Workshop Wednesday - Characterization Part One

Workshop Wednesday - Characterization Part One

For me, characterization is the most important part of the whole writing process, so apologies in advance if this post gets vast and out of control. 

All my writers out there, you can join the conversation here on FB in my new self-pub-friendly writers' group. 

Every one of my books or short stories begins with a character, or a group of characters. I would like to say that I spend weeks expertly crafting them like a piece of fine furniture, but I can't take credit for that. Generally, characters walk out of the fog in my brain, wave, and introduce themselves. Sometimes they are unexpected, and other times I've already got the table set for dinner, watching the clock, hoping for them to show up. I realize this is not at all helpful as far as writing instruction goes, so in this post I'll (hopefully) break the process of characterization down in a way that helps you find your own special characters amidst the brain fog 😊

You'll Need:

A notebook and pen/Word doc

Whatever music or visuals help you feel creative

To Start:

The  best characters - the ones we love and root for, and conversely the ones we hate, the ones we feel as if we know on a personal level - are those who feel like fully-realized human beings with hopes, dreams, flaws, and history, as opposed to characters who are ciphers for the reader. This means that the characters won't always exactly reflect your ideas or approaches. It means that sometimes they will make readers angry. Think of your characters as people who already exist, and that rather than making them from scratch (which you're doing, but which is daunting to think about) you're simply getting to know them. For me, the characterization process is like a series of interviews and subsequent exposé articles. 

Free-Writing - Logically:

Spend some time with your notebook or Word doc listing everything relevant you can think of in regard to your character. Ideas of things to include: height, build, eye color, hair color, distinguishing facial features, nervous tics, favorite food, guilty pleasure, favorite book, favorite movie, nervous habits. You can choose these things arbitrarily, sure, but so rarely in life are our likes/dislikes/fears/passions arbitrary. When you write down a trait, ask yourself why you wrote it down. Why is this character this way? Sometimes it's helpful, and even revealing, to follow what I like to call "trails." I pick a trait, and then keep asking why until I reveal something important about the character. 

Here's an example: Let's say I have a character named Mike, and he's afraid of boats. Why? The boat is an inanimate object, after all. Maybe it's because, really, he's afraid to be out in open water in a boat. Why? Maybe he almost drowned as a child. Why? Maybe his father was piloting a boat while drunk and Mike ended up falling overboard. OR, maybe Mike was swimming in the lake and his life jacket came unbuckled - he started to sink and if his dad hadn't jumped in, he would have drowned. OR maybe his father drowned, and now he always associates boats and open water with his grief.

And so on and so on. You keep asking "why" and saying "or" until you arrive at a scenario that excites you as a writer - that you want to write about and think you could carry on for the length of a book. Write everything down so you can see it on paper - you'd be amazed how quickly you forget the little details when they aren't in front of you!

Sometimes I go through this process at the outset of a project, or in the case of secondary characters, I hold off and build on it as a I go. 

Example: I had Mercy all figured out at the beginning of Fearless, whereas Tango was largely a mystery. Mercy was fully-formed, while Tango was a collection of traits - quiet, loyal, kind, covered in tattoos and piercings, oddly pretty - who I built layer-by-layer with each book. 

Let Them Talk:

My test as to whether the character has become successfully human is waiting for them to start "talking" on their own. I start to hear their distinct voices, their cadences, their accents. It's common for a character to hijack a scene and take it off in an unanticipated direction, and I think it's important to allow them this leeway. I've found they generally know what they want. Which leads us to...

Motivation:

The plot of a book is journey that isn't just physical, but also mental, emotional, sometimes even spiritual. Characters begin the book in one place, and end up in another. Which is why it's so important that the characters want things. Wanting things they don't have creates tension and conflict, whereas content characters have no reason to go on journeys (this makes me think of Bilbo Baggins: "We don't want any adventures here!") 

Asking what your character wants can be tricky, though. At first, that something can be small. Take the prompt "he desperately wanted a cup of coffee" for instance. Right off the bat you have a story in the making: why is he tired? Did he have a rough night? Did he stay up late studying for an exam? Preparing a big project? Was he too nervous about something to sleep? 

From the small wants you can divine the character's big wants: a better job, a spouse, an escape, a whole new life, even. 

I think the most interesting stories - and the ones which are the most rewarding to write - are the ones that begin with a character who is either a) going through a transition in life, b) unhappy in some way, c) restless. Starting with a character who is happy and content automatically poses the problem of no tension, no drive to move forward. While we want to be happy and content in our real lives, happy, content characters are generally boring. Even if they sometimes appear happy and in good spirits outwardly, almost all of my characters begin their tales lonely, frustrated, and looking for some kind of change. Challenges and changes help reveal who characters are at their most basic levels, and it will be easier to write them honestly and bravely in those conditions. 

To Be Continued Soon! 

Next up: primary and secondary characters, juggling large groups of characters, and character interactions.