“The best boyfriends are the ones in books.” Leah Blundell
Who’s this story about, anyway?
By Dr Charley Barnes
Who’s this story about, anyway?
Character building in novels
Creating characters for a fresh piece of fiction is one of my favourite parts of the job. Nothing makes me happier some days than to sit down with a new person (or creature, depending on my genre choice), to share a cup of tea with them, and for us to really get to know each other.
It sounds like one of those quirky writer things, doesn’t it, reader? But this is usually how it goes!
“Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt. Relevant detail, couched in concrete, colorful language, is the best way to recreate the incident as it happened and to picture it for the audience.” Dale Carnegie
For me, I start with a name. On account of being terribly fussy, it’s usually the name of someone who I don’t actually know in real-life. My worry here has always been that if my best friend – let’s call her Alice – were to give her name to one of my characters, suddenly, that character becomes a mimicry of the actual Alice. So, I like to start with a name that’s unfamiliar to me. I don’t know anyone called Yasmin, for example.
The type of character I need Yasmin to be depends very much on the type of story I’m going to put her in. My favourite genre to write in is crime, so let’s put her in a crime story.
But, is she the protagonist (the goodie, as it were) or the antagonist (the baddie)?
Once these details have been worked out, it’s time to start asking questions. Let’s swerve away from things like, What are your thoughts on existentialism?
Existentialism is a philosophical theory that people are free agents who have control over their choices and actions.
It’s a little too hard-hitting for the kind of character development you’ll want when you’re first getting to know your Yasmin. Plus, there are much more entertaining and useful things to learn about them, when it comes to using them in a story.
Start with some basics:
- How old are you?
- Do you have any family?
- What do you do for a living?
Then, build up from the basics into the specifics:
- Did you have a favourite book as a child?
- Would you rather stay in and read, or go out and dance?
- What’s your favourite takeaway to indulge in?
Now, let’s be clear about one thing before we continue. Not all of this information will be relevant to whatever your Yasmin’s story is. You don’t need to shoehorn every detail into your manuscript. The details, though, will show how well you know your character and give them a sense of realness, which is what we’re all aiming for with our written creations.
If you’re struggling to think of questions to ask, take a quick whiz around your search engine of choice online. There are entire websites dedicated to questions you can ask, leaving you with a comprehensive overview of everything you might need to know about your new character. It can be a great writing exercise to give your creative muscles a workout, too, which is an added bonus.
Ultimately, the better you know your character, the easier it will be to capture their voice. They’ll become believable for you as well as being believable for your reader, which is an important part in making your book, story, play or poem really come alive.
And here's the wonderful author of this week’s post
Dr Charley Barnes
Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2019-2020
Managing Director | Sabotage Reviews
"I'm a poet, author and academic based in Worcestershire, UK, and I do love a good sit-down conversation about writing. At present, I'm a lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature and I work at a number of institutions around the West Midlands, most recently University of Worcester and Newman University. When I'm not teaching I'm likely writing - Charley Barnes for poetry and C.S. Barnes for fiction - or I'm editing, either at the Dear Reader poetry journal or as the Personal Essays and Creative Non-Fiction Editor at Mookychick. I've devoted my career to writing and I've loved every second so far! It makes me sincerely happy to pass on a few pearls of wisdom that I've picked up along the way."
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Hope you enjoyed this week's helpful read
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