What a Character!

         As I mentioned last week, I initially start a new story by writing interviews, journals and scenes “in character”. A lot of interviews. A lot of journaling. And a lot of scenes. I usually start out knowing at least one thing about the character, but I discover so much more by hearing them talk, to me or themselves, and watching them act out.

         I discovered why one charming hero was so self-controlled ever though he was capable of great anger. While journaling his day’s activities, I learned that at 12 years old he’d accidentally killed his beloved dog when he threw down an ax in anger. From that day forward, even though no one said a word to him about it, he was well aware of the harm possible by one simple, uncontrolled act. Of course that control also worked against him because the heroine had no idea of the depth of his feelings or the certainty of his promises. That caused many of the problems they faced for much of the book.

         Sometimes I just randomly start writing anything that comes into my mind, but usually I have a little (sometimes very little! LOL) structure and guidance to my character meanderings. One of the best suggestions I heard was from Lauraine Snelling. She suggested writing scenes in which the character is glad, sad, mad, or had. Each of those life experiences reveals a facet of that person’s personality, strengths, weaknesses, flaws and hidden desires. It has also provided endless possibilities for scenes, some used in the books, some known only to me.

         There are character charts you can fill out. They leave me cold. I forget this is a person I’m charting and it becomes a mental exercise to just “fill in all the blanks’. I do peruse those character development sheets to get ideas for interview questions or journaling subjects. I just can’t use those charts to create characters. (Sorry, Kitty. I know you love them. LOL)

         What I really enjoy using is personality tests. I’ve researched several over the years in my quest to understand my husband and help him understand me, so I know a lot about personality tests. For my characters, I’ll chose an aspect of the test and have the character talk about how they do or don’t exhibit that trait. I’ll also input my own thoughts about that and even write some scenes illustrating it. I’ve come up with some funny scenarios where a character insists she’s one way, but everything she says shows the opposite.

         One time I had one of my characters introduce me to another person. This turned out well. I should try it again. As I let him introduce his creator, I learned to love him even more. He was a secondary character, but he’ll be getting his own story. (Note to self: When published, this could be an interesting promotion idea . . . have the characters promote the book on my website.)

         However I create those characters, at some point I have to stop creating and start writing the story (which, as mentioned before, is often partially written already with all that journaling). When I start repeating myself, or rather when the characters start saying the same old things in their interviews or journals, I know it’s time to move on. At that time I pull out those character sheets I’ve kept hidden. (Yes. There is a place for those detailed character sheets. AFTER the creation process.) These sheets become my brain. They hold onto all the important details I’ll need to make sure I don’t have a blond heroine on page 35 and a redhead on page 120. Then the story work begins (with lots more rambling writing, this time sticking to actual scenes relating to the story . . . at least loosely).

         That’s my process. What’s yours?