Character building (Or: Set your people free)

They say that hard work is character building. Well if you're new to writing like me, or maybe even if you're not, character building can also be hard work. It's great if your character comes fully formed in every detail, not just physically but also in terms of their personality. I wonder how often that happens though.

One of the most interesting experiences I had in writing Slybacon  was revisiting characters that I already knew. "Ha! You're a bad person, I know you" I might say to myself, only to discover that - yes, just like you and I - they have more than one layer, more than one dimension. And oftentimes I would learn something new, something that led me to have some compassion towards them. Of course, that makes writing the story less easy because now I understand them better, it's not so easy to smite them righteously. Because you see, whatever wrong they did they could - at least to themselves - rationalise and justify it. So I suppose that, just like real people in the real world (whatever that is), we need to spend time with our characters to fully understand them, otherwise we risk - just as in real life - pigeon holing, stereotyping and oversimplifying them.

So, I've been building a character today - two actually: my own and a chap called Les Duffy, the protagonist in my new project. I had a few vague ideas floating around my head about Les but it wasn't until I spent some time with him and started asking him some questions that I learned a lot about him. I'm sure you've all come across the prompting questions that get you to flesh out your character: what is his/her name? What does he/she look like? What is their greatest challenge, and so on. That's all very well, but those questions are aimed at  you. Ha! As if you know!

Surely there is no-one better to ask than the character him/herself? I  don't claim any credit whatsoever for this approach but today I've been asking Les a number of questions in what I call a 'character interview':
 

- How would you describe your appearance?

- Describe where you work and what you do

 

- Tell me about your home

 

- Where do you go for fun/relaxation?

 

- What is your dream - what do you want out of life?

 

- What is your greatest talent?

- What is your greatest fear/worst memory/strongest compulsion?

- What is your story? Tell me a bit about your background

Again just like real people, it's amazing what your characters tell you if you ask them the right questions and give them space to talk, and equally amazing - and particularly rewarding for you, the writer - is how much they unwittingly reveal about their lives, information that may take your story in a different direction or at least give it a more authentic ring.

So, take the pressure off yourself. Ask a few good questions and set your people free.

See you soon

Ian

Please follow this link to take a look at my new novel 'Slybacon'