TECH: Who's that? (Novel Writing Bootcamp #4)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 18 Nov 2009

Writer's Digest, March 2004, page 42 to 49, has a bonus section with the title, "Novel Writing Boot Camp," by Bob Mayer. I'm probably not going to summarize all of the bits and pieces, but let's pick out some of the odds and ends.

Another sidebar on page 46 talks about Building Your Character's Personality. Bob suggests that when you're trying to understand your character, you can sit down with a pen and paper and answer these questions:

1. What does your character look like? How does she talk? How does she act? Any mannerisms?
2. What's her background? Where was she born? What were her parents like? How was she raised? Where did she go to school? What level of education?
3. What's her job like? What special skills does her job require, and how will they affect her role in the story? What are her hobbies and talents?
4. Who's in her family? Does she have a husband? How's their relationship? Does she have children? If not, why not?
5. Where's she from? Did she grow up in a city? On a farm?

That's the list. Obviously, you may need to adjust things depending on gender, age, culture, etc. but that's the general idea. What does this person look like? Some people find it useful to go through magazines or other sources and pick out pictures. Then think about background -- where are they from and how did they grow up? How do they make a living -- jobs are a huge part of everyone's lives? Family or friends -- who are the people around this character? And last, what's the society or culture that this character came from? New York City, a farm in the mountains of Kansas, or a yurt on the plains of Mongolia -- or even an orbiting habitat around Circes 4? -- are going to give you different kinds of characters.

As for how much you need to do before starting to write or during writing -- it's really up to you. Some people feel more comfortable with extensive character sheets and biography notes before they start writing. Other people invent their characters as they write, perhaps making the notes as they go or even going back and revising to deal with the fact that her hair changed color in every scene. Whatever works for you.