Archetypes

They're an easy place to start with fiction - instead of a person, an archetype. The Mother Figure. The Ruler. They're not real characters - they're props, served to do exactly what they're expected to do and get offstage quickly.

What's your favorite archetype? The mouthy teen? The too-smart child? Lovers? Why? Do you find this person in all your stories?

Writing Prompt: Take your favorite archetype, and write a short scene with the person as the archetype. Now do it again with the person showing personality and breaking the mold. Which is more interesting? Why?

(and if people are actually finding this blog useful, could you please comment? I'd like to know if someone's reading!)

Active Characters

Part of making an engaging character is having it be someone that goes out and does things. No matter how interesting a person is, having said person sit around in their room all day and do nothing does not a good story make. (With some rare exceptions, as there are to every rule, but let's not go into those right now).

So you've got a person being active. What does that mean? How do you write about that? What does active do?

Writing prompt: Write a scene in passive voice, where everything happens TO the character. Then rewrite it in active voice and see what's different. Do you see how the person being active makes a difference?

It's hard to have a main character be too active. We're invested in that character - have them go out and do things!

Off-topic!

I have a cold. It's off-topic week.

But for those of you with a novel in progress, and you'd like to run a first paragraph past a real live agent, check this out! http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2008/12/2nd-sort-of-annual-stupendously.html

He's crazy, but it's fun! (and yes, I entered already)

Holiday Time!

Every world has them. Whether you're writing a heartwarming romance or a sci-fi thriller, your universe has holidays.

So how does your character feel about them? Does he go home? Avoid his family like the plague? Why? Which holidays does your character feel strongly about, and which are just days off? Are there shopping holidays like Black Friday that are important?

Writing prompt: Write a short scene with your character going home for a Thanksgiving-like holiday. How does it go? Is it farce or sweet? Does it tell you anything about the character?

Non-human characters

It's normal do to regular characters. We're all used to thinking of characters as people.

But what about other forms of characters? What about pets? Wild animals? Buildings and countrysides? Anything that interacts with the story can be viewed as a character. Pets have motivations. I can think of two mystery series off the top of my head where cats are main characters, for example.

Anything that is a character has a motivation and interacts with the story. A countryside could be a character if it interacts with the story, causing things as well as being effected by them. The farther something is from human, the more difficult it is to treat something as a character instead of a background. But stories can be greatly enriched by approaching things other than human as characters in their own right and able to interact with the story.

Writing prompt: write a character sketch of something that isn't human. Give a few hints as to how it can interact with the rest of the story.

Families

Everyone has them. That includes story characters.

So, what does your main character think of his family? Do they get along? Are other family members in the story? Are they alive or dead? Even if they don't show up explicitly in the story, your character's feelings towards his family will affect him greatly. And he can feel differently about different members, too: there's no need for a monolithic response to his family.

Writing prompt: write a scene with your character and one of his parents. Make sure the relationship between the parent and child is visible in the scene without coming straight out and saying what's going on. Imply.

Bad Guys

In most stories, there's some form of antagonist. Sometimes the only problem is the circumstances, but often there's someone standing between the characters and their desires.

It's easy to paint the bad guy as just bad for the sake of bad. This is especially easy when dealing with religion and just saying it's an evil god. However, this is a cop-out, and frequently makes the rest of the story bad. People have reasons for what they do - even becoming evil. They may think what they're doing is right. They may want power. They may be insane - but even then, inside their own insanity there's a kind of logic. Even the most alien of all alien creatures has a logic, though it might not seem so at first glance. But if that logic isn't followed, the story doesn't hold together. An unrealistic villain can completely spoil a story.

Writing prompt: Character sketch time! Create a villain. Either use one from your own story or create your own. Come up with why they're doing what they're doing. Give a full-fleshed person - good points and bad. Is this person believable? Why or why not? What can you change to make the person feel real?

World Economics

I'm going to go slightly astray from my normal posts for a moment. Last week was the economics of specific characters. Now I'm expanding to economics of entire worlds.

It seems obvious at first - the economics of the world is based on money. After all, that's what we all have in our pockets/purses/bank accounts. We don't store leaves or cherry pits or shells.

But what does that money buy? What's important in your character's world? Not just the obvious desires the characters have, but the subtle things. Do your people ever buy food? Clothing? Is everything provided in the story, done in the background, or do economics matter? What's bartered for? What's traded back and forth?

Without the economics, there is no story. There are always things of value in the story, be them visible or not. Why are they there? What are they for? What does it mean to have them, or to not have them? What are they truly worth?

Writing prompt: Write a quick scene where your characters are dealing with an object of value. What will they give to get it? Why?

Character Economics

So - you've got a character. What are his motivations? WHY is he doing whatever great things that create a story around him?

In other words, what are this characters economics? What currency really matters to this person? (If your first answer is money, think a little longer - is it really money, or is it what the character can do with the money? That's two different issues). And if you're writing in something other than this world, you may even need to figure out the society's economics. What matters to them? What's their currency?

Writing prompt: Take a character sketch, and figure out this person's currency. If the person wants love, what does that do to the story? What if it's honor? Or sex instead of love? Write a scene where the characters currency shows.

Animal Metaphors

It's a long-standing tradition in fiction to use animal metaphors, both to describe a character and to describe actions of a character.

What does it really mean to say someone's piggy? What if they're cat-footed? Sometimes people even go to the extreme and go all the way to having animals as characters - usually as children's stories, or it gets viewed as a children's story even if it isn't mean to be one (Watership Down?).

Writing prompt: Take one of your character sketches, and think of animal metaphors for that person. Add some. Do they change the view of the character? The story?

Adding to Quirkiness

So you've got a pile of quirks. Well, what do they mean? Who cares?

Think about portraying your character. How are you seeing this done? In film? On paper? In a game? How you're handling your character makes a difference here.

I'm going to use the example of someone that fidgets. If you're doing this on paper, you need to refer to the fidgeting - but you need to do it in a way that doesn't make the reader scream "I know already!" That can be tricky. If you're doing it on film, the person needs to fidget, but not to the point that they're relabeled "the fidgeter" regardless of their character's name. Etc.

Writing prompt: try to write a scene in which the person's quirk is visible but not obnoxious.

Quirks!

We've all got 'em. We do weird things that don't really say anything about our goodness or badness, but still make us individual.

Fiction characters have them too. Less, probably, than real people, because a fictional character chock full of quirks is annoying. But they should have them - even if only the author knows them.

Do your characters play with their hair? Fidget? Chew on pens? Always tip their head when answering a question? Sing in the shower?

Writing prompt: Write up a new character sketch. Pay attention to the quirks while keeping the other things (virtues, flaws, etc) as balanced as possible. Do the quirks make the person more real? Do they fit?

Virtues as story

Sometimes a virtue itself can be a plot point. When virtues collide, plot happens.

A desire to always tell the truth combined with a secret that must never be told puts someone in an awful position. Both are virtues - keeping a secret that must be kept is good. Telling the truth is good. Together is where plot can happen.

Think about conflicting virtues. Where does plot happen between them? What do you think of them?

Writing prompt: Write a short piece about someone caught between conflicting virtues. What happens? Is it resolvable, or does the person have to "fall from grace" to find a resolution? If possible, write it both ways.

Plotting Around Virtues

Flaws are important. But so are virtues.

A character with no virtues is an unbelievable character. No matter how bad the villain, there are still good qualities that have to be evident, or you've got nothing more than a mirage. If a story is to be believed, there has to be something to make us want to know more, something to make us keep reading. Something to make us sympathize with both the hero and the villain.

Virtues can be tricky. It's as easy to overdo them as it is to overdo flaws, but while one major flaw can hold a story, only one virtue makes a character look false.

Write a character sketch including virtues. How do virtues influence the plot? Do they help or hurt? Are you stingy with virtues, or do you spend them like pennies?

Try to write a sketch for people you know. How many virtues do they have? How many flaws? (This is not an attempt to judge, just to write sketches to practice).

Changing Character Flaws

So there's a character sketch. There's a flaw. And there are plot ideas around the flaw.

But what happens when the flaw changes? What happens if your obsessive person becomes a hypochondriac? Or a pyromaniac? What if vain becomes boredom with life?

Take your character and change the flaw to something completely different, and look what that does with the plotline. Do you have a different story? How different?

How do characters make the story?

Plotting Around Character Flaws

So, you have your character sketch from last week. Now what?

Now we look at the sketch and at those flaws, and ask, "What plot ideas come from these flaws?"

If someone is vain, how does vanity affect story? If someone is scared of bugs, what happens when their house is infested? How do flaws give you story and affect the story you have?

Characters don't exist in a vacuum. If you have multiple characters, where their flaws intersect is where story happens.

Writing prompt: Take your character sketch and come up with some plot ideas based on the flaws. What makes their life difficult? What can stand between them and their objectives?

Writing Prompt-Hubris-My Example

A character sketch, with a focus on flaws. I'm going to use a character I already have - Suralee Vellacort, from I Am Subversive.

Visual - in this story, that's not really relevant. So I'm putting this aside.

Mental - she's very vain. She wants to help people, and cares about them, but sees them more in abstract than in specific. It's easier to care about abstracts. Putting an actual person in her path is difficult for her. Even with those she loves, she keeps herself closed off somewhat from them. She's been betrayed too many times by those around her to trust.

Spiritual - she believes in the void between stars and the great quest to keep humanity alive against that void. Everything else that she was ever taught religiously she now discards. All that matters to her spiritually is allowing other people to find the same freedom she has - preferably without letting them get too close.

Who's next?

Flaw: Hubris

No discussion about flaws is complete without discussing hubris. It is the classic flaw, the overriding one of Greek drama, and it informs much of our concept of fiction.

Hubris is the belief that one is equal to or above the gods. It is putting yourself up so high that there is no ground beneath you to support yourself. And the tragedy is the falling from grace, and the resulting consequences to everyone around them.

It's hard to find modern stories that include true hubris. It's hard to use effectively, especially without active gods in the story. But there are still stories of incredible arrogance and self-pride that tell of how someone's feelings about himself caused his downfall.

Bonus writing prompt: write about someone dealing with hubris. What do you think of the flaw?

What is a Character Sketch?

My mother (thanks Mom!) pointed out that perhaps not everyone knows what a character sketch is. Sorry for the jargon, I didn't even think about it.

A character sketch is a quick outline of what a character you're creating is. It's a set of ideas - often not even complete sentences - giving you a general idea of who the person is. That can include a physical description, mental description, family members, or anything else that's important to who the person is.

This isn't a formal write-up. No one else ever has to see these. It's just enough information to give you an idea of who the person is. And it can be fleshed out later as required, too - you're not required to keep the original one.

What's important is that you write enough to get a good idea of who the person is. And writing as much or as little as you need for that.

Designing Character Flaws

When building a character, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the flaws. All characters have flaws. And it is that flaw, that imperfection, that makes us able to relate to them.

So what is a literary flaw? The classic one is hubris - it is central in Greek drama. But thousands of other flaws, from great to small, have been added in. And they all make characters interesting.

By "flaw," I mean an obstacle that's interior to the person. Pyromania is a flaw. Greed is a flaw. Loving people isn't, though it can become one in the wrong situation. But in this post, I'm only talking about clearly obvious ones. (Situational flaws I'll cover later).

So. A character needs flaws. There needs to be something imperfect about them, something to make them fall when they want nothing more than to climb. The flaw is the inner obstacle that stands between them and their goal. Sometimes overcoming that flaw is the entire story. Sometimes it's only a part of it. Sometimes it's an overriding facet of the character, and sometimes it's just a side note - but one that touches everything.

Writing Prompt: Write a character sketch. Be aware of the flaws of the person you're creating. Don't go overboard - one or two should be plenty. Make this a rounded person, good points and bad. A career, hobbies, whatever you need to understand the character.

Next week we're going to be working with that sketch.

Talking about characters

This is a discussion of character building. Stories are based around characters. Without a character, there is no plot, there is no story, there is no life.

So what makes a good character? What do you want to know before you get started with a story? How do you build a good character, and what does a character do to the rest of your story?

If you have questions about character building to start off, feel free to ask me. I'm talking about both characters for stories and characters for role-playing games, because the central point is the same. (and characters can easily transfer from one to the other if they're built well - and not at all if they're built poorly).

Please join in the discussion!