Fiction

Q&A #1

JustReading1996 asked: "How do you make you characters so diverse and unique in their own way without giving them your own personality traits?"

First of I want to say, it's totally impossible to fully get rid of your own personality while creating/writing a character, because you're the person behind them. They are how you imagine them, how you want them to be, so they always hold and reflect a part of yourself as well. It's something none of us can influence.

There are things, most of my characters tend to have in common too and that definitely reflects my own personality. I try to avoid them, but in the end they're easier to write... or I don't even realise I'm doing it. One thing for instance is that all my characters tend to be savage, which I often don't even realise until a reader points it out.  We're not robots, so we can't just turn our own personality off. 

Secondly, I want to say that diversity and uniqueness is hard to define. I don't know if I'd say my characters are diverse and unique. It isn't like I sit down and decide to create a diverse or unique character... or even such a plot. I just try to make them seem real I guess... and well there are all sorts of people out there, after all we're all unique in our own way. 

But back to the question, how do I do this?

There's no easy answer and I guess everyone has a different technique, but for me, it all starts once I "create" a character.

I guess this part is for everyone the same- I imagine a character in my mind-

-One that fits the plot the best I want to write. If my story idk focuses on a loner in high school, she's prbly going to be a rather shy girl and not a savage and cool badass with lots of friends. (Try to avoid cliches tho!) 

Taking the plot into consideration helps a lot. Out of Time was supposed to be about Keith Moon at first, until I thought 'Would he even care if sb told him he was going to die? Or even believe them?' I came to the conclusion: He probably wouldn't and my story wouldn't work or it would be a lot harder to make it work.🤔

Instead of loud, larger than life Keith Moon, I needed a character who is more sensible, scared, depressed, misunderstood and open minded for spirituality, whose life ended too early and didn't go the way they wanted it too... They would accept help far easier. That's how Brian Jones got the part in the end.

After I have settled on a plot and a person/character that could work, I draw out more details about them. At first rather basic, on the surface stuff. Age, looks, name, background and so on. I question "every single" thing tho with the plot in mind. For example, if I make her 15 years old, does that influence the plot? What sort of problems might this cause?

I don't make random choices, every aspect of a character I create is well thought out. Our personalities aren't just totally random either, so often there's a reason why we act the way we do. If you figure these things out for your characters, you understand them and they're easier to write in my opinion at least. And it gives them more substance too.

Like why do you want your OC to be a model for instance?

If 'because she's pretty and I want all the boys to love her, so she can cause drama and have lots of romances' is your only reasoning, it's kinda weak.

Instead try to give it more deepth: 'Since her childhood, she had always dreamed about being as pretty as the girls in the magazines; Wearing pretty clothes, going out with movie stars and seeing the world... It seemed so glamorous and exciting, so unlike the humble life she had. She realised her dream, but soon found out  that not everything that glitters is gold." This way you actually have something to base your character traits and her background on. You want to tell a story after all, so tell a story.

Another thing that helps at least with my OC's is that I base some of them on actual people. I did this in "No expectations"- a story I took down for now, but plan on re-uploading once Out of Time is done. The 3 main OC's are all based on actual people- I changed some things, but it still helps a lot with writing. 

It might sound like a lot of work and it probably is more than just jumping into the story and writing it. I don't do a full analysis for every story either, but there's always a layout somewhere. Plus if you already worked out a character, that appears in more than one of your stories, you just have to update and adapt them to the new scenario.   

I once found these couple of questions of stuff you should know about your characters and these are seriously very true and useful:

I'd just add another few:

•What is your characters motivation?
•What are their dreams?
•How do they want to achieve them?
•What are your characters most obvious character traits?
• What is their background?
•What is their mission in the story?
•Does their character change over time? If so, how? And why?
....

There are probably even more things, one perhaps could consider, but I think in the end everyone needs to figure out what best works for them. 

To me- to summarise this comment- it is creating plots and characters that can go together and to get to know them to the point they feel like old friends. Give them a story too, maybe not every minor background character needs a full one, but at least enough to explain their behaviour with.

Not sure if this was helpful to anyone, but as I said everyone should try to figure out what works for them, but I think the more you know about your character, the easier it gets to write them. 🤷🏻‍♀️