Knowing Your Character

Writing is what we do. It's what keeps us up until the early morning hours, what stresses us out and gives us panic attacks. It's also what excites us. It's exhilarating and what we, as writers, love.

There are times, however, when we can get a little ahead of ourselves. Dive in, feet first. When an intriguing new idea comes to us, theres a chance we may immerse ourselves in this amazing new world we have created without a second thought. We get lost and have trouble turning back.

I'm here to urge you not to do this. Obviously, write down your ideas as they come to you, but stave off the temptation of writing this story without first getting to know your characters.

Knowing your characters is extremely important for the flow of your novel/novella/short story/musing. If you haven't taken the time to understand their personalities, their values and beliefs, then how do you expect your readers to really know who they are? To know what they want?

When I first started writing my manuscript, I didn't do anything to try to learn my character's motivations and desires. I was naive in thinking that I could write this amazing book without any type of preparation. I didn't outline, I didn't layout my plot, I didn't even write down a rough list of characters. I "winged it" as my stepfather would say.

Now, years later, I cringe when I look at my original first few chapters. I can see, very quickly, that I had no idea who these people were and what made each character unique. It's kind of embarrassing to read. Thankfully, that is for my eyes only.

Theres knowledge in failed attempts. You learn what not to do.

Obviously something needed to change. Here are the three steps I took to get to know my characters:

1. Make a list.

I know, I know. This is super basic, but I have to mention it. Having a list of characters makes writing the book so much easier. I'm not just talking about a bullet point list, though. The best way to do this is to make a map, illustrating the relationships between each character and their relationship with the protagonist. Do they like them or not? Are they related? How did they meet? Not only does this help you remember the names and who these people are, it also makes creating subplots and managing them quite simple. Keep an eye on your character map as your story progresses and the number of plot holes will decrease exponentially.

2. Character Profile

This is a tough part. By this point you know who everyone is and have an understanding of the part they play in the story. But you and your characters are only acquaintances. You need to be best friends with them. This is where character profiles come into play. All you have to do is search online for character profiles. There are so many out there it's not even funny. Create a character profile for every one of your characters, including the minor ones. You may be thinking, "really, really??!" YES! Your main characters are going to be interacting with those minor characters. Unless you want those characters to sound like robots (I'm mean if that's what you are going for, cool) then each of them should have their own personality. Just like the real world. Otherwise, those characters, along with your novel, will appear unrealistic and one-dimensional. This is a very long and involved process, but trust me, it will help you in the end.

3. Backstory

Now that you have a pretty good understanding of your characters, its time to develop their backstory. This helps reveal their strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, and personality traits that your wouldn't previously have had the opportunity to have shined a light on. For instance, one of my character's mother was very strict in raising her son. Whenever he did something she deemed unruly, she would punish him, harshly. When flushing out her backstory, it became apparent that the character was raised by a kind and loving family, but was kidnapped and held captive for a very long time. By the time she had her son, she knew that she never wanted him to feel that helpless. Therefore she raised him with a stick hand and gave him every opportunity she could to become a strong, powerful man.

This minor character may only show up in 2-3 chapters in my finished novel, but I can easily writer her now, because I know what she has been through and how she would handle herself in a wide variety of situations.

Do these steps for all of your characters and the book will practically write itself.

What steps do you take to build your characters and make them believable?? I would love to know. Feel free to leave a comment down below and follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr @StephanieNBolla.

Bye for now!