The Writer's Handbook - Write & Publish Like Industry Professionals

CRAFTING BELIEVABLE CHARACTERS

Characters are the lifeblood of our books, without them there really isn't a story. But that's the tricky part, isn't it? Getting to grips with our characters so we are able to create living, breathing, believable beings. Characters readers care about, cry over, shout at, laugh with, cheer for, and if they become really invested, tell their friends about. So, how do we do that?

There's a couple of tricks which can be used to prepare ourselves before we even begin to tackle that first blank page. 

First, for those who plan, take a good look at your outline. Try to see each character as they work through their part of the story, how would they realistically react to the events as they unfold? What is their story arc? Who are they at the beginning of the book and who have they become by the end of the book? Have they changed? (If not, time for a rethink of the plot; there needs to be a journey so the characters can transition from one stage to the next, it's an essential ingredient for a story to be successful.) 

Next, it's time to think about not only the events the characters are going through, but how they are reacting to them. First, how they react physically (the action moments of the narrative), then emotionally (descriptive), and finally mentally (which is internalization, extremely useful in first and third-person subjective POVs). All of these components are fundamental to building an appreciation for our characters as individual beings in their own right, allowing us to sense the more subtle aspects of their motivations, quirks, habits and choices. 

For those who don't plan outlines, an alternative method to the above is to imagine our characters acting through the scenes we do have envisioned, but instead of seeing them move through the scene like a dispassionate actor, saying the lines and moving through the actions, let them go a little, watch them move around the 'room' of the scene, let them explore, even leave the room - what are they drawn to? Where do they go? What are they interested in? What intrigues them? What repels them? It takes time, focus and patience to connect to our characters, but an exercise like this (or the one above, or any variation on these themes) is time well spent, jump starting our journey into their hearts and minds. Most authors have a strong instinct for their characters without realizing it. Often, it's the overwhelming noise of crafting an entire novel which drowns out the personalities of our nascent characters; those wonderful, complex personalities being offered to us from the depths of our subconscious. If we give them the time and space to be heard, they will come forward, granting us a mountain of material to work with, sometimes far more than we need.

The second trick is either to slow down our writing as we create so we can immerse ourselves in the environment of our scenes, taking the time to use all five senses (more on this next week) to craft in what our character is experiencing (which immediately connects the author far more deeply with their character), or if that is not preferable, then once the outline of the story is sketched out, committing to returning after the first draft is completed and working these details in during the revision stage. I found a fantastic example of how to craft like this in a NaNoWriMo blog post titled Occupy Steve. It's so brilliant that for the next part (in italics below) I'm going to hand the mic to Elizabeth Lyon, book editor and author on writing (original full post for the excerpt below can be found by clicking on the External Link just above the comments) 

Let's call your character Steve. He's standing on a side street in downtown Seattle. Where specifically? GPS him. Look around—is he standing on the cracked, uneven sidewalk outside Burger Brothers? Near enough to hear the baritone blasts of the cruise ships at the pier? Or notice the rain pinging off the aluminum awning? Suddenly his attention is grabbed by an old green Pontiac roaring through a curbside puddle sending a spray over his secondhand boots and threadbare jeans. Damn it. The door opens behind him, and Steve's stomach rumbles as he catches the smell of French fries sizzling in hot oil.

Be specific and the reader will slide right into the body of your character, eager for a vicarious ride.

Okay, we have Occupy Steve. So far so good. What is he feeling and why? Feelings supply motives, and thoughts provide a plan of action. Something is always happening to your characters, and he or she must react. If your character is mad, how mad? Miffed? Homicidal? How would he or she display fury? By kicking the chair over? Every heartbeat like flint on flint sparking a blaze of expletives?

We editors like to advise, "put emotions on the body." Visceral or physical reaction first, then emotion and thought. After you've added reactions appropriate to the action, weave in thoughts—memories, concerns, and decisions—whatever drives your character into the next action. In other words, characterization drives plot.

Let's revisit poor Steve. The door of the restaurant flies open and a man exiting slams into Steve. Action. The blow knocks the air out of his lungs and throws him hard on his left shoulder, already bruised badly. The pain pulses out blasts of hurt that light a blowtorch of rage. Not even a 'sorry, mister'. Invisible. Nobody wants to see a homeless vet, or an addict, or a beat-up old man standing in the rain hoping for a handout. Steve struggles to his feet and stares after the well-dressed man. Steve clutches his shoulder and limps down the sidewalk. He'd catch the S.O.B. and make sure one man would never forget him.

Invested? You bet. And that's all there is to it, really. Your characters need to be consistent and authentic for readers to be able to care about them, believeable in their actions, thoughts, motivations and choices as they work their way through the adventure laid out for them. Taking the time to get to know one's characters by feeling the story through their perspective is the quickest path to investing not only ourselves into our characters, but our readers. And the rest, as they say, is history.