Hello and welcome to the Chimera Creative Partners blog!
We'll be posting biweekly (in the twice-a-week sense) on How-to Tuesdays and Creative Fridays.
The former will tackle elements of design, writing and creativity in general. We will be discussing tips and tricks, pitfalls to avoid and our take on it all. The latter will be either a short story or a piece of design art posted for your enjoyment.
If you have topics you'd like to see us cover, or prompts you'd like us to use for our stories and designs, pop 'em into the comments.
For this, our first How-to Tuesday, we'll take a look at building characters for your writing.
Obviously, characters are important to any story. They're also my personal favorite element. One of my all-time favorite books is just a conversation between two people. No action, no world-building, just pure character.
Building Characters for Your Writing
In your writing, whether you've got pontificating humans or a mostly mute garbage-collecting robot, all characters need the basics.
1. A physical description
Pretty simple, right? Maybe, maybe not. A good description can be either general or very specific, depending on what you want it to do. Do you want to go with defining character traits like Spock's ears or Harry Potter's scar? What does your character's ethnicity or gender (or species) tell us about him or her? Do you want to intentionally avoid much of a physical description so readers can read themselves into the character? What are the potential drawbacks of that choice?
TIP: Since I don't have the most vivid imagination for visuals, when it comes to physical descriptions, I will often use Google image search until I find the right picture and base the character's description on it.
2. A background and personality
Where is your character from? What sorts of experiences have they had that got them to this point? Unless you're starting your story with a newborn character or a Jason Bourne-level amnesiac, they aren't popping into existence in a vacuum. How have their experiences molded who they are and how has who they are shaped their experiences?
3. Relationships
Who are your character's friends? Does your character have a spouse or significant other? What were their parents and siblings like? Who do they work for and/or with and how are those relationships. I am a strong believer that every relationship has the potential to influence us in ways large and small—so, too, are characters in a story influenced by the people around them.
4. Motivation
Why is your character doing what they're doing? What are their goals, dreams and desires? These are most often tied closely to background/personality and relationships, but can be distinct enough that I think this warrants separate classification. Remember that good characters are like real people, i.e., their motives tend to be complicated and rarely altogether altruistic.
TIP: If I'm having trouble sorting out my characters' backgrounds, relationships or motivations, I will sometimes interview them. If you're having trouble coming up with interview questions, try these.
Now, you don't have to share the vast majority of the answers to these questions with your readers. The best characters are at least somewhat of a mystery, especially to start with. Like a relationship with a person, readers want to get to know the character over time. Have you ever been on a date where someone just word vomits all over you with every detail of your life? It's not pleasant. Readers don't want your characters to do that, either. Some things may only ever be internal to the character, something only you know. And that's fine! Not everything that makes your character who they are needs to make it to the page.
Challenge: I believe that good creativity starts with good observation. So consider this: Who do you think are some of the best (not necessarily your favorite) characters in your favorite books, shows or movies? Why? See if you can emulate some of those qualities in your next project.
Until next time,
Randy
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