Two for the price of one

[bumblegrum]

I've got two questions or idle thoughts. Firstly, how do people keep the image of their main characters in their minds? Presumambly we're dealing with fictional characters, so how do you keep their faces in particular fresh in your mind's eye?

Secondly, this may seem a crazy question, but do you ever fall in love with your characters? Or does the very question suggest that I need to see a shrink (or, alternatively, to get a life )

 

[Sugary_Comfort]

I'm not sure how I couldn't keep my characters fresh in my mind's eye. The ones I work with the most are just so loud it's hard to forget them. I've been working with them since 2002.

But I think sometimes it helps if you go and look for a celebrity who resembles a character fairly closely and keep a picture of them. You'll know what's different between the two in terms of looks.

Personality-wise, if you can't keep your character fresh in your mind then you still have a lot of work to do on development. There will usually be at least one attribute that is the core of that character and from there you build on it and the more you work with that character, the stronger their personality becomes, even if the character is a shy, mousy type, they stand out.

I wouldn't say I literally fall in love with any of my characters but I do have some I'm just absolutely mad for! I just can't get enough of them and I enjoy working with them the most.

A character of mine I love the most is incredibly adorable because he's normally pretty smooth and graceful but when confronted with the girl he's in love with, he becomes a bumbling idiot and is constantly tripping over things or stuttering and it's way too cute! Not to mention he's pretty adorable looks-wise.

I've also recently become enamored with a secondary character when he's in his 20s. In the main story he's 38 but looks to be over 100. But there's a prequel and in it he's in his mid-20s and apparently incredibly handsome. I had no idea how great he was with the ladies until I was doing NaNoWriMo last November and wrote his intro scene. I love the way he looks and I love how sad he gets when the girl he loves dies and then, 15 years later, he has to put up with her reincarnation who looks remarkably like her. Mm I love torturing my characters.

 

[Stella_Omega]

You don't need to keep your character's face in your mind. That's what photos (scrounged off the internet, of need be) are for. But your character's face is not what's important in writing. It's pretty much impossible to control how your readers see them, anyway, no matter how obsessivly you describe them. a couple of key words are plenty. I once described a black man as having "Chinese eyebrows, and a little-boy chin" and got so many kudos for my description of him!

What's important is to keep them consistent in action and motivation.

 

[PennLady]

Or you could be like me and occasionally forget to describe your characters. Mostly I give vague outlines. I don't care what they look like. It's how they act, what they like, or don't, etc., that is what is more important to me.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I sometimes pattern my characters after celebrities or people I see in the video clips I like to use for inspiration.

"Fall in love" would be something of a stretch, but I often develop a fondness for characters who appear regularly in stories I write, such as Pauletta and Melissa, or in longer works, such as Ruthie.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't have faces for most of my characters in my mind at all. (Although, yes, a photo I've seen might be adopted on occasion.) I leave it for my readers to put faces/connections of their choice to the characters, and to the extent I can I don't limit the vision they want to have of the character.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a vivid image of my female characters face in my mind at any given time but the male is elusive. I agree with Stella in the sense that I found a guy who resembled him and printed it.

As for falling in love with them? I have put the female through living hell and all but had myself in tears writing my latest chapter. I have caught myself thinking "how could I do that to her?"

 

[autoplot]

I sometimes start with a photo, but often find that as I get more into developing the characters, the more indistinct their appearance becomes in my mind's eye. I take this as a positive sign, because it means I'm focused on the character's personality, motivations, goals, etc. and not on the superficial details. So after awhile, I just don't worry about it.

I don't think I've ever "fallen in love" with a character of mine. At best, I think I've felt some regret at whatever ordeal i'm going to put them through, or pity for a character who's bound to come to a bad end.

 

[SydneyBlake]

I agree with Stella on this one, but I do admit to having a cast of celebrities in my head. I won't obsessively try to describe the character, but it helps me to have a mental image.

It doesn't hurt that the actor that I chose to represent my leading man posed for some nudie shots over ten years ago. Now that's some finger-licking inspiration right there, let me tell you! Yum!