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How well do you know your favorite character?

Writers, how do you get to know your character? (BQ!)?

  • Do you make a file folder for the character and put in their "birth certificate"? Do you write short stories with him/her as the main character to get to know him/her better? What do you do? (: BQ: Does your main character's name mean something special?

  • Answer:

    I had a story idea. It was a Cold Case mystery (before Cold Case mysteries were popular). I knew the setting, and I knew the problem (the murder). I didn't have a protagonist. But it would obviously be a cop. So I made a name up (no it did not have any significance) and threw him into the crime scene. I did a background on him, so thought I knew quite a lot about his character. I got to about chapter three, but the story was flat. The character was flat, and it was effecting the story. I finally gave up and shelved the project. However, the next mystery (a short story) I sat down to write I tossed my character (his name was Mike Armstrong) in as the protagonist. The story didn't need a lot of background on the character, but he came across as more animated the he had in the novel. Every short story mystery I wrote for the next few years featured this guy, and I got to know him. But there were still some things I "knew" about him from the background I originally wrote that weren't clear in my head and hadn't come up in the stories I had written. So I sat down and wrote a story just for my own information which I never intended to market to find out the details of these background notes. It actually turned out to be one of the best stories I ever wrote, although it wasn't a mystery. An editor was actually willing to print the story, along with several other stories about this character, but I needed at least one more story to go with them. So, I sat down and wrote the original story I had invented Mike Armstrong for. It came out as a novella rather then a full blown novel, but that worked in the context of the book that was going to be published. After all these short stories I knew so much about my character the novella almost wrote itself. I was very satisfied with my results. I wasn't so satisfied with the edit my editor produced, but that's a whole different question.

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I write his/her life story from being conceived [yes, I tell about what his/her parents thought/did] to where the story starts. BQ: My first novel's character's name was Ashley, and he was a guy...his name contributed to the creation of the whole book's plot! "Wouldn't it suck to be a guy named Ashley who knew a bunch of girls with his name? Wouldn't it suck even more if your parents wanted you to be a girl and named you Ashley anyway just because it's a unisex name?"

-ninja »Ձ૦١મǃ«

I do make a file folder, usually. Though, I also use the second options. There's probably about 200 short stories with my main character on my computer. BQ: Yes, I usually use names that relate to their personality, or that are ironic.

The Struggling Author

even though some think that the name means absolutely nothing- to me it means everything...TO get to know my characters i almost play their god and throw them in different situations and see how they react then after so many " short stories " i have my character and then i can put them into a book as the main character or even as a subordinate character. And then finally once i know my character completely i give the name...a name that is worthy.

Clemons

You need to put them in situations that a lot of people don't experience regularly and see how they react. For instance, don't write a scene where they wait in line at McDonald's. There aren't really multiple ways to do that; you won't get to know anyone by seeing them do that. Put them in an original situation, even in just an experimental short story if you want. How about a conversation after they see a movie with a friend? Their reaction to a certain type of music? Who they voted for in the last election?

Scrampigeon

Once I get an idea in my head, I think about it for a while. It's like a movie that just replays in my head, So once I sit down and write it I know exactly who they are and what they stand for. Most of the time, I just pick names I love/I think suit them. I can never stay with the same story for a long period of time, which is a horrible thing. I hardly ever finish a book. But here are like...all of my characters names from each book. I usually write about romance 99.9% of the time and these are the ones I think worth mentioning soo... (: Nyla and Cam. Siobhan and Tristan. Isabelle and Evan. Tabitha and Everett. Ivory and Jacob. Avery and Hunter. (: Lots of unfinished stories in my computer.

owringe.

I write little facts of my main character in my notebook. BQ: Jasmine...I don't know why I chose that name. Maybe because it's a flower and I like the smell of jasmines.

Colombiana Swimmer

Well, I normally have two or so pages talking about them (their steps and actions throughout the story and such) then I have tons of short stories. Seeing as how I love to write fluff between my main character and the second main character (although they will never be a pair) I normally write fluff for her and him. I also write a lot of other stories, things that could never happen in the story (like me meeting them or something) and see where that goes. Yes my characters name is special. It was my great grand mother's name, and I have never heard it anywhere else.

BooksRule

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