clothing, art, music, TV show, movie, book, etc.)
• Personal Goals:
• Professional Goals:
• Morality / Ethics:
• Style of Speech:
• Commonly Used Words / Slang / Jargon:
• Lies / Misinformation:
• Other Important Details:

10 Days of Character Building: Basing Characters on Real People

This is Day 9 of 10 Days of Character Building

Basing characters on actual people is a fairly common literary practice. The people around you can be a great source of inspiration. I don’t, however, recommend basing a character on a single person. It can be problematic for the following reasons:

• If that person finds out, they may not like it. It can hurt a friendship or even get you sued.
• You may be tempted to recreate moments from their life too closely and not let the plot take its natural course because you know how everything took place. In other words, it can be difficult to stay fictional with a character based on a real person.
• You might find yourself unwilling to portray the darkest aspects of a character because you don’t want to hurt the real person.

I believe it is a much better idea to base a character on two different people. When you combine two people who share at least a few common traits, you can pick the traits that you want and fictionalize the remaining traits. It is easier to demonstrate this process than explain it, so I’ll give an example.

I have two friends that I believe share some common traits and experiences. There are many links between them, but for the purposes of my story:

• Both are about forty
• Both have careers in the computer field
• Both have worked for their respective employers for over ten years
• Both enjoy watching and playing games such as baseball, pool, poker and bowling.
• Both have recently bought new houses with their significant others
• Both own a lot of electronic equipment and gadgets
• Both are extroverts

Using these characteristics, I have the base of a character. Now I can use their differences to try to make the character unique and to try to fill the story needs I have for that character. Here are some of my choices.

• Friend A is married while Friend B lives with his girlfriend. For my purposes, I am going to choose to have the character live with his girlfriend, which will happen during the story rather than at the beginning. This is to contrast him with other characters in my story who are already in long-term relationships.
• Friend A’s significant other has a five year old son. Friend B has no children. For the purposes of my story it is better for there to be a child, but I want the boy to be older, so that he can interact with another boy I have already added to the story. My character’s significant other will have a twelve year old son.
• Friend B has strong political views and Friend A does not. I think this will make for an interesting character trait, so my character will have strong political views.
• Friend A attended a university, Friend B went to a technical school. Friend A works for a university, friend B works in the private sector. I want the character to work in an academic setting, so I am going to have him be a university graduate. I am going to add that he is pursing a master’s degree, which neither friend is doing.
• Friend A dated prolifically and was married briefly before his current relationship. Friend B did not date much. My character will have an extensive dating history and a past divorce, which will set him apart from other characters in the story.
• Friend A is very concerned about his looks and has a daily workout routine to maintain them. Friend B is neither in shape nor self-conscious about it. I am going to have the character maintain a workout routine.
• Friend A is a hard worker who takes his job seriously while Friend B is a decent worker but not the sort of person who takes his work home with him. My character will take this a step further than Friend B, to the point that he has a hard time staying busy at work because so little is required of him.

Using all of these traits I have enough information to create a character who is unique, but still maintains many of the qualities of his real life inspirations. Based on what I’ve decided so far, I have created the character profile below. It has aspects of both my friends, but it creates a unique character that should mesh well with the other characters in my story.

Profile: Larry Parris

Larry is a forty year old database programmer at a university. He has worked for the university since before he graduated fifteen years ago. His has excellent computer skills, but his job is easy and he is so settled in it that few people even understand what he does. He has earned telecommuting rights, so he is often not at work and instead spends his time at the gym or at a nearby bar where he watches sports and bets on horse racing. He keeps his computer, phone and PDA within quick reach so that he can fix a problem if he needs to.

Larry attends at least one class per semester, working on a master’s degree in sociology that he has no real need for, but pursues because he finds it interesting. His conservative libertarian political views often put him at odds with the younger, more left-wing students in the classes he takes. He calls them “the crunchy granola people”.

He is attractive and outgoing, frequently dating the women he meets at the gym or at the bar. This has led to many strange and sometimes embarrassing situations that his friends never let him live down. Most of the time, the women are significantly younger and less educated than him, but he soon meets a woman close to his age who has a twelve year old son.

Larry is a little shy of commitment since his divorce ten years ago, but find himself moving quickly with this woman and bonding with her son. The relationship is not without its problems though, as he finds his loose, carefree lifestyle growing more and more structured and restrictive. He also has to deal with his girlfriend’s emotionally abusive ex-husband.

10 Days of Character Building: 12 Questions

This is Day 8 of 10 Days of Character Building

• How would I describe this character in a single sentence?
• What type of personality does this character have?
• What is this character’s purpose in the story?
• How is this character different from any other character in the story?
• What makes this character interesting to readers?
• What does this character care most about?
• What are this character’s key physical traits?
• What is the most important thing that has ever happened to this character?
• What are the things this character cares the most about?
• How does this character deal with problems?
• What would it take to make this character change significantly?
• What relationship does this character have with the other characters?

10 Days of Character Building: Building a Character Using Multiple Perspectives

This is Day 7 of 10 Days of Character Building

This character building idea turns the concept of the interview around. Instead of interviewing a character about themselves, you interview the other characters in your story about one particular character. This gives you a profile of the character as seen by other people. It can also help you set up potential conflicts and plot points by revealing hidden bonds and tensions between characters.

A character might consider herself to be insightful, brave and authoritative, while that character’s sister might view her as bossy, opinionated and unreliable. A husband may think his wife is supportive and loyal, while the other man she is secretly seeing believes she wants her husband dead. A man’s boss may think of him as the hard-working backbone of the company while that man’s children may think of him as the jerk who was never there when they needed him.

The most basic method of using other characters to create a profile is to have each give a general description from their perspective. A character might, for example, be profiled by her husband, sister, son, boss, co-worker, best friend, former friend, old boyfriend and neighbor. Each would discuss their opinion of her and experiences with her. Don’t feel as if all the characters who give there opinion have to be major characters or fully developed themselves. By using one character to profile another, you will find out more about both characters.

If you want to be more creative, look for ways to make the interview process fit the nature of the story. For example, you can create the profile as if it were a class discussion, news article, police interview or a reality show. You can also set up general questions for every character to answer or tailor questions to fit each character’s position and perspective.

10 Days of Character Building: Brainstorming

This is Day 6 of 10 Days of Character Building

Brainstorming is a proven technique for exploring just about any idea. The process consists of quickly recording (without editing yourself) all of the options/descriptions/ideas /thoughts you have about a topic. You then sort through your items and pick the ones that work. This process can easily be applied to creating characters.

Step One
Get a large sheet of paper, notebook, a set of index cards or a computer application that you can use to write ideas on.

Step Two
Write down the information that you already know about the character. This could be as basic as the name and gender. The point is, get the things that you are sure about out of the way first.

Step Three
Begin writing down every possible potential detail that you can think of for the character. The details can be random and even contradictory. Your record every possible thing you can think of that seems to fit the character. Spend as much time as you need, but no less than fifteen minutes.

Step Four
Review the potential details and discard details that you are sure won’t apply to your character. Separate the rest into details you are absolutely sure that you want, details that might work, and details that are still interesting but contradict each other.

Step Five
Create your profile of the character, grouping details into categories of similar items. Concentrate on the details you are sure about but give the other details a final review to decide which ones should be added.

I have purposely tried to leave the sort of details you should review as vague as possible. If you really need more guidance, however, you might want to start with appearance, friends, goals, quirks, flaws, problems, values, morals, history, possessions, skills, fears, favorites, enemies, education, finances, pets, and family. Don’t feel as if you need to include all of these categories or limit yourself to these categories. Just write what comes to mind.

10 Days of Character Building: Interview

This is Day 5 of 10 Days of Character Building

The character interview is a chance to explore both a character’s background and voice. It is an exploration of a character’s opinions, experiences, goals and attitudes. The basic method of conducting an interview is simple. You ask questions and then, as the character, answer those questions.

Interviews come in many forms, and you can get as creative with them as you like. Many people choose to conduct interviews in the style of a relevant magazine. For example, you might use a Rolling Stone or People Magazine style interview to approach a celebrity character. You might use a hobby magazine interview to approach a character with a particular interest, such as building model railroads.

You may also pose the interview as a police interrogation, a job interview or a therapy session. An additional alternative is that you can interview one character about another. You might interview a mother about her child or an employer about an employee. If you don’t feel that creative, then simply ask questions and don’t worry about who the interviewer is.

One of the real benefits of the interview method is that it can be a free flowing and natural process. It can be easy to generate a lot of information about a character quickly using this technique, once you get used to the style. It can also be more fun than many of the other methods of exploring a character.

Here are some interviews of authors to get you in the mood:

• Chuck Palahniuk
• Tom Perrotta
• Bret Easton Ellis
• Barbara Kingsolver
• Ray Bradbury
• Roddy Doyle

10 Days of Character Building: Biography

This is Day 4 of 10 Days of Character Building

When you write a biography for a character, you discuss some of the major events and people that have shaped the life of the character up until the point at which the novel begins. This method looks at things such as accomplishments, tragedies and anything that made a serious change in the character’s life. It should also give you some idea of the character’s everyday interests. You can write it in the third person or the first person (as if it were an autobiography). This can help you develop the character’s voice. It can also be fun to write the biography as if it were a magazine profile or a dossier by a private investigator or spy.

Some of the things you might discuss when writing the character’s biography include:

• Description of family
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Location changes
• Interests
• Talents
• Legal trouble
• Educational experiences
• Work experiences
• Athletic achievements
• Influences
• Political activism
• Friends
• Romantic relationships / marriage
• Awards
• Failures
• Tragedies and difficulties
• Controversies
• Name changes
• Clubs and organizations

The great thing about biographies are that there are plenty of examples on the web. Here are a few biographies you might want to look at before you start on yours:

Maya Angelou
Harold Pinter
The Autobiography Project
Jackson Pollock
Joseph “Shoeless Joe” Jackson
Charles Bukowski

10 Days of Character Building: Possessions

This is Day 3 of 10 Days of Character Building

The possessions that a character chooses to surround themselves with can reveal a great deal about the way they lead their lives. Directors and actors frequently use possessions as a way to study their characters. They decorate the character’s room, office, vehicle, locker or any other common places the character would use. They also determine how the character would dress, often shopping for clothes that fit the persona of the character. You can determine many things about a character from their possessions, including:

• Cultural background
• Social class
• Wealth
• Intellectual interests
• Emotional interests
• Artistic interests
• Level of organization or disorganization
• Favorite colors
• Age
• Secrets

Here are some common areas in which you can explore a character’s possessions:

• Clothes
• Bedroom
• Living room
• Bathroom
• Kitchen
• Secret or private room
• Closet
• Office
• Cubicle
• Desk
• Pockets
• Purse
• Backpack
• Locker
• Hope chest
• Vehicle

Here are some questions you can ask in addition to describing their possessions. Remember that any of these questions should be followed up by asking Why?

• Does the character have many possessions or few possessions?
• Does the character hide any of their possessions?
• What condition are the character’s possessions in?
• Does the character have any possessions that are broken or unfinished?
• Does the character’s possessions differ significantly from place to place or according to who will see them?
• Is there a particular order to the possessions that the character keeps?
• What are the character’s most valued possessions?
• Are there any possessions that the character keeps hidden?
• Is there any possession the character doesn’t have that they want?
• Is there any possession the character has that they don’t want?
• What is the effects of other people’s opinions about the character’s possessions?
• If the character was packing for a trip, what would the character take?

10 Days of Character Building: A Day in the Life

This is Day 2 of 10 Days of Character Building

The day in the life approach to developing a character is focused on describing a normal day in the character’s life before something important happens to change it. Most central characters begin a story in their normal world. At some point, an event happens that takes them out of their normal world and sends them on whatever journey the story has in store for them. Until that journey begins, your characters probably have a normal routine to their day that says a great deal about who they are and how they conduct their life.

• The beauty of analyzing a character’s day is that there are always opportunities to delve as deeply into their actions as you want. You can take an event as simple as a person’s drive to work and learn a great deal about them.
• What kind of car do they drive?
• Do they keep it clean or is it messy?
• What, if anything, do they listen to on the radio?
• Are they the sort of person that fiddles with the radio as they drive, never satisfied with what they are listening to?
• Are they the sort of person who puts on makeup or shaves while they drive?
• Do they talk on the phone as they drive?
• Do they get upset with other drivers?
• Do they tailgate?
• Are they careful or nervous drivers?
• Do they plan their day as they drive?
• Do they speed or run red lights?

As you assemble a person’s day you get a good idea of their traits and flaws. You can also determine who they interact with and care about, what their economic status is, what their general level of happiness or unhappiness is and plenty of other details. The key is to go deeply enough to get comfortable with the character and feel like you know them and know how they react in general to the events in their lives.

When approaching the daily routine, you can go a number of ways. You can move chronologically, go by major events, or just ask random questions about their day and see what the answers are. You can write it as if it were a short story, a daily planner or surveillance. Find an approach that you are comfortable with and explore the character.

Next Page »