Writer's Workshop One - Part Two

Last time we talked about What readers want, picking your point of view character, and being three people at once. Today, we continue looking at characters. We are still using Nancy Kress’ Characters, Viewpoint, and Emotion.

The most fun part (in my opinion) of building a new character is filling out their mini bio.

Here’s the form I use:

Name:
Age:
Birthplace:
Marital Status:
Children and their ages:
General appearance (whatever seems useful):
Living Arrangements:
Occupation, including name of employer (if applicable):
Degree of skill in job:
Character’s feelings about occupation(love, hate, ect):
Family background(whatever you think is important: ethnicity, siblings, parents, social status, ect):

Even if the information in the form isn’t necessarily going to be in the story, if you know everything about your character, then they are well rounded and believable when you do start to write about them. 

Introducing characters:

Names are important. Trust me, I know about people hating your names. (Ernst from Knight’s End has gotten more than one hate comment). What’s important is that you like them, as long as they mean something to the character. If you name someone Billy Gowinkle and it has nothing to do with his attitude and people hate it, change it. However if, like in Ernst’s case, the name means something (in this case, serious, battle to the death) then you have to make people love the name. Which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Mainly, you have to show them that the name means something without outright saying “Talbot’s name meant messenger of destruction.” Instead, you show them creating havoc, and then people will understand. Hopefully. Not always. But you have to try!

Also, not everyone in your book is going to call  Bob by his first name. Some will call him Matt because it’s his middle name that he decided in high school he wanted to go by. His parents will call him son, bobby, or Bob Dylan Wright! His best friends will call him Bob, Bobby, Bobo, Booboo. His girlfriend will call him sweetie, love, booger. Get the gist? Decide what names your character is going to have throughout the course of the novel. Show how those names create relationships between different characters. 

When developing characters, you also need to think about their wardrobes, just as much as their physical appearance. Does Bob wear a coat and tie? Does he wear ripped jeans, spiked bracelets, and Chuck Taylors? Does he wear AE jeans with AE shirts and keds? What do Bob’s clothes tell us about him? Given the outfits above, he, respectively, is well mannered, a skater boy, or the quarterback of the football team. People’s clothes can reveal a lot about them.

The way a person treats their physical attributes can do the same. Does Bob die his hair black? Does he put purple streaks in it? Does he have it highlighted? Does he keep it short and straight, long and unruly? Something as simple as the way someone looks can tell us more about a character than you could possibly have imagined! 

The way a character’s home looks can tell us about them as well. Is Bob’s room full of Spiderman posters and comic books? Does he have a neat desk, with pencils in a cup and his textbooks arranged  by size. Do his Xbox controllers take up half the floor? Is the rest of his house filled with half priced furniture that is mix matched? Or are there crystal chandeliers in every room on all three floors? Inject this information into your novel to really show off your character. These are simple techniques to character building. They are like cheating! Shortcuts! You don’t have to show us as much of a character through action and dialogue if you can show them to us through how they look. (does that make sense?)

Well that’s it for part two! I strongly suggest buying this book. It’s absolutely amazing so far! (I’m on chapter five :P)

Until next time, writers!

J. D. Montgomery