Creating Memorable Characters - Part 2: Character Profiling

So, creating memorable characters is still the theme and Part 2 here is going to focus on planning out your characters before you start building them. You might remember from my last post that I mentioned how literature (read: the publishing industry) has started to lean toward character driven stories more than deep plot. As much as you might want to disagree, their rational for this is pretty solid. They figure that if your characters are real enough and your readers can connect on many levels with them, then your readers won't really care what the plot is. They'll be more interested in how the characters navigate it. Basically, if you create the perfect character for your audience to fall in love with, you can stick them in pretty much any situation you want and readers will follow them. Take the first half of the last Harry Potter trip for example -- after all we've been through, Rowling gives us a camping trip? And guess what... we bought it! We bought the hardcover and brought it to the movie! My point is, characters are extremely important, so naturally, the process of designing them and then fine-tuning them is important as well.

Before we get started in on the lengthy wall of text that is sure to ensue once I get going, I would like to list a couple of quick rules for character design. These of course are just guidelines. Take them for what they're worth. I'll expound upon them afterwards.

1. DO NOT start writing your story without having carefully planned out your characters first.

2. If you don't like the character or you just can't get into them or get into their head, neither can your reader.

3. You characters should be organic to your story. If they seem forced, your readers WILL pick up on it.

4. Make your characters unique. If you have several very similar characters, it can be confusing for your reader. This goes for similar names as well.

5. Don't stuff more characters than you need into your story just because you like them. Having too many characters can be distracting, especially if they all share one scene.

6. Make sure your characters are believable. If a character is over the top, he better have a really good reason for it. Readers want characters they can relate to.

7. Going back to my last post, make sure your lead characters are 3-dimensional before you start writing them. If you can't honestly say that they are, go back and get them there before you go on.

Alright, that list certainly isn't all inclusive, but it should give you some things to focus on as you're getting started. Now, let me get started here with #1. Planning out your character before you start writing them is the best way to make sure that your character will be the best possible addition to your story that he can be. Think of yourself as an artist, a graphic designer. The first thing you're going to do when you sit down to draw a picture is do a rough sketch, usually in pencil with a million eraser marks. This is the same thing you should be doing when you create your characters. Once you have the basics for the character laid out, then you can start adding in the detail work.

So the first thing I want you to do when you sit down to create your new character is just close your eyes. Make sure there's no distractions around you and just focus on that character in your head. You may already have a good idea of what you want them to be, or you may not. The key is, you're putting in the pre-work to make sure that your audience sees them the same way you do. A lot of rookie writers will have an idea in their head of what their character (and sometimes their whole story) is and they'll just sit down and start typing. Now don't get my wrong, this might work for some people, but most of the time, this is a really bad idea. Your character is going to evolve as you write him anyway. At least if he's well thought out and crafted ahead of time, you'll have an anchor point, rather than some amorphous blob thing that isn't consistent from scene to scene.

So now that you've taken the time to imagine your character, it's time to start piecing them together. Here's what I do. You're welcome to do it this way, or you can come up with your own system. I create a new folder in my story's portfolio and I label it "Character Profiles." In it, I create a separate word document for every major character (that means the ones that are going to spend the most time impacting the story in front of the reader). I name the file with the character's name, then open it up. The next thing I do is solely because I'm a very visual person. If you are too,  you may want to try this. If not, try it anyway, it's fun if anything. Anyway, the next thing I do is imagine how the character looks, then I go find a picture in Google Images that's very similar to that character and I copy and paste it in their Character Profile. Now I have a visual representation of that character that I can always reference or use to motivate me.

The next step depends on how well I know my character. If it's one that I've used for a long time and I know very well, I'll skip a few steps and cut right to their motivations in the story. But if it's a fresh character, I start from scratch. Start by listing all of the traits that you want this character to have. When you're doing this, remember the context of your story and make sure that their traits are organic as I stated above. In fact, everything you do from here on out, you should first be asking yourself if it fits in your story -- right down to their looks. Now, as you're listing these traits, don't just focus on broad general things. Saying that this character is funny, charming, cute, witty, etc., doesn't really help you. Those should be starting points, but you should narrow your focus from their. Going back to the graphic designer analogy, at this point you're just starting to fill in the general form of the drawing with basic colors, but ultimately you're going to cut a lot of this stuff out or cover it with greater detail. You have to remember, at this point, you're playing God in a sense. You're creating a person that, if you do it right, will be living and breathing. You're designing their personality, their humanity.

Now that you have some basic traits to describe your character, it's time to go deeper. Look at each trait. How did this character develop that trait? How does it impact their every day existence? Is it obvious in their voice? Their swagger? The key here is, now that you have the what, you need the why. Why is a question you should be asking yourself every time you do anything in your story. If you can't answer it simply, neither can your reader and you'll probably end up confusing them! What we're doing here is creating this character's backstory, their history. If you want, you can literally write them a short history. I've known writers that create backstories that explain how a character developed and how they're relevant to the current story. No one ever reads this but you, so you can make it whatever you want. Some people just like to list bullet points. Whatever suits your style best is what you should do. The point is to answer all of the WHY's before you start the story.

Once you've done this, it's time for the finishing touches. You now know what your character looks like, how they're relevant to your work, what they do in any given situation, and why they do it. Now it's time to figure out what makes them tick! The last part of my Character Profiles is the "Motivations" section. This is where I list all of the things that drive my character's actions in this specific story. This section contains story elements and explains why each character is doing what throughout the story. It doesn't need to be long and involved. A few bullet points or a short paragraph is usually enough. You aren't outlining their whole plotline, just giving a short description of what motivates their actions, and how they relate to other characters in the story. Let me give you an example. This is really generic and totally fabricated on the spot, so don't criticize it too much.

"Thomas follows Anna everywhere she goes. He's her sidekick and wants to help her accomplish her goal. She confides in him on a personal level. He helps to remind her that there's still hope. Thomas has a secondary goal though. He has secretly loved Anna since childhood and he hopes that helping her will make her fall in love with him too. He will do anything she asks to accomplish this goal."

Now you can go about that however you want, but it gives you a solid basis for the character that you can always go back and look at if you need to be reminded how they should act in a certain situation. Once you've determined what motivates the character and how they relate to the other characters that they'll interact with (including important specific relationships like one with the protagonist), you've probably got a pretty good grasp on the character. At this point, you can always come back and fine tune their profile, but you should be ready to get started fleshing them out in the work.

I hope this post has helped you realize the importance of properly planning out your characters ahead of time, and the power that it gives you when you sit down to write your story. Please check back soon for Part 3, the final part of this character series, where I'll focus on how you can make sure your most important characters are as three-dimensional as they can be!

As always, comments are always welcome, as are rankings, reviews, likes, follows, subscriptions, +1's, etc.! If you want me to keep blogging, let me know that it's helping! Please share this post and this blog with all of your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever other social media you choose to enjoy. The more views I get, the more I'll post! Don't forget to check out my other blog at http://secondworldfantasy.blogspot.com.

Until next time,

Curtis Galluzzo
"Nerdy is the new sexy!"

Creating Memorable Characters - Part 1: Now With More D's!

Alrighty, I've decided to put together a small series focusing on creating characters. I'm not going to label these posts as a writing tips, because really this is going to be a compilation of many tips and advice all related to a single topic. I'll save the numbered tips for the one-liners!

Now, the reason I've chosen to give characterization so much attention is because your characters are the heart and soul of your work. You may or may not know this, but over the years the literary world has silently shifted its focus from plot-driven stories to character-driven ones. This isn't to say that plot isn't important anymore. That isn't the case at all. The plot is still very important to the overall package, but the industry as a whole has decided that readers are more apt to get hooked by a character than by a plot-line. And when you think about it, it makes sense. When was the last time you tried to get the number of some expertly crafted conflict and resolution at a bar? I'll admit, the first time I was told this, I got a little upset. I didn't want to believe it either. I've always been enamored by epics like Beowulf and The Lord of The Rings and other stories of that nature. Those types of stories are heavily plot driven, and while the characters are believable, for the most part, they're also fairly thin. You just don't connect with Gimli on a deep emotional level. As much as you want to, you really can't relate.

Now, in contrast, let's look at a series that has had tremendous success recently. Despite it's clear lack of any kind of deep and profound plot, Twilight has managed to become one of the most successful series of our time. Sure, a lot of that can be attributed to the marketing juggernaut that stood behind it and forced it into the skull of every preteen girl that owned a TV or a computer. But think about it for a second. What made the publishers realize that they had a goldmine on their hands? Lord knows it wasn't the skillful prose! The answer is really very simple. The book has deep, three-dimensional characters that junior high girls can relate to very easily.

But enough about that wretched atrocity. The point I was making with it was that characters do today what long-winded prose and epic storylines did in the past. They attract readers.

So this series is going to focus very closely on the subtleties involved in creating the perfect character for your story. Today's post in particular is going to start at a high level, then in the coming posts we're going to narrow our scope quite a bit.

Before we can start crafting our characters, first we have to understand how to categorize them so we know what we're shooting for. In the title I referred to having more D's. You want D's. D's are good. Your goal is for your most important characters to have 3 of them! Let me break it down.

First, we have 1D or one dimensional characters. These characters are your fodder. They are vague scribblings designed more as placeholders than people. They typically have only one purpose in your story. They may possess a single trait or represent just one characteristic. They don't have any history or bearing on the overall story. These are the characters that your Fantasy hero kills in droves or meets at the inn to get some information. They don't learn. They don't grow. They don't really do much of anything. Think of them as the extras in a movie. If your protagonist falls into this category, you're doing it wrong! Now, in their defense, they are still a necessary part of a good story. One dimensional characters, while not having any depth themselves, can add depth to other characters or full scenes through their relatively limited actions. They populate the world of your story, so they're important to some degree no matter what. But my one word of warning about them is this -- if you put a one dimensional character in your story, he better be there for a reason. If you can cut him from a scene and the reader will have the same experience without him, then you don't need him there to begin with. At that point, it'll more of a distraction than anything else.

Next we have two dimensional characters. A character that is two dimensional is a character that actually has a life of its own. This character has a history. It has a personality. It has quirks. It communicates. In just about every way, it's a full-fledged character! Except for one... the two dimensional character doesn't grow. The two dimensional character has experiences, but it doesn't learn from them. It simply experiences them. Two dimensional characters are usually the companions or sidekicks of your story's protagonist. They interact with the protagonist in meaningful ways, but in the end, they're just not whole yet. If your main character falls into this category, you're on the right track, but you still have a little way left to go before you've perfected them.

Lastly, as I'm sure you guessed, is the three dimensional character. This character has some serious D's! Really, there isn't much else to say that wasn't already said in the two dimensional section. If you take all the qualities of your two dimensional character and then give them the ability to be affected on a real human level by the situations that are presented to them, then you have a three dimensional character. Your readers will be able to connect with this character better than any other, because their emotions are realistic, and their reactions are believable. For example, if your main character gets drunk one night and causes a car accident that takes the life of a little girl then gets out of the car and hits on the girl's mom because "Hey, that's his quirk. He's flirty!" then you have yourself, not only a two dimensional character, but also a serious lack of writing skills! Now, if in that same scenario, the character is deeply affected emotionally, spirals into alcoholism and depression and hates himself for what he did, then you have a believable three dimensional character on your hands, and also the setup for a great personal redemption story! You have my permission to use that. Enjoy! :)

So to sum up for Part 1 of this series, creating three dimensional believable characters that target your audience is one of the single most important things you can do when planning your story. The caveat to this, however, is that not every character needs to be three dimensional. There are places for 2D and 1D characters. Just make sure that when you decide to use them, you use them effectively, not just because you think it would be cool if your main character met a three-legged hooker on the street. I can tell you right now... it isn't cool. Three-legged hookers are never cool. Don't do it.

Now, check back soon to see the next part of this series where I'll focus a bit more closely on the aspects of planning out your characters and putting them together in a way that best suits your story and your audience.

As always, thanks for stopping by. If you enjoyed this post and want to see more like it, please subscribe to this blog and Follow me. Comments are always welcome, as are 5 star reviews. And please, share this blog with all your friends. The more the merrier!

Until next time!

Curtis Galluzzo
"Nerdy is the new sexy!"

P.S. Don't forget to check out my other blog at http://secondworldfantasy.blogspot.com


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