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FOREWORD
I have never felt that a single guide or "how to" manual has given me what I need, so please do NOT count on me alone. There is much to be learned that I won't offer here.
In Part 2 of STYLE & MENTALITY I want to show you how I create characters. I don't go by a strict guide. I just have habits that work best for me and they may work for you.
WHY I CREATE CHARACTERS:
Many of us have a knack for creating characters out of the blue. There's a thing about creative people immersed in the constant flow, and the harder you work at it you'll understand.
We creatives soak up a lot of information on a daily basis, but we're more affected by it than most. But we're only as influential as we are influenced.
We're even more unique for the fact that how we've all grown individually, and what we've personally experienced, gives our writing styles their own DNA that can be separated from others. This to me is the first milestone of originality.
Marketing goons call it "thinking outside the box" (that and thinking for yourself, which oddly doesn't work for rebels like me when they're given permission to do so).
Others call it "just your opinion", while I prefer to call it "saying it like I see it," but unlike most people, I wasn't just looking from my own eyes. I tend to employ a lot of empathy.
But what draws us to our favourite characters?
We've seen enough on the screen, we've all read books and comics and short stories and played video games. Everybody has at least one majorly influential fictional hero from back in the day.
You can either create your own with your influences in mind, you can write directly from your own identity, you can start afresh and use your stories as a sort of character study - to offer a learning experience - or like me you can listen to your character's voice while it's still in your mind, hear what they live for, and you can let them write themselves in.
I write characters based on the types of people I've met and gained a deep understanding of throughout my life. It helps to have a choice of realisitic characters to choose from when I have a story concept.
And when writing is at its meditative best, you'll find that you can tap into your own intuition when it comes to performing a little psychology, and no matter who your character is, they'll find their own way if you just lend them your hands.
Above all, I simply write my characters because they desire to live and breathe. Why do you write your own characters?
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HOW I PROFILE A CHARACTER:
Let's say I have an idea for a story I want to write. I've written out a storyline or a plot in my head because before it goes to my note book, I need characters that are more than just "MAN A" and "WOMAN A".
As I say, they often come to life in my mind and they will remind me of people or characters that I know, so they may take the same first name or last name and a similar appearance.
But I need an ensemble of characters that will man both the context and subtext like we're running a ship. When you're running a ship, you adopt it as your home. And you adopt its crew as your family.
Take a look at your life, your family, your friends, your work associates and think about what place they take, what your place is, and how you all see each other. We all have a place to belong in somebody's mind, even if we don't necessarily have a place to feel we belong.
That's how I look at my characters, just like everyday people!
CHARACTER PROFILING is easy and fun. Think about someone you know who would suit the characters you're creating and think of their mannerisms, the type of things they're known to say and do. Like real people they probably show different personality traits to different people, because we all appeal to each other in different ways, being the socially refined creatures that us adults are.
Personally I'll let them sit in my head for a few days first, just like my stories. If I forget them, they just weren't memorable enough to survive me, let alone my audience.
But try writing a profile, with age, gender, job, life goals, an interest or two and a life event that defines their personality. Endear yourself to them and they will become more than just a voice.
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THE CHARACTER CODE:
This is something that not all writers think to do with more mabitious works. We may not all have a purpose in life, but we all have a way of living, principles, a moral code, or ethics.
Because life might be simple enough for some, or others may be shameless and aggressive in taking what they want easier than they could ever earn it, but one thing that's true of life is that we all experience the consequences of somebody else's actions in some way or another.
Therefore I like to give some main characters a few codes by which they live, whether it's by their own choosing or imposed upon them by the world in which they live.
Or by me, the writer!
Let's take a celeb and drop them in our fictional world:
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Bradley Cooper!!
Excitement aside, Bradley is now living in a world that has yet to be written, but we know that he must struggle to come to terms with the way of this world, just as he had to come to terms with his own reality.
Now let's say that Bradley's own greatest principle is Compassion.
Once upon a time in his fictional life he was homeless and experienced first hand the cruelty and coldness of the uncharitable majority. He had a dog called Bruce. Bruce was kicked to death by drunks.
Not just grateful of the better life he has moved onto, he swore for his old pal Bruce, who he feels he failed, that he would always find a way to be Compassionate to those who looked like they would really benefit from it.
Compassion is a beautiful saintly thing. And because of it, Bradley's second Code is that because opportunistic people tend to prey on his sense of Compassion, he is also Lonely.
A Compassionate man, Lonely because it's hard to find a friend you can trust.
So Bradley wanders this world with few friends and the women in his life are platonic because he's scared to let them in, afraid that they'll take advantage of his good nature.
Bradley's third and last Character Code is that he can't let go of his past. He's not allowed to. I, the writer, will make him wander the streets, feeling guilty of his better life all because people are still suffering.
If only he could save just one life. Pocket change won't save a life directly, talking someone out of drinking booze might, but he may never see that person again and therefore he won't be there to make sure they stay clean.
Then one night he sees a drunken gang of men attacking a homeless young girl. She's getting the ever-loving shit kicked out of her, just like poor old Bruce.
What the fuck is it with you people?
Bradley, Lonely, Compassionate and unable to Forget, takes on the gang and gets a knife in the kidney. SHE then saves HIM...
