How Do You Create Characters?

[SmokingFap]

I think you may be the first person I've bumped into here on Lit who, like me, writes down their fantasies to produce stories.

Actually, I started writing the stories long before I joined Lit. Basically just jerk-off fuel for me. A couple months ago, I decided my twisted fantasies might help other people get off, too.

 

[intim8]

My muse is weaving a story in which "no change" in the protagonist is the point of the story--a character maintaining loyalty to something/someone despite all sorts of nefarious characters trying to bend the protagonist to do/be something else.

So you write characters that have their character tested, but overcome the challenge to stay true to themselves.

If he can just brush this off with hardly a thought, without struggle, or if he just gets randomly lucky, there's no story there, right?

So he's faced with temptations and pressures, and from them, doubts. He's learned something about these pressures and temptations, how insidious they can be, how they can find a weakness and ruthlessly exploit it. How doubt can undermine confidence, determination, and effectiveness in ways he hadn't expected.

He might have learned something about himself, about a desire he didn't know he had, or one that he didn't know was as strong as it is, that allowed those temptations and pressures to get past his armor. He might have learned something about the people around him, and about his prior trust and faith in them. He might discover doubts about them, or the opposite. Doubts about his own character, or the opposite.

If he fails the test, he's learned a hard lesson about such things, and now has consequences to deal with. He has more work to do, he has to adjust his opinion of his abilities.

If he overcomes it, he's found strength in himself he wasn't sure he had, or found an ally he can trust even more than he did, or found a treasured relationship that wasn't what he thought it was and had to be abandoned, or understood more deeply something about the nature of values and what they really mean to a person's life.

Whatever he found in himself, or other people, to overcome it, he learned something. His behavior may not have changed in the end, but his character has grown. He's gotten stronger, more confident, found new strengths, or increased trust in the ones he had. He may find that the relationships he's had are changed, for better or worse, shifted out from under him or unexpectedly shored him up.

That's anything but a static and unchanging character. That is a dynamic character. He's the same, seen from the outside, but from the inside, he's changed and grown.

That's important and meaningful stuff, and don't let anybody tell you any different.

 

[Duleigh]

Where do you generally draw up inspiration from? What's your process like for coming up with characters? What is your relationship to them and to this process in general?

I find it easiest to create people from folks that are important to me. It's a lot of work trying to hide what makes them, them, but I say it's easiest because when I create a character from scratch, develop everything from their looks to the way they chew on a straw at McDonalds, I fall in love with them. Two major characters in my Andi's Dream series, Andi and her sister-in-law Macy. Andi is based on a highly intelligent woman that I truly respect and I don't think she'd recognize herself (I hope I hope) but Macy I made from scratch and I love her passionately. I have to hurt her emotionally soon and I don't want to do it. Just knowing that she'll be ok in a few dozen paragraphs keeps me going. Lanh Nguyen was another I made from scratch, and she was slated to die. As I wrote about her I fell in love with her, and I couldn't bring myself to kill her off. I had to re-write several stories to keep her alive.

 

[AchtungNight]

Recently, I've been looking at pictures of Vivica A. Fox, so in the back of my mind, I've been thinking about basing a character on her. Especially the image below.


View attachment 2348156

She’s indeed a hot chick. I’d cast her as Lily Astar in my stories.

 

[KeithD]

So you write characters that have their character tested, but overcome the challenge to stay true to themselves.

I

No, you haven't gotten it. I write all sorts of characters. I'm not bound to writing any particular sort of characters, much less that they have to be likeable to some set of readers or that they have to be changed in the process or it isn't a story.

 

[Duleigh]

No, you haven't gotten it. I write all sorts of characters. I'm not bound to writing any particular sort of characters, much less that they have to be likeable to some set of readers or that they have to be changed in the process or it isn't a story.

Absolutely right. There has to be a multitude of characters of different types some brilliant, some loving, some evil, some stupid. They have to evolve, and if they don't evolve, or at least learn, I put them in the "Educated but stupid" category. I have that type, but not many. They're no fun to write.

 

[AG31]

Absolutely right. There has to be a multitude of characters of different types some brilliant, some loving, some evil, some stupid. They have to evolve, and if they don't evolve, or at least learn, I put them in the "Educated but stupid" category. I have that type, but not many. They're no fun to write.

You're limiting your enjoyment of literature.

 

[KeithD]

Absolutely right. There has to be a multitude of characters of different types some brilliant, some loving, some evil, some stupid. They have to evolve, and if they don't evolve, or at least learn, I put them in the "Educated but stupid" category. I have that type, but not many. They're no fun to write.

Sort of a head scratcher response, as your last three sentences don't support what I'm posting at all.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Here's Character A. He's mildly interesting, and horny. He manages to get it together with Character B. How A and B get together may be interesting. What they do to each other may be interesting. But that's many a story. The only change is A and B have had a shag - they haven't otherwise changed.

Sure, some readers don't want those stories, but I don't think you can say all stories like that are crap.

 

[MythMaker]

Pretentious as this might sound, I see my characters as embodying different aspects of my own personality and interests.

Looking back, I think I start out really only wanting to see certain character archetypes in certain scenarios, although these characters did and still do naturally develop over the extended period of time that I was writing stories for them.

Oh, yeah, and seeing the nature of the website, it is probably also worth mentioning that I give my characters features that I personally find attractive in a person, and fortunately for myself, that does cover quite the wide range for me to work with.

One of my own personal rules for writing characters however is that under no circumstances are they ever allowed to appear 'too cool', if for nothing else but out of fear for them being seen as Mary Sues/Gary Stus. Not being afraid to have a sense of humour about my characters and humiliating them every once in a while does wonders in keeping them relatable for a reader I think, in spite of the fantastical settings I tend to write.

 

[AG31]

Sure, some readers don't want those stories, but I don't think you can say all stories like that are crap.

Exactly!!

 

[XerXesXu]

Exactly!!

Literary communities are a broad church which should, and do, embrace a large range of opinions from, ‘This is high literature’ to, ‘This is verbal faeces’, on any given work.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Back to the question - I create as much character as necessary for a given story. Sometimes, when it's an event-driven story, that will be very little. E.g. recently a character who's been in several stories was organising a gang-bang for his partner. Wanted two more guys, but not random strangers. So, an old friend (into casual sex, obviously). A couple ex-partners have been mentioned previously. 'Jim' was described as 'a good guy, but set on moving to Australia'. He could come back. What would he look like, to be distinguishable from the other men in the room? Well, I've watched enough Neighbours and H&A to know he'll be suntanned and a fairly muscular surfer dude, if he's going to look a bit different to the others. Probably a bit like young Craig, but I don't describe his hairstyle as that would just put people off.

He needs a partner. Contrasting. Right, let's make him a goth, because why not? Look for a name that was more common in Oz than UK when he was born and isn't Bruce. Mitchell, apparently, was in the top 30 boy names there. And conjures up thoughts of Mitchell the vampire in Being Human, which is always a good thing. I've just written Jim as being chatty and good craic, so let's keep Mitchell mostly quiet and then I don't have to create a voice for him. He can be a 'man of mystery' but still make up the numbers fucking our narrator, effortlessly cool. Any similarity to Dwayne in The Lost Boys, who only gets four lines in the whole film, is probably not coincidental.

Job done. Obviously if my protagonists do visit Australia and look up Jim and Mitchell, they'll need to be fleshed out a lot more.

Other stories are much more character-driven, sometimes starting with the character and seeing what happens. That sometimes happens over time. Emily in I Say Ass, You Say Arse started as a PhD student working hard to finish her project, who breaks up with her chap who has been nasty about her liking anal sex. "Did she want to spend the rest of her life with Ben? She knew, now, the answer was no. The only real question was how long the relationship could limp along, buoyed up solely by the size of his cock."

Luckily a mild-mannered American is on hand to cheer her up. Next story, seven months later, we learn Emily looks great in a suit with a pencil skirt, and has a sort of relationship with an 'arrogant dickhead genius' she sees every month or so. A year after, others observe that's 'the strangest relationship I know' but clearly he's supporting her scientific career and thus her as much as he's capable of.

So how did they get together? Must have bonded over some work. He's about three years older, so could advise on something. She doesn't write off his awkward social skills, because she is career-focused too. Cue a visit to her laptop in her hotel room, relief that unlike many scientists he's not immediately trying to seduce her, he says "I can if you want", but later it's the effort he's put in to improving her work that's particularly attractive... Banter and sexiness ensue.

She tries forcing him to follow her, he knows martial arts from a previous story, but turns out so does she - probably to give her more confidence dealing with sexist scientists, but it means he can respect her as an equal on another level. She's confidently mastering French working in the south coast of France; he's crap at languages and will be out of his depth there. Again, a chance to get them together on an equal level.

She'll discover he's slept with her kinky friend, a few years earlier (that story is already published) and worry she's not going to interest him that way. But luckily his real kink is simply making women scream in satisfaction, so that's fine. And anal sex, which is more than fine. And an obsession with work, which mostly works for the both of them - though eventually they'll have a kid. I have a story idea for when the kid is a teenager, but who knows when I'll get to that one...

 

[nice90sguy]

but I don't think you can say all stories like that are crap

I can and do say they're crap, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying some of them. I like crap food, music and movies too

 

[orangecurious]

my mind is a weird place, best not ask too many questions about what comes out onto the page

 

[StillStunned]

Look for a name that was more common in Oz than UK when he was born and isn't Bruce. Mitchell, apparently, was in the top 30 boy names there.

I think it's actually a law that every Australian sports team must have at least three Mitchells on it.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Sort of a head scratcher response, as your last three sentences don't support what I'm posting at all.

Is it akin to certain cartoon characters? Like say despite everything that's happened to him; While E. Coyote is still the same tryhard each episode and still used ACME products despite the 100% failure rate. Probably a poor example of what you're saying, I for the most part do understand what you're saying, though.

 

[KeithD]

Is it akin to certain cartoon characters? Like say despite everything that's happened to him; While E. Coyote is still the same tryhard each episode and still used ACME products despite the 100% failure rate. Probably a poor example of what you're saying, I for the most part do understand what you're saying, though.

I was responding to the supposition that the protagonist in a story had to change, saying fiction isn't limited that way. The protagonist can stay the same, with others around him/her changing in the face of the protagonist's steadfastness (either for good or for weakness). Or the story can be one in which nobody/nothing really changes. The story can be about trying to cause a change and that not happening.

On the "head scratching" quote, the quote starts off with an "absolutely right" and then proceeds giving the opposite view to what I'd been posting. My point is that no one/nothing might "evolve" and it could still be a good story--the point being made that the character couldn't be budged, whether nobly maintaining position or unable to get out of fetish/rut.