BUILDING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS FROM THE GROUND UP by Kit Ehrman

BUILDING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS FROM THE GROUND UP
by Kit Ehrman copyright 2005

What's so important about character, anyway?
Character is the reader's ACCESS to the story. CHARACTER IS EVERYTHING.
Character interprets everything. The story comes from character
Things to keep in mind as you consider character:
Introduce primary characters early in the book. If you wait to introduce the antagonist at the end, that’s a cheap shot.
Flesh out primary characters in your prep work. Know what they think and feel, know what makes them tick.
Make the primary character distinguishable, remarkable, memorable, lovable/hateable.
Don’t confuse the reader by giving them a character that changes too much. Make them consistent.
Make them principled, honorable, and most important, flawed. Make your primary character believable. Real people have lisps, warts, false teeth, a limp. Very few people look good with their clothes off.
Characters that are too good to be true won’t be believed.
Don’t rely too heavily on physical descriptions to identify characters because you’re not going to describe them every time they come onstage.
But, give your characters certain trademark mannerisms that you can use occasionally so your reader remembers them: a tic, habit of brushing hair out of face, fidgets, clears throat, an overbearing demeanor, a loud voice ...
Make your hero a hero. If evil wins the reader will be disappointed. The reader invests time in the character. Don’t let them down.
Study real people—this is very important. Sit back and observe, record, watch people. Take notes. Use your powers of observation, then apply your imagination.

What’s your job, anyway?
You are writing for the reader. You need to know what the reader wants—to be entertained. The reader needs at least one likeable character, and they want to be intrigued. They want to find out what’s going to happen next, but what happens needs to be logical.
Where to Start?
Okay, you need to develop a character to carry your short story or novel. Where do you begin?
The tendency is to make every character like yourself—DON’T.
1. Use a photo of a person as an aid to develop that character.
2. Chose a name. Many writers need this to get going.
3. Consider the story premise, idea, or concept. Do the “What if?” scenario. What character will work best for this story?
4. The opening situation is a good place to start thinking about the kind of character you’ll want to use. What kind of person would likely find herself in your opening scene?
5. What’s an ordinary day like for your character?
6. What does she keep in her purse? What credit cards does she have? Clothing, jewelry? What type of car does he have? Go from there.
7. Start with stereotype, then go beyond that.
8. Think of the story’s opening dialogue. What kind of character will you use?
9. What major or minor decision will your character need to make? Have your character dare to make a change in his/her life.
10. What’s your character’s speaking voice sound like?
11. What dialect, idiom, regional phrases, grammar, cadence, does he use?
12. What Zodiac sign is she?
13. Use a character profile worksheet as a starting point and to get you thinking.
14. Is there a character in book or TV show who is similar to your character?
15. What single physical trait would you use to describe your character?
16. Begin with the character’s world setting, then think, who lives there?
17. Create another character to act as a balance –a sidekick.
18. Use people-watching, eavesdropping to help you develop character.
19. Incorporate an element of yourself. Sometimes this will only be expressed in the theme of the book.
20. Sum your character up in a motto, then go from there.
21. What’s your character’s family position, sibling rank, black sheep?
22. Has there been a tragedy--personal, national, worldwide that has affected your character?
23. What’s your character’s job--pick something different.
24. Consider your plot finale--work back from there--what kind of person would be in this situation?
25. You’ve decided on a story location. Who would live here? How would setting affect them?
26. What piece of technology helps define the character. Or not?
27. Does the character have a handicap, general health issue?
28. What are his bad habits--smoking, drinking, controversial habits? Does he have the ability to break bad habits?
29. What kind of food does he eat? Junk food? Health nut?
30. How old is your character? What are his life experiences?
31. Opening line can suggest character. Start your book a with good opening line.
32. Just as the story’s opening can suggest a character, so can the end. Plot the end—you need someone who can pull the ending off. Need someone to whom the ending matters.
33. Tags--good way to start a character. Tags are one or two adjectives that describe a character. Aloof, lonely, depressed, nervous, polite.
34. Nothing happens in history without a person attached to it. History can give us lots of ideas.

Live through your characters.
Have them do things you would like to do but are afraid to do

Character Profile Worksheet
Basic Statistics
Name:
Age:
Nationality:
Socioeconomic Level as a child:
Socioeconomic Level as an adult:
Hometown:
Current Residence:
Occupation:
Income:
Talents/Skills:
Salary:
Birth order:
Siblings (describe relationship):
Spouse (describe relationship):
Children (describe relationship):
Grandparents (describe relationship):
Grandchildren (describe relationship):
Significant Others (describe relationship):
Relationship skills:

Physical Characteristics
Height:
Weight:
Race:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Glasses or contact lenses?
Skin color:
Shape of Face:
Distinguishing features:

Personality
Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.)
How does he/she dress?
Mannerisms:
Health:
Hobbies:
Favorite Sayings:
Speech patterns:
Disabilities:
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):
Greatest flaw:
Best quality:
Learning Experiences:
Character's short-term goals in life:
Character's long-term goals in life:
How does Character see himself/herself?
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?
How self-confident is the character?
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?
What would most embarrass this character?
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background:
Intelligence Level:
Any Mental Illnesses?
What would the character like to change in
his/her life?
What motivates this character?
What frightens this character?
What makes this character happy?
Is the character judgmental of others?
Is the character generous or stingy?
Is the character generally polite or rude?

Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God?
What are the character's spiritual beliefs?
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life?
If so, what role does it play?
Emotional Characteristics
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?
How does the character deal with anger?
With sadness?
With conflict?
With change?
With loss?
What does the character want out of life?

How the Character is Involved in the Story
Character's role in the novel (main character? hero? heroine? Romantic interest? etc.):
Scene where character first appears:
Relationships with other characters:
Describe relationship with this character and changes to relationship over the course of the novel:
How character is different at the end of the novel from when the novel began:

Additional Notes on This Character:


What Makes Character Appealing?

1. Fascinating character with interesting goals.
2. Principles--hold them dear.
3. Self sacrifice is strength of spirit.
4. More reality than you can ever hope to know from a real person. Reader can know character better than she knows real people in her life.
5. Secrets appeal to readers. We all like to find out secrets.
6. Emotion--find out about something by character’s emotions.
7. Caring--empathy, and root for someone.
8. Want hope. Reader wants to look in a mirror, not at what they are but what they hope to become.
9. Make it difficult for the main character.

Writer’s Exercises--Getting to Know Your Character

Fill out a character profile worksheet on any character you’re having trouble with. Then, answer the following questions:
Who am I?
What am I doing in this story?
What do I want?
What is my goal(s)?

Share the character profile worksheet with members of the critique group who are interested in doing this exercise. They will write as many questions that come to mind, for your character to answer. Have your character answer the questions, then return. Keep repeating the process until the questions are exhausted (or you are). You should really know your character by the time you’re finished.

Examine How Others Develop Character in the Story

Read a published novel in the genre you’re interested in and do the following exercise, (choosing those elements you are interested in and need to improve in your own writing).
In different colors, underscore:
a. sections that define VOICE
b. sections that demonstrate CHARACTERIZATION
c. sections that show BACK STORY
d. sections where things are happening SHOWING
e. narration TELLING
f. any other aspect that you’re working on
g. sections of DIALOGUE you particularly like

Do this one with your own manuscript, too!
Character must be a risk-taker to be compelling.
WHAT WE REALLY WANT IS TO FIT IN—THAT’S WHAT YOUR CHARACTER WANTS, TOO.

Creating a Character That Will Carry a Story
Create characters with a past, present and future.

PAST

What happened in the past to the character is not the same as back story. What happened in the past shades how the character will react to the present and the future. Back story is part of the plot.

What happened in the past is usually not relevant to the story but it affects the character by contributing to the character’s voice and point of view.

Meshing of the past and present helps you express the character on the page.

Components of the Past

Family: parents, siblings, is the family together? How together were they? What did the family do on holidays?
Religion: How does the family feel about religion? If you give your character a religious, spiritual, or philosophical base, it makes them a more complete person. Then you are writing top notch stuff. All the best authors give their main character some kind of philosophical base. It makes the character more complete.
Friends: best friends, lost friends. Enemies--are flip side of same coin. Enemies probably interact with your main character as much as friends.
Home: class, social/economic location, suburbs, city, country, location in the United States.
Self Image: VERY IMPORTANT
Self image is NOT reality, but you believe it more. Parts of self image are:
successes
failures
level of beauty (this is known at an early age)--how you act comes out of your feeling of beauty
Success: kids who were not successful when young don’t expect it later.
Failures: also define the character.
Death: what kind did the character experience and how did it affect them?
Secrets: what secrets does character have? Did character have to admit secrets or is he still carrying them around?
Key Moments in Characters Life: These key moments are very individual, personal.
Events (actions). Something that you didn’t do; something that you should have done.
Romance/Sex
Work: depending on the age of character, it can be an entire resume, or very little.
Academics: level of achievement
popularity
smarts and what you did with them--did you waste them--did you hide them?
common sense

PRESENT

Age: means a lot. What we know. What we experience.
Emotions: What is your first emotional response to things? Emotions--predisposition to outlook on life. What is the character’s range of emotions? What is his temperament?
Conflict: What are current conflicts in character life? Ask you character this, then do some free writing. Anything that defines character’s life can be a conflict.
Code: The code that a character lives by will help decide how they respond to an event.
1. values
2. beliefs
3. ethics
4. politics
5. morals
6. attitudes
7. religion
Religion of childhood (PAST) is not necessarily religion of present.
Ethics: principles of right conduct.
Morals: character’s conception of what is right and wrong.

Attitude: often comes out of personality type.
Interests: hobbies
passions
relaxations
all three are shaded differently
Jobs
Current family: has it multiplied, divorced?
Current friends
Appearance: social/economic apparent in appearance, dress, as character grows older, usually stops worrying about keeping up with new trends in hairstyles, dress.
Current Romances
Current Home
Money: How much does character have, how much does character want, what does character do with it when he has it?
Change: There should be a gradual change in the character all the way through the book until the change has solidified at the end.

FUTURE

Goals: Figure out what’s meaningful. There are goals, and there are personal goals.
Happiness: if character has goals that don’t have anything to do with what they want, than that in itself is interesting. They might have been taught that “you’re not supposed to be happy.”
Expectations of the Future
family--plan to get married?
plan to have kids?
security--example: “I’ll own my own house.”
health--want to live a long healthy life
potential--will character realize their potential
self image--if someone has a low self image, or high expectations of themselves this affects them.
dreams--little or no grounding in reality?
people--character expects people they love to be alive tomorrow
money

Thoughts on Naming

Most writers put too much emphasis on name; however name is important, significant.

Size matters: There are several things that matter from a reader's perspective. It’s not a good idea to have names that are all the same length, either very long or very short. They run together.
Shape matters: It’s bad if all the shapes of the letter are the same.
Endings matter: Don’t have all your names end in “Y”
Patterns matters: Don’t let every name have the same pattern of letters.
Sound matters: Think of the sound of the name. Fred, Ted, Ned
First letters of each character name should be different. Only use first letter once, if you can.
Clichés matter: Watch clichés in names. ex: Mary is good, Vinnie is bad.
Don’t make names symbolic.
Meaning matters: Consider meaning of name. Also, think about meaning name has for character and reader.
Date matters: You can date people by their names.
Does your character like her name?
Different forms of name show relationship between characters.
You can use given names in a way that is insulting or a form of it that isn’t respectful.
Names are our identity.

Characters Fill Different Functions
hero helper
villain hindrance or obstacle
protector reflection--character exists to mirror other people
users or manipulators guides or mentors--new trend is for this to be a woman
teacher leader or inciter--someone who nags main character
cheerleader or supporter walk-on or placeholder
window to the world savior--hard to pull off

A trend is for the hero to be the leader, but it’s more interesting if the hero is not the leader. Victims make a bad main character, unless an event causes them to act in certain way, and if they grow out of it. A victim works well as a side character and gives the hero a reason to do something.

Okay, You Know Your Character. Now What?

Once you know your protagonist so completely that he seems like a real person, how do you get the reader to know him? First off, the reader is going to come to know him gradually, just as we come to know people we meet in real life. Don’t dump a lot of information all at once. Let the reader gradually come to know your protagonist’s beliefs, problems, hang-ups, issues, etc.

FOUR WAYS READERS COME TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTER

1. The Physical

a. Physical Description
Physical description of a character’s body type, face, hair is often the first thing that comes to mind, but its importance is often overrated. When describing a character’s physical qualities, pick something specific and memorable and unique. Do not list features. The reader’s not going to remember them, anyway, and they’re not going to want to read them in the first place. Give them enough specific and interesting physical descriptions and let them fill in the blanks.

Don’t stop the story to describe. Combine description with action and you’ll get two things done at once, and the description won’t seem obtrusive.

b. Tags
Similar to physical description is a physical tag that helps the reader place secondary characters. Physical tags such as greasy hair, wrap-around sunglasses, hunched shoulders, thin hair combed across a balding crown, even action tags or habits such as squinting or adjusting glasses or chewing fingernails help the reader keep your characters straight—especially secondary characters. With a main character, habits can help you define personality or just make them seem more human. A tag word might be, “right-o” or “geez” or “whatever.”

Tags--descriptive, action, favorite words--help the reader keep characters straight.

c. Dress ’em Up
What your character chooses to wear tells us a lot about their personality. T-shirts, dirty jeans, work boots, tell us one thing about the character, his personality, socioeconomic station. Pressed shirts and slacks, tasseled loafers, leather briefcase, neatly trimmed hair all tell us something else.
2. Deeds of the Character

Facial expressions, posture, body language, and speech all convey character. Even the way a character moves tells us a lot. Is he athletic? A klutz? Stiff with arthritis? The environment your character has chosen to live and work in tells us a lot, too. And the way they maintain that environment tells us even more. Is he a slob, fastidious, disorganized? Show the reader the world your character inhabits, and you’ll be telling them a great deal about the character without actually telling them.
Writer’s Exercise: Watch a favorite movie and take note of all the little details that tell you about character, then make use of what you’ve learned as you write.
3. Introspection

Combined with a bit of physical description, most writers use internal thoughts to convey characterization.

The character’s thoughts, attitudes, vocabulary, world view, mannerisms (traits, habits, nonverbal communication) are all used to reveal character. How does the character relate to other people? We relate differently to every person we meet. Show this in your character.

You need to keep in mind how the character is presented—that the reader interprets character. Unless you are a very strong writer, everyone will come away with different interpretation of your character. Ask readers what they thought about your character. Have a reason for everything the character does in the story. Have a reason for everything you write in the story.

Internal conflict is a key ingredient of introspection. Without external conflict (what makes this period in your character’s life different from his everyday life) there is no plot. Without internal conflict, characters have no depth. Internal conflict is inherent to the characters. It’s part of their psyche—a problem they may not be aware of or have not faced until the external conflict forces it into the light. Resolving this internal conflict is how your characters grow. And a character that doesn’t grow is not worth reading about. However, if you’re writing a series, you need to consider how your protagonist will come to grips with this conflict. You’ll want to spread it out over several books.
Leave room for characters to grow.
Sometimes, having your character not express an emotion is a way of expressing emotion. We are trained by the screen and try to overdo it. What else could the character do when upset? Hug themselves, rock—going back to childhood, breathing changes—faster, shallow, raspy, restlessness, especially if you’re waiting for news, repetitive action, temperature change—getting hot. Denial—if they don’t acknowledge the loss, it isn’t happening. How can you show emotion in a way that’s less obvious, but more dramatic? An undercurrent. Silence—what’s happens when people are not talking. We as writers want to fill the space, but you don’t always need that. Silence can be dramatic. Silence can be weightier, frightening. How do you say it in a way that’s new?

If you are portraying the non-emotion of a character or of a culture, it can be non-engaging for the reader. Restrained emotion is a problem for dramatics. Be careful if you develop a protagonist who is extremely reticent or unemotional. He may not engage the reader.

4. Attitudes of Other Characters

You can show character through the words and actions of other characters.

The most important thing to remember about these four steps is that you should use all of them – often, from Chapter One to The End.

Viewpoint

Viewpoint is about character. It is a powerful tool.

Viewpoint duplicates the human experience. You are locked inside your brain. You can only see from your viewpoint.

We are also in the reader’s brain--very powerful thought.

You need to decide:
1. between first and third person
2. how true will you be to the boundaries of that viewpoint
3. if you want to get a physical description across, you need to make it incidental
4. how deep to go in duplicating character’s thoughts. If you go deep you need to go deep through out the entire book.

What would I know or experience if I were that character. It’s like acting. What do I want reader to know.

What moves the story forward. What is the purpose.

Viewpoint--you have to establish your set of rules and then stick to them throughout.

Line Break * * * indicates change in location
time
point of view