Creating Fictional Characters—Part 2: Finding and Creating Characters
June 17, 2009 by Lillie
Table of contents for Creating Fictional Characters
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 1: Characters Are Story People
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 2: Finding and Creating Characters
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 3: Revealing Characters and Point of View
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 4: Fleshing Out Characters with Tags, Traits, and Relationships
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 5: Developing Background and Traits Using a Character Chart, Bio, Diary, or Interview
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 6: Putting the Right Words in Their Mouths
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 7: Giving Characters Goals and Motivation
- Creating Fictional Characters—Part 8: Developing Characters throughout Your Story
Now we know what characters are. How do you come up with the characters for your novel or short story?
In Creating Characters: How to Build Story People
You start from a foundation of your fantasies and feelings. Because the character you can’t fantasize and feel with will fail. …
In other words, you hunt till you find one whose looks you like … one who fits your private standards.
Sometimes it’s tempting to base a character on a real person, but that’s not a good idea. No two people—or characters—are alike. If you try to create a character just like someone you know, you won’t have the freedom to create the perfect character for your story.
However, using individual traits and characteristics from real people works well. Observe people—at home, at work, in the mall, in the media, everywhere you go. Use what you observe to create composite characters. Ask yourself, “What if …” What if someone had hair like your mother’s, a facial tic like someone you saw in the office supply store, the voice pattern of your neighbor from another state, and the bubbly personality of a co-worker? And what if that person was a fifth degree black belt in karate?
Make your characters fit your story—people who can do interesting things and still be credible. If you’re writing an amateur sleuth mystery, your sleuth has to have some reason or motivation to solve the crime. Maybe she has an insatiable curiosity, has always been intrigued by a puzzle. Your action-adventure hero needs to have the physical and personal traits to enjoy adventure, or he must have some strong motivation to overcome his limitations.
Real people don’t always act consistently and don’t always know why they do what they do, but they rationalize their behavior. Rationalization provides plausible (but not necessarily true) reasons for actions, in life and fiction. Even when characters’ actions aren’t logical, the characters have to feel they are justified.
Just as in real life, we form dominant impressions of characters based on what we see:
- Sex – woman, man, girl, boy
- Age – young, old, 18-years-old, baby, teenager
- Vocation – doctor, nurse, housewife, bag lady, construction worker, lawyer
- Manner – surly, bubbly, sloppy, friendly, pompous, fun-loving
But if you built characters with dominant impressions only, they would be shallow and flat characters, not the dynamic, three-dimensional characters main characters should be.
In a list of do’s and don’ts for character development, Holly Lisle, author of Holly Lisle’s Create A Character Clinic
Do start developing your character by giving him a problem, a dramatic need, a compulsion.
Now you’re starting to make your character interesting. A woman who is a young lawyer with a fun-loving manner is a stereotype. A woman who is a young lawyer with a fun-loving manner and a hatred of drunk drivers because her parents were killed by a drunk driver who is assigned by her law firm to defend a man accused of drunk driving—that’s an interesting character.
In my novel Dream or Destiny, Marilee Anderson is a business consultant who is strong and confident in her business but quiet and shy in her personal life. She dreads being in the public eye, and, more than anything, she hates being mocked for her psychic abilities. Then she has a dream that puts her in the spotlight in a sensational murder case, a target of media attention and public ridicule for her dream.
The next installment will cover revealing character and point of view.
Lillie, beside of the sex, age, vocation and manner, maybe the appearance, such as bold, blonde hair, red hair, overweight, slim and other characteristics would be good for describing the characters, isn’t it?
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wilson,
You’re getting ahead of me.
We’ll get to fleshing out characters with tags and descriptions in a couple more installments. Glad you’re thinking and figuring things out for yourself.
I guess story comes first in a mind…and while I try to narrate it to myself, characters start popping up..I constantly make the change till I start feeling as if the character is not fictitious and story is a real evidence!
Charlie,
It sounds like you have a good mix of plot and character, which is excellent. You are plot-driven in that you begin with the plot, but you develop your characters well too.
I have always used characters partially based upon people I know. Interesting the author suggest the opposite. The next time I write some fiction I will try it the other way, if I can get my mind to comply.
Robert,
When you say you create characters “partially” based on people you know, you may not be far off base. The main problem with using real people as characters is that most people try to duplicate the person, and the character doesn’t develop throughout the story (which we’ll discuss in a future installment). Your story is hindered trying to fit a real person into the plot rather than creating the perfect character for the story.
Another problem with using real people is that none of us are perfect (and your characters shouldn’t be, either). If the real person you are using as a model reads your story, they may not like your portraying their bad habits and unpleasant characteristics.
You may find it helpful to start with a real person as a model for your character and create the character “partially” based on the person. My advice is NOT that you never to use a real person at all but that you not to try to make your character identical to the person.
I totally agree with not basing a character on a real person because it tends to take away from your imagination, even though it may seem a good idea at the time. If you have a real person in mind, then I don’t think that you can take your character where you want it to go.
C,
That’s exactly right. You’re hampered into trying to make the character like the person rather than developing your character naturally.
I absolutely see your points. The lawyer example demonstrates the point well. Only it takes some good imagination to creat a character. Having said that, it takes some good imagination to write a book!
Stephen,
Yes, it does take imagination to create characters and write fiction.
Thank you for your insights, Lillie.
I’ve always wanted to write fiction, especially children’s stories. Now your ideas are giving me more confidence to give it a shot.
Character creation was always what I would start with when deciding on an idea to write from. I don’t know if this is the best place to start, but it always seemed to be the place that I stopped, so I’ve never gotten very far.
Also, if you wanted to write satire, would you say, for example, your “action-hero” might have the opposite characteristics of what a typical action hero has? Maybe he/she would be fat and lazy?
Kyle,
As I mentioned in the first installment of the series, some writers start with character and some start with plot. Either way can work, though some types of writing tend to focus more on either plot or character.
Regarding satire, yes, you could create a character the opposite of a stereotype, like a fat and lazy action hero.
wow,,you teach me from the basic.usually i am just imagine and voilla!!!its done,but many times its unstructured.thank you very much
nicole,
Most of us probably start writing in an unstructured way, but the better you plan, the less rewriting you’ll have to do.
According to me story is thing which comes to your mid at first and when you start working on it its your heart that tells you more and more on it. It tells how it could go well and and how i can become superb. Yet all depends on the power of imagination of the writer.
Luxury (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),
With a name like Luxury Linens, I can see why you wouldn’t start with character.
Seriously, each writer has to write the way that works for them. And, as you say, imagination is key.
Thinking about the character is a good starting point, but I usually feel the need to start with the plot first. If I don’t know what will happen next, I feel like I’m writing useless stuff. I’m always searching for interesting actions, not so much people. I guess that if you want to focus more on people, than you’d have to be a very good writer to build up an interesting character, because the character stands only by itself, it has only feelings and thoughts and a history, it doesn’t actually do anything. You know, like in the introduction of the “Karamazov brothers”, were characters don’t do anything for about 50 pages or so, but it’s still one of the best books I’ve read.
Doina,
Character doesn’t actually do anything? That’s not at all how I see it. Characters live the action—without characters nothing could happen. In character-driven books, characters grow and develop and change. That may not be so important in plot-driven books, but the character has to be appropriate for the story. You can’t have a good action-adventure if you don’t have an active, adventurous protagonist.
actually, sometimes i feel terrible to find out character idea, but when i’ve got something briliant, it can’t stop me to write.. write.. more & more.. until it’s all finished…
nA,
Sometimes it takes a while for an idea — especially a brilliant one
— to come together.
I agree to some extent that you shouldn’t base your characters on real people. But sometimes, basing characters on real people, taking their traits and combining them, can be very helpful.
new (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person instead of visualizing talking to a war movie, and you would still get your keyword link),
I think you’re saying exactly what I said in the post.
I usually try to think about the character first of all and what type of person they will be. Once I have a good idea of their characteristics and history, it makes writing a good plot and developing characters around them a lot easier.
Document (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as real person, and you would still get your keyword link),
What kind of characters does a document feed scanner create? Printers, scanners, and fax machines? I couldn’t resist that—I just can’t envision someone named Document Feed Scanner writing a book.
Great advice! Creating fictional characters in writing takes a lot of imagination.
illmill,
A lot of imagination and a lot of work.
I love the part where you talk about creating composite characters! Brings me back to my childhood days, sitting at the mall waiting for my mom, and just staring at the people going by and imagining what would it be like if I took this person’s head and added it to that person’s body! Yup, I had a somewhat overworked imagination! (Still do!)
Abbie,
Now that is creating a composite character.
I smiled visualizing a little girl sitting in the mall using her overactive imagination.
Creating a character such as that is not very easy. You seem to have put great detail in your writing.
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Wireless Outdoor Speakers (if you wrote YourName@Keywords, I could address you as a real person, and you would still get your keyword link),
Nothing about writing fiction is easy. It takes a lot of hard work to create a story that people enjoy reading.
“A woman who is a young lawyer with a fun-loving manner and a hatred of drunk drivers because her parents were killed by a drunk driver who is assigned by her law firm to defend a man accused of drunk driving—that’s an interesting character.”
That’s exactly the characters that i find intriguing when I’m reading a book or watching a movie. I always hope their rational side will win and they’ll realise they have to let go of the past
.
Andrej,
Like you, I enjoy stories where the characters have to deal with their emotions and where they grow and change.
[...] for Creating Fictional CharactersCreating Fictional Characters—Part 1: Characters Are Story PeopleCreating Fictional Characters—Part 2: Finding and Creating CharactersCreating Fictional Characters Part 3: Revealing Characters and Point of ViewCreating Fictional [...]
Ya i also like the concept of characters being strong and can develope over time.
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indie,
Yes, it’s important for characters to develop over time or the story is boring.
I am starting to write now Lillie.I’ve just read that it is not a good idea to base the character in real person, I was just about to make the character resemble mine.. I guess it would be easy for me to write with that, but I think I have to change my idea and try to make a character which is distinct from anybody else..
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celine,
You can loosely base your character on someone you know, even yourself, but don’t try to make the character exactly like the real person. You don’t want to offend someone who might recognize themself, and you don’t want to be limited to make the character act or talk in a certain way. If you find it difficult to come up with totally original characters, base them on a composite of real people: language like one person, facial appearance like someone else, an odd habit of a different person, etc.
thanks for your advice Lillie …I guess I have the idea on my mind..
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celine,
Keep me posted on how your writing goes. Good luck!
Wow. cool tips to create a fictional character.
But everyone can’t be as good as Stephen King or Dan Brown
Girish,
No, not everyone can be as good as Stephen King or Dan Brown. But not all readers like to read Stephen King and Dan Brown, either.
Yes Lillie you are right. But I think that to make a book sell, one needs to be imaginative in writing and creating plots. And as you say, characters also play an important role.
Arvind,
Different genres have varying degrees of emphasis on plot compared to character. In thrillers, plot takes center stage. In romance, character takes center stage. Mystery often requires a good balance of both. You’re right that both are important–the relative importance varies with the genre and with the specific story, though.
For a true to life story, characters and traits of a person in necessary for selecting a names. For an antagonists, we would like to give them a bad and evil names.
Jerry,
Yes, names are an important part of creating a character.
Really helpful, thank you!
I am currently working on a novel, and these articles are great in the planning phase.
Have you heard of the Snowflake Method? It helps me a lot. Some people say it kills the novel if you plan it too much, but I think for a good and coherent story it should be planned.
(Sorry for my English if I had mistakes.)
Esther,
I have never used the Snowflake Method, but I know many authors love it. Randy Ingermanson is an excellent writer, so obviously he knows what he’s doing when he gives writing advice. Some writers find they write most effectively when they do a lot of planning and organizing in advance, and others feel they write best when they “go with the flow.” There is no one right way to write–you just need to read what others recommend, experiment, and see what works for you. And you may change your style as you gain experience.
Thank you for you quick reply!
Yes, though I find it pretty hard to decide what works for me.
Esther,
It takes a while and experimentation, but you will begin to see what feels most natural and what produces the best results for you.