developing characters

[LusciousLoralie]

I've started pasting characters into Google Earth where their geography spans nations. Surprisingly, people click on these links and email asking for information

that's awesome

 

[LusciousLoralie]

I'm sorry I keep on posting a bunch of times one after the other but its my thread. Get used to it

There's one story that I've been wanting to write for years that could probably be a novel if not two. For that I think it would be important to full out the entire character chart with family pets & religion. Although the one I'm working on currently is going to be shorter and much more focused on sex rather than on the character's life as a whole.

So basically my question is: do you think that I need to fill out all the stuff about their family when I'm not really planning on mentioning anypne's family? I don't really think that whether she knew her grandparents or what his favorite thing to do as a child relates that much to her giving him a blowjob.

Of course if his favorite thing to do as a child was to play "doctor" or if her grandma was a hooker or something then it would matter but those are not the circumstances. Did I just answer my own question?

 

[neonlyte]

I'm sorry I keep on posting a bunch of times one after the other but its my thread. Get used to it

There's one story that I've been wanting to write for years that could probably be a novel if not two. For that I think it would be important to full out the entire character chart with family pets & religion. Although the one I'm working on currently is going to be shorter and much more focused on sex rather than on the character's life as a whole.

So basically my question is: do you think that I need to fill out all the stuff about their family when I'm not really planning on mentioning anymore's family? I don't really think that whether she knew her grandparents or what his favorite thing to do as a child relates that much to her giving him a blowjob.

Of course if his favorite thing to do as a child was to play "doctor" or if her aunt was a hooker or something then it would matter but those are not the circumstances. Did I just answer my own question?

I do, but then I'm odd

It's the detail that makes a long story convincing. Someone likes dogs, not cats. They like peanut butter but not marmalade. Imagine your protagonist is in a hotel eating breakfast. The choice of spreads for the toast is strawberry jam, honey, or marmalade. Their partner has just asked an awkward question, asking the waiter for peanut butter is the perfect opportunity to allow time to think about the answer. Details... but they all add up to form a complete character.

 

[LusciousLoralie]

I do, but then I'm odd

It's the detail that makes a long story convincing. Someone likes dogs, not cats. They like peanut butter but not marmalade. Imagine your protagonist is in a hotel eating breakfast. The choice of spreads for the toast is strawberry jam, honey, or marmalade. Their partner has just asked an awkward question, asking the waiter for peanut butter is the perfect opportunity to allow time to think about the answer. Details... but they all add up to form a complete character.

To that, I say honey, so that they can lick it off each other. That detail just shows that they're . . . . I don't know . . . . . . . horny?

 

[LusciousLoralie]

I'm having trouble with these ones

Drives and motivations:
Talents:
Extremely skilled at:
Extremely unskilled at:
Good characteristics:
Character flaws:
Mannerisms:
Peculiarities:
Biggest regret:
Minor regrets:
Biggest accomplishment:
Minor accomplishments:
Character's darkest secret:

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I feel like solid images work for me maybe half of the time. There have been times when I've really been getting into a story and then all of a sudden it states that the "hero" has long, blond hair. That ruins it for me, but probably because it was in the middle and not in the beginning.

Also, I don't want to say something looks like fill-in-the-blank person because everyone on here isn't aware of the same celebrities. People who are older
than me probably aren't going to know what Pete Wentz looks like. I don't want someone to stop reading so that they can google image search Gina Lollobrigida to understand why the person who looks like her is so attractive.

LeCarre begins the first George Smiley book with a thorough description of Smiley. LeCarre does a masterful job of it. At the end of it you know pretty nearly all you need to know about old George, but you know very little of his cosmetic features, except that he's unattractive and generally unfit. But you'll never mistake George Smiley for James Bond or Jack Ryan. Smiley is frail and flabby and short and ordinary.

Here's an excerpt from the book CALL FOR THE DEAD.

"When Lady Ann Sercomb married George Smiley towards the end of the war she described him to her astonished Mayfair friends as breathtakingly ordinary.

Short, fat, and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad. And Smiley, unaware of this description, had waddled down the aisle in search of the kiss that would turn him into a Prince.

And so, Smiley, without school, parents, regiment or trade, without wealth or poverty, travelled without labels in the guard's van of the social express, and soon became lost luggage, when the divorce had come and gone, to remain unclaimed on the dusty shelf of yesterday's news."

 

[LusciousLoralie]

that all went right over my head

 

[Dragonlipz]

I'm not going to do that. I hate it when they first paragraph is just describing one of the characters. "This person has this color hair, this color eyes, they're this size" and what not.

If you read and understood....I suggested using dialogue to move the plot.....do whatever you want - it's your story.....
if it's real, it's the character's story......you're merely channeling the words onto the screen or page or whatever.......dig that

 

[LusciousLoralie]

If you read and understood....I suggested using dialogue to move the plot.....do whatever you want - it's your story.....
if it's real, it's the character's story......you're merely channeling the words onto the screen or page or whatever.......dig that

I meant that I'm not doing a narrative description thats just a description.

 

[LusciousLoralie]

I don't know what flaws to give my characters. They're obviously not perfect but I just think of that as who they are and not as something "wrong" with or "different' about them.

 

[Boota]

Besides motivation and who the character is at his/her core, I always include in the development, almost unconsciously at times, about their relationships to other characters. I think that has as much to do with their development in the story as any other factor.

I wish i could find it, but in the several moves since I made this chart, I lost it. A novelist came to our local bookstore and hosted a talk on character development, from the ground up. The way she worked wouldn't work for me, but I think it would help a lot of writers. It was basically a circle in the center of a page with name and age and occupation. Then there were lines radiating out from the center with headings such as family, friends, education, etc. There were about ten categories she went with. Then at the bottom there were six things important about the character. Her idea was that anyone can fumble through five, but the sixth thing can be difficult, and therefore more important. I would tend to agree, seeing as how long it took a group of twenty writers to decide on number six. I wish I could remember more details about it, though.

 

[driphoney]

... and the only personal characteristics I have about them as individuals in my mind before starting to write is anything that was necessary to the role in terms of my original ideas of the hooks I was using the storyline I was unfolding. I let the characters differentiate themselves as I write--but only to the extent--and revealed when--it serves the story (if it doesn't matter what color her eyes are, I don't give her an eye color--the least you can reveal of a central character's physical attributes, the more readers who can see themselves in that character).

Preach it brother! I love finding this in a story, especially here on Lit. I love being allowed to grow the character in my own mind. The last thing I want to know are physical measurements or set ages. I do love character building details, those things that help me shape the personality of the character, which is mentioned earlier, too.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I don't know what flaws to give my characters. They're obviously not perfect but I just think of that as who they are and not as something "wrong" with or "different' about them.

Think of "flaws" in this context, as the things they struggle with, or keep them from getting what they want in this story. Sometimes, the flaw itself can be a plot point. A flaw can even be a useful attribute under other circumstances.
In a romance or erotica novel, it might be; a tendency to lie to themself, or inability to trust, or kleptomania, or a mean streak, or unable to shut up before they tell everything...

 

[Verdad]

In a sense, character and plot are one and the same. Character is what character does, and plot is an external manifestation of an internal conflict in the character. We separate them for the sake of discussion, but I'm a bit skeptical as to how much fictional bios and other static means of description help with writing a story.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

VERDAD

For me the bios is important because it helps me reveal and use internal conflicts and ambivalent emotions. When you know a person's appetites, you know where to find them or place them.

 

[driphoney]

In a sense, character and plot are one and the same. Character is what character does, and plot is an external manifestation of an internal conflict in the character. We separate them for the sake of discussion, but I'm a bit skeptical as to how much fictional bios and other static means of description help with writing a story.

As I try my hand at writing, I think I live in this zone. Who my characters are determine how they are going to act and react through the story. I have a long way to go as a writer, but the part of the process I really enjoy is realizing how my character will behave in a given situation and how the other characters respond off that. I think in my self-education over the last few months, I've forgotten that fun. And if it ain't fun, why write? Last night I nervously submitted a chapter to my on-going saga because I question how realistic the twist is that I put in it. I kept asking myself, "Given the situation, would she really do this? Or am I just desperate for a way to work myself out of a hole? Will the reader buy it?" Then again, I thought the last chapter was completely in character and I really ticked off the few that actually read it!

Nice topic and conversation.