Creating Characters

Finding surface-level characters is one of the most fun parts of writing. For me, it starts with visual impact. These are just a few ideas on how to come up with them. You may start by selecting the type of person you need and going out to look for her or him. Try the park on a sunny afternoon, the local mall, or the McDonald's near the high school. Sit with a book or cup of coffee and watch—carefully of course. Take notes on those that interest you. Or better yet, take a picture. For this, you need a partner. Taking pictures of strangers can be risky, especially if the subject is a young person. Have your partner pose near the subject so that it looks as if you're photographing the friend, when the real focus is the person just to the right.

Charlie Dance, Prime Target

 For a character you want to be memorable for the reader,  pick out a stereotype and consider what you could change about her to add a little interest or show a bit about her character. It could be something in her eating habits—a beautiful, expensively dressed young woman who chews with her mouth open, for example. Or it could be the way she walks, perhaps hunched a bit as if she'd like to hide.  Then consider the why. Why does such a girl have such poor manners? Why would an attractive girl want to avoid attention? Is she afraid? What kind of family does she come from? Maybe no family at all. The possibilities are endless. Just let your imagination run with it until something appeals to you.

 Find a face expressing some strong emotion and ask yourself why? What happened in the person's life to cause this look?

Winter Meal by Jan Tik, Prime Target

Pictures on the Internet are another source. Google an image for an emotion or expression, such as angry woman, sad man, or happy child. I keep a computer folder in my WIP file and save the ones that appeal to me. I note the url so if I ever want to use the photo for a cover or blog or something, I can write for permission. A bit of advice—don't fall in love with a photo before you know you'll be able to use it. I found a beautiful photo on Flickr of a deer eating apples and developed a whole story from it. (This is the one where Charlie Dance walked out of the woods.) The photo's been released to the public domain, but I'd love to have a high resolution version. Here it is, by Jan Tik.

 

Care to share your ideas for finding characters? We'd all love to have more ideas.

 Advice from many good writers that I've gathered over the years. 

THE HOOK

The opening paragraphs of a book are often called the hook—the opportunity to hook the reader on the book. Most successful openings include a change in the status quo—something is happening that makes the reader want to read further and find out how the characters deal with it and the outcome. The character or characters must be strong enough that the reader cares about them right away and wants to keep turning the pages. Pick an interesting event or create one and start the book with some kind of action and, possibly, dialogue. Dialogue should be short and snappy. Introduce at least one of the main characters and show the scene.

A hook should have three things: 1) where (place and time), 2) what's happening now, and 3) whose point of view. Keep the beginning short. Leave past history out of the hook and the opening scene. Save explanations, except for the absolute minimum the reader needs to know at this point, until later. The part immediately following the opening scene usually gives some background or history, but the beginning should be so compelling that the reader resents being taken out of the immediate scene.

Don't start at the beginning.  Nothing is happening there.  Start in the middle of things.  In media res. Start as late as possible; as close to the end as possible.  The later you can start without losing your readers, the better.

The beginning of your story must do at least the following three things:

1.         Get your story going and set the tone

2.         Introduce and characterize the protagonist (the first character you introduce should be the protagonist)

3.       Engage the reader's interest!

The opening scene can also create mood, introduce the narrator or narrative voice, introduce other characters, etc.

The beginning of story lays down the promise for the rest of story and you have to be willing to live by the rules you set. So be careful to open with the right promise. Don’t promise humor and deliver tragedy.  Don’t open with lyrical, poetic writing unless that’s the tone of the story.

 Backstory

A backstory (also back-story or back story) is the history behind the situation that’s current at the start of the main story. Backstory is used to lend the main story depth or the appearance of reality. A backstory may include the history of characters, objects, countries, or other elements of the main story. It can be revealed in flashback, dialogue, or exposition. Scatter the information through the story as it’s needed. Don’t tell the whole story at once.

Avoid using backstory in the opening scene. Let the reader wonder for a little while. Drop hints to generate interest, but don’t stop the action to give explanations.

Backstories are usually revealed in small bits as needed as the story progresses. Sometimes the writer creates an involved backstory for herself but only uses a small part in the story. A notable exception is George Lucas, who made three movies out of backstory. After he wrote the original Star Wars movies, he went back to explain where the characters came from. The backstory became The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith,