Character building

[Satyr1]

I'm looking to write my first story for this web site. With so many ideas bouncing around in my head its hard to know where to start.

I thought about different characters and thought maybe that I could wrap all of my ideas around a single character.

This is where I need some help. Where do you start telling the reader about your characters?

My character would be a 25 y/o female, who has led a sheltered life with only romance and erotic novels to fuel her imagination. She would be a virgin and never been kissed. Never had her first experience, and with so many fantasies dancing in her head she is unsure which would give her the most pleasure for her first time.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

This is where I need some help. Where do you start telling the reader about your characters?

My character would be a 25 y/o female, who has led a sheltered life with only romance and erotic novels to fuel her imagination. She would be a virgin and never been kissed. Never had her first experience, and with so many fantasies dancing in her head she is unsure which would give her the most pleasure for her first time.

I don't understand. Are you asking where in the story you should introduce your character?

---dr.M.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

First: 25 and never been kissed? is she a quaker?

Second: I don't really have a start or stop point for telling about my characters. I prefer to let them speak for themselves and let the reader develop the rest. During the course of the action, we find out that she's twenty-five, inexperienced, 'x' color hair, sure of herself or mild-mannered, etc... I normally start a story off with a description of a setting or one of the characters in action. Not really any preamble to the whole thing.

Third: It might help to decide on a second character before you decide on what kind of sex Virgin Girl is going to indulge in first. But my guess is, for believability's sake, it won't be anything ultra wild. If she's waited this long, she must be sort of discriminating and therefore (in my mind at least) a bit reluctant to launch off into Anal on her first go.

but this opinion is nothing more than that.

~lucky

 

[Satyr1]

Re: Re: Character building

I don't understand. Are you asking where in the story you should introduce your character?

---dr.M.

I guess I should have sad how. How do you describe your characters in a way that paints an indept picture?

 

[Satyr1]

Lucky,

In ref. to your third point. She been sheltered for contact with the wilds of youth. She has been wanting to have sex and from her reading of fantastic sex, she can't decide what type of sex would be best to loose her virginity doing, but for sure she wants sex and lots of it.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Lucky,

In ref. to your third point. She been sheltered for contact with the wilds of youth. She has been wanting to have sex and from her reading of fantastic sex, she can't decide what type of sex would be best to loose her virginity doing, but for sure she wants sex and lots of it.

Right. Sex and lots of it. It seems as though you're asking what a reader might find most intriguing about a First Time story. The only advice I can give is to write about what excites you. Otherwise, it's likely to come across as forced. But from my own personal experience, first times aren't all about running in and demanding a certain act/position that you've read was most pleasurable. I think I'd find the story more intriguing if it focused on the fact that she was FINALLY going to do something, anything in regards to sex. Not sure the 'how' and 'which end is up' of it matters altogether that much. At least it wouldn't to me. I could be mistaken, but I always assumed most first times were missionary. *at least most of the ones I've heard of have been. Feel free to rattle that cage, though.

~lucky (dizzy)

 

[Colleen Thomas]

The most useful tool for building a character is some back story. If you are good you can give a lot of clues through dialogue and interaction, but that's limited by how much you can work into a dialogue. I start with a character, let them speak & act, and slowly work in backstory to explain who theyt are & how they came to this place in time.

In the end your character has to speak for herself, how much you wish to preface with summary is up to you.

-Colly

 

[Satyr1]

Colly,

Do you think that it's a bad idea to give the woman's history as she contempate her actions.

For instance, she's taking a bath relieved that she is no longer under her parent's thumb. Happy that she is finally free to make her own choices. Mocking her parents for the way they made love, quiet, in the dark, and as a matter of duty rather than desire. She wants to feel the passion of the many characters she had read about in her well hidden erotic novels.

Do you believe that it is bad to tell about the character in this manner?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Colly,

Do you think that it's a bad idea to give the woman's history as she contempate her actions.

For instance, she's taking a bath relieved that she is no longer under her parent's thumb. Happy that she is finally free to make her own choices. Mocking her parents for the way they made love, quiet, in the dark, and as a matter of duty rather than desire. She wants to feel the passion of the many characters she had read about in her well hidden erotic novels.

Do you believe that it is bad to tell about the character in this manner?

Interior monologue is an acceptable way to give back story. It has some inherent weaknesses however. A bath would be good, in that you could break up long blocks of summary information with actions as she bathes. Be careful with this particular technique because long blocks of interior monologue are har to read in the lit format. Break it wup with actions, things every woman does as she bathes. Also avoid the cliche' of her masturbating in the tub. It's over used. Especially in the context of flashback or self introspection.

-Colly

 

[Guest]

Wow, masturbation as self-introspection - intriguing.

Perdita

 

[Satyr1]

Colly, that's some good advice. I will take it and hope that my story turns out well.

 

[gauchecritic]

This is where I need some help. Where do you start telling the reader about your characters?

The one place not to tell your readers about your character is in a list in a single paragraph. Neither is it as she admires herself in the bathroom mirror.

If she struggles to make it through an open door and has to turn sideways, this is where you can mention how wide her arse is. If she cringes at blatant graphic sex scenes on TV then this is where you can tell of her romantic, idealised thoughts about what sex involves. Driving home in her second-hand Ford Tippex is where you can explain how it was her 25th birthday last month and this was her parents gift to her.

So where do you start? Anywhere and all the way through.

Further examples from "Don't Do What Donny Don't Does." is contained in this link.

Gauche

 

[raphy]

What Gauche said - Giving people an ide aof your characters is one of the main times where 'Show don't tell' becomes most important. Show them what she's like, don't tell them. Don't tell them that she likes dogs, invent a scene where she pets a dog.

If she hates brussel sprouts because her mother force fed them to her as a child, don't tell the reader that, invent an occasion where it would come up. Then, you can put in a line or two of introspection where she remembers why she hates brussel sprouts (if that's important to the story)

Those are silly examples, but hopefully you get my point

When I tell a reader about my characters, I start at the beginning and work my way through the story. Like when you meet someone in real life, you don't find out everything there is to know about them in one go. You discover new facts, new personality quirks as you get to know them. Reading about a character in a story should be the same process, in my opinion.