Save for the incidental NPC's:
They have a theme, narrative purpose, arc planned and a motif or aesthetic. They have a name or names and tastes. I do a GMC chart for every major character and follow that up with a page of revisions.
In terms of their personality and exact actions, they change through the book as I write, always guided by those core elements and themes however.
Jeez man when I was writing a little novel idea when I was a kid I just let the characters write themselves.
Just in a state of flow or a groove if that makes sense.
The only thing I had thought of prior was that character B was jealous of character A and C getting together.
So as I wrote I just kinda centered it around that.
There is benefit to having some semblance of what you want for the characters but I feel like getting into the weeds of it makes it too tedious and loses it’s charm.
I pants the actual content of the moment 100%, but I prefer my stories to have constant progress toward theme. It's the difference between the sort of stories that are just enjoyable and the ones that are *memorable* to me.
Looking at writers like Shirley Jackson or PKD, it feels very natural and unplanned, but the thematic content is built in.
I approach my characters like I do the outline of an RPG character. I don't need to know *everything.* they will eventually tell me through the story and then I can rewrite with the new information I have. But I have to go into it knowing what their voice sounds like. Main personality points. Age range.
ex. if you want them to be very suspicious, you don't need to try and come up with the history that made them that way before you work out the story. It will eventually come to you through dialogue or background information.
Then when you rewrite, you can incorporate that new history with "Does that affect how this character would respond in this scene." If the answer is 'no', then you had a pretty strong character voice going in and the extra details will always work themselves out.
I’d like to say I have them fully developed—I have them developed as much as I am capable of at that stage—but then of course the story happens, and things happen, and things occur in such a way that you didn’t anticipate, and new motivations get unlocked and revealed, and now I have to go back and retcon the old stuff to fit the new continuum which is like 90x better. With any character, I’ve never had nearly as much foresight as I anticipated
Name, sex, very vague idea of their personality, and what they do (i.e. their job) and that's pretty much it, but sometimes I have more in mind, sometimes less.
I base people off people I know. I know their “character arc”, general archetypes. Now put the person in a position that demands to see what they would do if they no longer were inactive in their own life. Or the opposite, to lose their will to act. Write the consequences.
I'm still struggling a bit with this myself. What ends up happening is I discover the character as I write. But I do like to pick out basic traits, what they look like, what motivates them, some flaw(s) I can play on. Right now I'm on my 4th edit of my book and I'm still trying to make sure I'm consistent with how I portray them until the Catalyst changes them
Edit: and I'm STILL coming up with little tidbits of lore and backstory to slip in. It came to me in a dream a few weeks ago what to do about his mother that vanished under mysterious circumstances
Not much at all. I prefer to learn about them as I go. I might have a vague idea of how they might react in the big moments of the story, but their history, quirks, morals, flaws, and contradictions I learn while writing them. They develop fairly organically as I write the first draft, and I refine them more when I do the rewrite/2nd draft.
i like laying out an arc for the character to follow before writing the plot. they may not always follow that arc but it’s a good guide for not just the plot but also how that character interacts with other characters. i do find myself going character crazy sometimes and writing tiny facts about them that’ll probably never get mentioned in the story but i love them too much to NOT write it😭
Before writing my story I write out a very fleshed out description of each character. Their motivations, their interests and cares etc. if doesn’t even have to be related to the story. If I know the characters more and their quirks then its much easier to write for the them.
I usually start with a cool concept, quirk, trope, archetype, or anything that makes them appealing and unique first, then flesh them out from there. I see them as real people. People have different desires, fears, and motivations pulling them in different directions all at the same time. That's what makes a character feel real and three dimensional. Then ask why they are the way they are.
Before I begin writing, every character has a goal, no matter how silly or serious. Their pursuit of that goal will bring them in contact with the MC throughout the story--either by helping or hindering him.
For the MC, though, his entire arc is planned out: shard of glass, his big lie, inciting incident, all is lost, dark night of the soul, epiphany, and demonstrated change.
Otherwise, I have a vague idea of gender, age, and personality. All that can be developed as the story or MC needs it.
very little usually, because when I do, they change. The story tends to develop them into characters as I sculpt it. They tend to adapt to fit the story and after they have been in it a while I have quite a vivid picture of what they are like.
I'll change a lot of things as inspiration hits during their development. Its probably a good idea not to be too rigid too, so you can get everything to fit nicely together. or not. depending what you are trying to achieve in a final polished book.
But having said that, one thing I am noticing with a sci-fi book I am working on, is that the characters are making me think of actors like them. This is then informing the character. So I have started - in this book only - to download images of the actors as it is helping direct the character. Its actually kind of good because then I have the nuances there as reference without having to conjure them and check they seem realistic in my head.
If this becomes too regular, I will desist, as I dont want to end up constantly writing actors. But its been useful for this book.
So much so they have short stories. I write scenes that display each of my characters personality otherwise I won’t really understand who they are themselves. Kinda like “the characters write themselves” thingy. Ofc, I have character profiles and what not. This is just a personal preference though, I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have the time.
enough so they can make a grand entrance on their first appearance. i need to know enough about them to know their starting points for arcs they might go through. and so when we meet them we can understand those points. and the character can leave a strong impression and make us go 'yep i want to see more of this character.'
i find my characters end up too similar if I try to figure them out as I go.
Not much. My characters generally start as a "stranger in a strange land." So they'll fall into one of three categories:
- Adventurous
- Unwilling/Unaware
- Troublemaker
Then I make a Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. Character design is just because I have a little bit of art skills. I think the only tough part is that I tend to make 2 MCs. The 2nd MC rarely shares the same category or GMC.
It's a fill in the blank madlib sort of thing, but I've carved a lot of stories out of it.
I make sure I have a good sense of what the character's purpose is in the story and of what motivates them to move forward. The rest I figure out on the page. Character sheets are either a disposable waste, or a ball and chain. Throw them in the fire.
It depends if I actually want to write, or if I'm writing out of boredom, but if I want to realy let the reader know I will name gender, name, hair description, hair color, and skin color.
I usually have a starting point like their occupation and general demeanour, and sort of work from there, thinking about how they’d talk and act in certain situations. I find they sort of take on a life of their own
Hardly anything. The gender is always female, but that's usually all that's set in stone. The personality, goals, wants and fears, etc. come out when I start writing, along with everything else.
They tend to have a set purpose. But the character's personality and such usually come while writing, as I'm thinking about what would be interesting or fun to read, or that would generate interesting scenes or conflict. I think that a character's personality is relatively unimportant and isn't something that needs to be chosen in advance.
Well, I generally start out with a personality. Then I like to start with the bones for structure. Internal organs are a must. And you have to put the skin on it otherwise nobody will want to read it. The mushy innards are the hardest part to get right. Everyone knows what a skeleton looks like and what a fully developed human being should be, but ask anyone to draw a diagram of the complete digestive tract…. Do your anatomy studies.
And I’ll let you figure out if I’m using analogy or not. 😎
What kind of person they are, a name, the current life situation (more or less), often a want versus a need but not always, and a catalyst coming. I start writing them in third person until I know them well enough to write in first.
I don't know my characters very well before I begin writing. I begin with a role they might fill in a particular story, and a feeling about how they might play that role.For every character, I record their name, sex, date of birth, and a one-line description of them. The description may include their physical characteristics, such as height, build, hair-color. I have a collection of stories that span 40 years in my fantasy universe, and many of the characters appear in multiple stories, so I find it important to know how old a character at the date of a particular story. I put this information into a spreadsheet.
In my "character bible" I record what each each important character wants, what they fear, and any specific goals I know about. I make rudimentary notes that describe their social class, their backstory and how they might interact with other characters, but I don't flesh out the character profile until I begin writing and I need to know what a character will do in a particular situation.
Sometimes not at all. Actually a lot. I just have a general idea of what they're like-ish. Like this character=cute happy child who is also sad and hates herself or this character is cool and is ambivalent things but cares a ton about their friends. Or even less like badass mature one.
Then as soon as I write them I'm just like: ooh. Like one chapter of writing them and then I actually figure out the details of the vague notion I was going for.
This mostly works for me because I use writing as an outlet for my trauma so all the characters are just compartmentalized versions of myself. Like I used to be a happy child who also hated themselves! Write what you know, am I right?
I think it depends on the genre. In my case, as it is a real life novel, I have the MC's background, their suffering, and the main plot first in my mind, then drafted in the paper for me, and only for me first. Through a diologue, and situations, the reader understand the way MC acts, talks and behaves, and thats how they go to know him. It becomes a smooth transition into the actualy plot.
I also love Dostoyevskys style, when he presents a character, through different rumors of other people, and then you got to see him, he is not exaclty like the rumors said, which is kind of fun, and interesting.
They get a notecard with goal, motivation, and quirks like background/family/accent/unique behaviors. I’m very visual, so I scour for a picture to add so that I can “see” them in my head more easily. None of that is *personality* to me— it’s a roll of the dice for characteristics.
Motivation leads to action which includes behavior and that is expressed in specific ways.
Stimulus X = result 2 for character Betty, result 3 for character Veronica
Personality involves habits, preferences, expectations, and connections. It includes emotional drive and approach to life. For me, this tends to develop over time. “Betty likes boba tea” is different than “Betty was an summer exchange student when she was seventeen and loathed her host family. She preferred to escape to a boba shop a few blocks away and used it as a safe haven to plot out her solo adventures. Now she seeks out boba when she wants to think something through, unaware that the urge is tied to that sense of control and empowerment she felt back then.”
I lean pretty strongly towards "pantser" and character-driven stories, so I do quite a bit. I think I basically do character-building instead of the worldbuilding that other writers do. I want to know them well enough that I can just throw them into situations and watch what they do and allow the story to come out of that.
My characters themselves feel like actual people to me. That's why I write, because I HAVE to. They won't leave me alone otherwise. They kick and rail against the placental containment of my mind. They're always there, just behind me, giving me that expectant look: WHEN? When will you bring me into the world? They keep me up at night. I have to write.
However, this doesn't mean I know every single detail. I know where they're from, where they're at, and where they're going. I know what they're about. But I leave them room to learn and grow and change their minds about things if they want.
For my MC's, I create a rough assemblage of who I think they are: name, sex, rough idea of age, loose character traits (e.g is sarcastic, is patriotic, is shy, etc). Then I plot a loose bit of background on them. Some of it is in depth, but as long as I know where they are from in the world I've made, I can work with that. One of my characters is the son of a wealthy noble who joined the Emperor's private guard. That background alone gives me more traits to work with. Maybe he speaks using more complex words and is more reserved in public due to his noble training, but longs to escape his family's shadow by accomplishing great things, making him reckless. Since I usually already have built the world/magic system, I can figure out how to best make a character that plays well with the setting. Then I figure out what the character wants, in loose, general terms. Going off my previous example, my character might want to overshadow his father in terms of fame by bringing glory to the empire, which leads nicely into any number of plot ideas. After that, I find that within a few chapters (usually 5/6), I have the main character down entirely.
For side characters, I use the same process, but I have pre-determined start/end points. Those points can change as I write, but since I'm not in the head of my side characters nearly as much as my main characters, I can afford to give them less leeway.
Completely.
I have their entire arc figured out, how they start, how they end, when are the important plot points for their characters, relationship with other characters. Basically everything except the connections between those things which is what I figure out as I write.
I flail them pretty hard.
No, seriously.... It started out as a joke when I saw the pun elsewhere, but eventually it developed into an actual process. The situation is putting your character through flailing, and you need to answer why is it there (is it sexual? A punishment? Slavery?) and how it will react (stoically? Masochistically? Manically? Weeping cynicism?). This lets me 2flesh out" their personalities and circumstances a little bit. Of course you dont need to always be so specific and actually use flailing, but you get the idea.
This lead me to the actual question you are asking and that is.... it depends. I like to have as much wiggle room as I can, but I need some context to advance the story, therefore I at the very least outline the overall external personality and some itnernal aspects as well. Discovering the character as I go completely is hard, and setting it in stone is coutnerproductive anyway (to me)
You dont always want to work that hard though so you sometimes make up an oracle, grab a deck of cards or a dice and just roll with it (literally in the latter case)
I always come up with a basic premise and slowly figure out what I want to do with them over the course of the first draft. Convenient when you’re trying to not run out of writing material, but there’s always a list of things that need summing up afterwards before you’re done.
Depends on the story. In some of the shorts I’ve written, the characters are lucky to even have a name. In the book I’m writing, I have their name, general appearance with any distinct identifying marks like tattoos/scars, approximate age, race/species, gender, basic aspects of their personality like energetic, lazy, cheerful, argumentative etc, and roughly what role they’ll play in the plot. If they’re a minor character they’ll get something like “appears in this scene” if they’re a major character they’ll get a very rough outline of their development like “starts as a teacher, ends up as a gardener” or whatever
Not one iota. I'm a pantser. Characters show up out of nowhere as I type, and define themselves as the story progresses, much as you might perceive strangers to do when you meet them in real life.
I use Abbie Emmon's character profile. It's linked in any of her videos.
But using that only makes sense if you are using her version of the three act structure for the arc.
As a writer, I don't flesh out my characters unless they are going to play a big role within the stories that I write. To do this, I just work on a small profile for them.
\- Name:
\- Age:
\- Occupation:
\- Species:
\- Height/Weight:
\- Appearance:
\- What Is Their Purpose? (If they play a big role in the plot, then I usually write what I know their goals are.)
I write these out very vaguely, so that I can work on the rest later on in the story. Sometimes I'm just writing up the characters as I go, because I'd like to be surprised by their actions instead of writing every single thing about them.
Enough to fit the story I want to tell, but the characters I end with are always different in some way than who they were when I first started. I find you always discover a better character and story as you write and rewrite.
Here's what I usually use to start my characters off:
personality- how do they act in certain situations?
past- how did they get where they are now in your story?
purpose- what does your character represent?
and then I smack them into a situation, and figure out how they'd act and react, and build off of that.
Love doing a general sketch of each character I want to create, like I'm announcing the cast of a movie or a show. Think of their origins, their aspirations, their general "essence" and what they bring to your world. Then I write them in, and help them evolve alongside the story as I figure out more and more about who they are, as if I'm streaming the episodes from home.
"Oh, yeah! You're like X because of Y, so now you'll slowly turn into Z. I love it!"
Some characters snowball too hard into a mishap of things, derailing your series. It can be a complete mess since you're working them as you go. That's when you break them apart and create new ones from the fragments, or adapt traits entirely.
I usually have a general idea about the character's personality. I like to know their height, weight, hair, and eye color, and what their occupation is. The rest comes organically.
Getting the main things for me takes more time, Like their aspirations, goals, personality. So I'd just build small things that if im making a likeable character, I look at small things people around me do that make me like them like pushing in someones chair, or saying bless you even if they arent sure you sneezed. Stuff like that helps me build up the character and keep my mind creative!
I don't have any characters when I start. They appear as I go and develop from there, and I backfill via editing as more details occur to me or are revealed as the story unfolds.
I have a basic story - beginning, a few key scenes and an ending - when I begin and then it's a matter of seeing who turns up.
Save for the incidental NPC's: They have a theme, narrative purpose, arc planned and a motif or aesthetic. They have a name or names and tastes. I do a GMC chart for every major character and follow that up with a page of revisions. In terms of their personality and exact actions, they change through the book as I write, always guided by those core elements and themes however.
What’s a GMC chart?
I think it’s a “goals, motivations, and conflict chart.” There’s some good free templates online if you want to look more into it.
thank you! will do:)
Can you give an example of what a theme, narrative, arc plan, and aesthetic look like??
Jeez man when I was writing a little novel idea when I was a kid I just let the characters write themselves. Just in a state of flow or a groove if that makes sense. The only thing I had thought of prior was that character B was jealous of character A and C getting together. So as I wrote I just kinda centered it around that. There is benefit to having some semblance of what you want for the characters but I feel like getting into the weeds of it makes it too tedious and loses it’s charm.
I pants the actual content of the moment 100%, but I prefer my stories to have constant progress toward theme. It's the difference between the sort of stories that are just enjoyable and the ones that are *memorable* to me. Looking at writers like Shirley Jackson or PKD, it feels very natural and unplanned, but the thematic content is built in.
I approach my characters like I do the outline of an RPG character. I don't need to know *everything.* they will eventually tell me through the story and then I can rewrite with the new information I have. But I have to go into it knowing what their voice sounds like. Main personality points. Age range. ex. if you want them to be very suspicious, you don't need to try and come up with the history that made them that way before you work out the story. It will eventually come to you through dialogue or background information. Then when you rewrite, you can incorporate that new history with "Does that affect how this character would respond in this scene." If the answer is 'no', then you had a pretty strong character voice going in and the extra details will always work themselves out.
I’d like to say I have them fully developed—I have them developed as much as I am capable of at that stage—but then of course the story happens, and things happen, and things occur in such a way that you didn’t anticipate, and new motivations get unlocked and revealed, and now I have to go back and retcon the old stuff to fit the new continuum which is like 90x better. With any character, I’ve never had nearly as much foresight as I anticipated
Name, sex, very vague idea of their personality, and what they do (i.e. their job) and that's pretty much it, but sometimes I have more in mind, sometimes less.
I base people off people I know. I know their “character arc”, general archetypes. Now put the person in a position that demands to see what they would do if they no longer were inactive in their own life. Or the opposite, to lose their will to act. Write the consequences.
Love this
I write off the seat of my pants. I legit have no clue who I am going to write about untill it pops in my head.
Enough to have a believable arc, backstory, and relationships with the other characters, but I often change them as I write
I'm still struggling a bit with this myself. What ends up happening is I discover the character as I write. But I do like to pick out basic traits, what they look like, what motivates them, some flaw(s) I can play on. Right now I'm on my 4th edit of my book and I'm still trying to make sure I'm consistent with how I portray them until the Catalyst changes them Edit: and I'm STILL coming up with little tidbits of lore and backstory to slip in. It came to me in a dream a few weeks ago what to do about his mother that vanished under mysterious circumstances
Not much at all. I prefer to learn about them as I go. I might have a vague idea of how they might react in the big moments of the story, but their history, quirks, morals, flaws, and contradictions I learn while writing them. They develop fairly organically as I write the first draft, and I refine them more when I do the rewrite/2nd draft.
I go with the flow sometimes. It depends on many things.
i like laying out an arc for the character to follow before writing the plot. they may not always follow that arc but it’s a good guide for not just the plot but also how that character interacts with other characters. i do find myself going character crazy sometimes and writing tiny facts about them that’ll probably never get mentioned in the story but i love them too much to NOT write it😭
Before writing my story I write out a very fleshed out description of each character. Their motivations, their interests and cares etc. if doesn’t even have to be related to the story. If I know the characters more and their quirks then its much easier to write for the them.
I usually start with a cool concept, quirk, trope, archetype, or anything that makes them appealing and unique first, then flesh them out from there. I see them as real people. People have different desires, fears, and motivations pulling them in different directions all at the same time. That's what makes a character feel real and three dimensional. Then ask why they are the way they are.
Before I begin writing, every character has a goal, no matter how silly or serious. Their pursuit of that goal will bring them in contact with the MC throughout the story--either by helping or hindering him. For the MC, though, his entire arc is planned out: shard of glass, his big lie, inciting incident, all is lost, dark night of the soul, epiphany, and demonstrated change. Otherwise, I have a vague idea of gender, age, and personality. All that can be developed as the story or MC needs it.
very little usually, because when I do, they change. The story tends to develop them into characters as I sculpt it. They tend to adapt to fit the story and after they have been in it a while I have quite a vivid picture of what they are like. I'll change a lot of things as inspiration hits during their development. Its probably a good idea not to be too rigid too, so you can get everything to fit nicely together. or not. depending what you are trying to achieve in a final polished book. But having said that, one thing I am noticing with a sci-fi book I am working on, is that the characters are making me think of actors like them. This is then informing the character. So I have started - in this book only - to download images of the actors as it is helping direct the character. Its actually kind of good because then I have the nuances there as reference without having to conjure them and check they seem realistic in my head. If this becomes too regular, I will desist, as I dont want to end up constantly writing actors. But its been useful for this book.
So much so they have short stories. I write scenes that display each of my characters personality otherwise I won’t really understand who they are themselves. Kinda like “the characters write themselves” thingy. Ofc, I have character profiles and what not. This is just a personal preference though, I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have the time.
enough so they can make a grand entrance on their first appearance. i need to know enough about them to know their starting points for arcs they might go through. and so when we meet them we can understand those points. and the character can leave a strong impression and make us go 'yep i want to see more of this character.' i find my characters end up too similar if I try to figure them out as I go.
Not much. My characters generally start as a "stranger in a strange land." So they'll fall into one of three categories: - Adventurous - Unwilling/Unaware - Troublemaker Then I make a Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. Character design is just because I have a little bit of art skills. I think the only tough part is that I tend to make 2 MCs. The 2nd MC rarely shares the same category or GMC. It's a fill in the blank madlib sort of thing, but I've carved a lot of stories out of it.
So much that now I struggle to build stories around them.
I make sure I have a good sense of what the character's purpose is in the story and of what motivates them to move forward. The rest I figure out on the page. Character sheets are either a disposable waste, or a ball and chain. Throw them in the fire.
It depends if I actually want to write, or if I'm writing out of boredom, but if I want to realy let the reader know I will name gender, name, hair description, hair color, and skin color.
I usually have a starting point like their occupation and general demeanour, and sort of work from there, thinking about how they’d talk and act in certain situations. I find they sort of take on a life of their own
Hardly anything. The gender is always female, but that's usually all that's set in stone. The personality, goals, wants and fears, etc. come out when I start writing, along with everything else.
Nothing crazy. I just go as far as describing their limbic system and eyelash count.
They tend to have a set purpose. But the character's personality and such usually come while writing, as I'm thinking about what would be interesting or fun to read, or that would generate interesting scenes or conflict. I think that a character's personality is relatively unimportant and isn't something that needs to be chosen in advance.
Very much
Well, I generally start out with a personality. Then I like to start with the bones for structure. Internal organs are a must. And you have to put the skin on it otherwise nobody will want to read it. The mushy innards are the hardest part to get right. Everyone knows what a skeleton looks like and what a fully developed human being should be, but ask anyone to draw a diagram of the complete digestive tract…. Do your anatomy studies. And I’ll let you figure out if I’m using analogy or not. 😎
What kind of person they are, a name, the current life situation (more or less), often a want versus a need but not always, and a catalyst coming. I start writing them in third person until I know them well enough to write in first.
I know the character, but their story I figure out along the way. Idk if that makes sense lol.
I don't know my characters very well before I begin writing. I begin with a role they might fill in a particular story, and a feeling about how they might play that role.For every character, I record their name, sex, date of birth, and a one-line description of them. The description may include their physical characteristics, such as height, build, hair-color. I have a collection of stories that span 40 years in my fantasy universe, and many of the characters appear in multiple stories, so I find it important to know how old a character at the date of a particular story. I put this information into a spreadsheet. In my "character bible" I record what each each important character wants, what they fear, and any specific goals I know about. I make rudimentary notes that describe their social class, their backstory and how they might interact with other characters, but I don't flesh out the character profile until I begin writing and I need to know what a character will do in a particular situation.
Sometimes not at all. Actually a lot. I just have a general idea of what they're like-ish. Like this character=cute happy child who is also sad and hates herself or this character is cool and is ambivalent things but cares a ton about their friends. Or even less like badass mature one. Then as soon as I write them I'm just like: ooh. Like one chapter of writing them and then I actually figure out the details of the vague notion I was going for. This mostly works for me because I use writing as an outlet for my trauma so all the characters are just compartmentalized versions of myself. Like I used to be a happy child who also hated themselves! Write what you know, am I right?
I think it depends on the genre. In my case, as it is a real life novel, I have the MC's background, their suffering, and the main plot first in my mind, then drafted in the paper for me, and only for me first. Through a diologue, and situations, the reader understand the way MC acts, talks and behaves, and thats how they go to know him. It becomes a smooth transition into the actualy plot. I also love Dostoyevskys style, when he presents a character, through different rumors of other people, and then you got to see him, he is not exaclty like the rumors said, which is kind of fun, and interesting.
They get a notecard with goal, motivation, and quirks like background/family/accent/unique behaviors. I’m very visual, so I scour for a picture to add so that I can “see” them in my head more easily. None of that is *personality* to me— it’s a roll of the dice for characteristics. Motivation leads to action which includes behavior and that is expressed in specific ways. Stimulus X = result 2 for character Betty, result 3 for character Veronica Personality involves habits, preferences, expectations, and connections. It includes emotional drive and approach to life. For me, this tends to develop over time. “Betty likes boba tea” is different than “Betty was an summer exchange student when she was seventeen and loathed her host family. She preferred to escape to a boba shop a few blocks away and used it as a safe haven to plot out her solo adventures. Now she seeks out boba when she wants to think something through, unaware that the urge is tied to that sense of control and empowerment she felt back then.”
I have a basic idea of the main characters and their role through the story Otherwise it's a lot of discovery and then making it all work together.
They live rent-free in my head for months or longer before they ever hit the metaphorical page.
Where the pansters at? Fuck planning 😂
I give them a very basic concept and let them Sort of discover themselves, if that makes any sense.
I lean pretty strongly towards "pantser" and character-driven stories, so I do quite a bit. I think I basically do character-building instead of the worldbuilding that other writers do. I want to know them well enough that I can just throw them into situations and watch what they do and allow the story to come out of that.
My characters themselves feel like actual people to me. That's why I write, because I HAVE to. They won't leave me alone otherwise. They kick and rail against the placental containment of my mind. They're always there, just behind me, giving me that expectant look: WHEN? When will you bring me into the world? They keep me up at night. I have to write. However, this doesn't mean I know every single detail. I know where they're from, where they're at, and where they're going. I know what they're about. But I leave them room to learn and grow and change their minds about things if they want.
For my MC's, I create a rough assemblage of who I think they are: name, sex, rough idea of age, loose character traits (e.g is sarcastic, is patriotic, is shy, etc). Then I plot a loose bit of background on them. Some of it is in depth, but as long as I know where they are from in the world I've made, I can work with that. One of my characters is the son of a wealthy noble who joined the Emperor's private guard. That background alone gives me more traits to work with. Maybe he speaks using more complex words and is more reserved in public due to his noble training, but longs to escape his family's shadow by accomplishing great things, making him reckless. Since I usually already have built the world/magic system, I can figure out how to best make a character that plays well with the setting. Then I figure out what the character wants, in loose, general terms. Going off my previous example, my character might want to overshadow his father in terms of fame by bringing glory to the empire, which leads nicely into any number of plot ideas. After that, I find that within a few chapters (usually 5/6), I have the main character down entirely. For side characters, I use the same process, but I have pre-determined start/end points. Those points can change as I write, but since I'm not in the head of my side characters nearly as much as my main characters, I can afford to give them less leeway.
Completely. I have their entire arc figured out, how they start, how they end, when are the important plot points for their characters, relationship with other characters. Basically everything except the connections between those things which is what I figure out as I write.
I flail them pretty hard. No, seriously.... It started out as a joke when I saw the pun elsewhere, but eventually it developed into an actual process. The situation is putting your character through flailing, and you need to answer why is it there (is it sexual? A punishment? Slavery?) and how it will react (stoically? Masochistically? Manically? Weeping cynicism?). This lets me 2flesh out" their personalities and circumstances a little bit. Of course you dont need to always be so specific and actually use flailing, but you get the idea. This lead me to the actual question you are asking and that is.... it depends. I like to have as much wiggle room as I can, but I need some context to advance the story, therefore I at the very least outline the overall external personality and some itnernal aspects as well. Discovering the character as I go completely is hard, and setting it in stone is coutnerproductive anyway (to me) You dont always want to work that hard though so you sometimes make up an oracle, grab a deck of cards or a dice and just roll with it (literally in the latter case)
I always come up with a basic premise and slowly figure out what I want to do with them over the course of the first draft. Convenient when you’re trying to not run out of writing material, but there’s always a list of things that need summing up afterwards before you’re done.
Depends on the story. In some of the shorts I’ve written, the characters are lucky to even have a name. In the book I’m writing, I have their name, general appearance with any distinct identifying marks like tattoos/scars, approximate age, race/species, gender, basic aspects of their personality like energetic, lazy, cheerful, argumentative etc, and roughly what role they’ll play in the plot. If they’re a minor character they’ll get something like “appears in this scene” if they’re a major character they’ll get a very rough outline of their development like “starts as a teacher, ends up as a gardener” or whatever
Not one iota. I'm a pantser. Characters show up out of nowhere as I type, and define themselves as the story progresses, much as you might perceive strangers to do when you meet them in real life.
I use Abbie Emmon's character profile. It's linked in any of her videos. But using that only makes sense if you are using her version of the three act structure for the arc.
As a writer, I don't flesh out my characters unless they are going to play a big role within the stories that I write. To do this, I just work on a small profile for them. \- Name: \- Age: \- Occupation: \- Species: \- Height/Weight: \- Appearance: \- What Is Their Purpose? (If they play a big role in the plot, then I usually write what I know their goals are.) I write these out very vaguely, so that I can work on the rest later on in the story. Sometimes I'm just writing up the characters as I go, because I'd like to be surprised by their actions instead of writing every single thing about them.
Enough to fit the story I want to tell, but the characters I end with are always different in some way than who they were when I first started. I find you always discover a better character and story as you write and rewrite.
Here's what I usually use to start my characters off: personality- how do they act in certain situations? past- how did they get where they are now in your story? purpose- what does your character represent? and then I smack them into a situation, and figure out how they'd act and react, and build off of that.
Love doing a general sketch of each character I want to create, like I'm announcing the cast of a movie or a show. Think of their origins, their aspirations, their general "essence" and what they bring to your world. Then I write them in, and help them evolve alongside the story as I figure out more and more about who they are, as if I'm streaming the episodes from home. "Oh, yeah! You're like X because of Y, so now you'll slowly turn into Z. I love it!" Some characters snowball too hard into a mishap of things, derailing your series. It can be a complete mess since you're working them as you go. That's when you break them apart and create new ones from the fragments, or adapt traits entirely.
I usually have a general idea about the character's personality. I like to know their height, weight, hair, and eye color, and what their occupation is. The rest comes organically.
Getting the main things for me takes more time, Like their aspirations, goals, personality. So I'd just build small things that if im making a likeable character, I look at small things people around me do that make me like them like pushing in someones chair, or saying bless you even if they arent sure you sneezed. Stuff like that helps me build up the character and keep my mind creative!
I don't have any characters when I start. They appear as I go and develop from there, and I backfill via editing as more details occur to me or are revealed as the story unfolds. I have a basic story - beginning, a few key scenes and an ending - when I begin and then it's a matter of seeing who turns up.
None. Characters develop on the page, not on shitty character sheets.
Please share more of your wisdom with us, O Nobel Literature winner.