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Tag Archives: Character tags and traits

What’s in Character – Physical

04 Mar

Last time we gave your new character a core personality. If you have completed your research on your character type, you should have several pages of material that will help you in the days to come. However, there is much more to a character than their core personality. Today, we will give them some physical characteristics. As we work through this topic, remember that physical appearance is only the window dressing for your character.

When the chromosomes came together to create your character, there were two sets. make a decision as to whether your character has an X and a Y or two X’s. Depending upon your story, a different gender for your character can change the whole look and feel of the story. Writing cross-gender can be interesting for the writer. Some writers feel more comfortable using their own gender for the protagonist. It seems natural and can be somewhat easier. However, we’re not talking about you, we are talking about your character here. Other writers feel the gender of a character makes no difference. I agree that actions during the story can be accomplished by either gender. However, we are talking about the effects of gender on character development. Based on the personality type, how would the character be different, other than plumbing, if they were a different gender?

The potential race of your character can play a huge role in the way they see and interact the world. Once again don’t just consider race alone. How would the core personality respond to the effects of being a different race. As with gender, any race can act and interact any way the writer wishes. Stepping outside stereotypes can be very interesting and beneficial to the uniqueness of the story. I know of a particular author that chose to write about a Dark Elf, one of the most despised creatures in all fantasy. That character is now one of the most recognized and popular in the genre. Differences in racial morphology, especially if you are writing fantasy, can give the character a very unique perspective. More of morphology later.

The age of you character comes in two distinct varieties, actual and projected. Both can play differing roles in character building. Actual age should be considered during many character building stages. It is especially important to consider when building the layers which include life experiences and traumatic events. A child experiencing the death of a friend may deal with it differently than an adult. consider the core personality as well and things get twisted even more. For instance, how would a thinking extrovert child react to seeing its best friend killed in a drive-by shooting? Now make you character an adult sensitive introvert. How would they respond?

I will say two things about physical attractiveness. First and most important, attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder. Ever hear that before? Second, and this relates directly to the first one, a vast majority of people are average looking. That’s by definition. So, consider not only how your character looks, but what they find attractive in others. Most of us see our own physical flaws more clearly than anyone else. We also tend to not see or ignore the physical flaws in those we care about. Decide how your character’s personality type will view their own physical appearance. How will they react to those they find unattractive. Will they react with pity, arrogance, compassion, etc.

From the writer’s point of view, the general attractiveness of the character is not as important as the actual physical features. Face shape, body shape, eyes, hair, ears, complexion and any combination thereof can influence the character and the reader. What do you see when I give this description.

The man was a barrel with legs. A large round bald head sat squarely on his shoulders. A roll of fat protruded on top of his collar where his neck should have been. The roll disappeared into four chins in front with a thin black mustache and goatee framing thin lips.

How would you react to this character? How does this character see himself? Now place this physical description on a few different personality types and see what you get.

Now let’s add one more layer. Take this man ad put him in a $1,000 three-piece suit and $500 shoes. Does your view of him change? Now let’s say he is wearing a long purple robe with a jeweled crown on his head. How about a Speedo and a sunburn? Ouch, that even hurt my eyes. Sorry.

How the character dresses and how they groom themselves can also be affected by that pesky personality type. Are they meticulous? Are they flashy? Are they a slob? Why?

Okay, so far we have given the character a base personality. We have determined their gender, race, and age. We have decided on their physical appearance and what physical attributes they find attractive. And, we have dressed them appropriately for their personality. So far, so good. These are some of the tags and traits the writer can use to help the reader see the character.

I caution you. If you stop here, like most writer’s do, you miss the things about a character which are most important to your character and potentially, your story.

In the next post we will add other natural environmental factors such as birth order, family issues, education, talents, love language, and self-esteem.

If you are building a character as we go along, please let me know how it’s going. I would love to know. Also, if you would like me to dive deeper on any portion of this exercise, I would be happy to do so.

 
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Posted by on March 4, 2013 in What's in Character

 

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What’s in Character – Core Personality

18 Feb

This is the first in a series of posts devoted to character creation. I will go deeper than just physical appearance and how a character speaks. During the series, I will tear apart the main character from my short story, “Good Night’s Sleep”.  I will show you how Yursi Sonal was developed.

I do not go through the entire process that follows, for every character in every story. However, all of my major characters are created using this process.

According to modern psychologists, which I am not, each of us has a core personality. It is part of our DNA and is the base line for who we are. Everything that we experience whether it is physical, mental, or emotional is processed by and layered to this core personality.

There are a multitude of tests to determine which core type we fit into. Each will provide slightly differing results. I started using one such famous test in particular, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. The results of this test indicate four important areas that make up a character’s personality:

Introvert(I) vs. Extrovert(E)

Sensing(S) vs. Intuition(N)

Thinking(T) vs. Feeling(F)

Judgement(J) vs. Perception)P)

This yields sixteen potential combinations of letters. E.g. INTJ, ESFP, or ENTP. Each combination describes a basic temperament for the individual.

As an example, let’s take my character Yursi Sonal. When the chromosomes that created this character came together, the result was a ISTP. That means Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Perception. The full description would take several pages to list. But, the full description is important to refer back to, so I keep it close to my computer at all times.  For now, we’ll shorten the description to: 

Impulsive and sometimes naive, generous, tactical, ignores rules and can be insubordinate to authority, takes risks and loves to play, subject to boredom outside of the job, requires a long leash.

So, this is the core personality that all of Yursi’s experiences will be processed by and layered onto. The way the character views their gender, birth order, physical appearance, their family status, geographic location, external environment, education, life experiences, employment, financial values, etc. will all be affected by this core set of traits. In upcoming posts, we will begin to add these “layers” to the core. Each layer will add to the character’s personality

If you are creating a main character, I recommend you consider this as your first step. An invaluable reference book for writer’s who want to use this method to create characters is, “Please Understand Me II” by David Keirsey. Even if you don’t go to this much effort to create your characters, it’s a good reference for character behavior.

As a side note, take an established character and ask them the Myers-Briggs questions to see what core type the character is. If they are honest with their answers, you might be very surprised at the results!

There are other, easier ways come up with a character. However, as you will see, when we build a character using this type of baseline and layering life experiences on top, we will end up with a living, breathing character that can and will respond to any challenge that comes their way in a real and believable way. Isn’t that what we want from or characters?

 
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Posted by on February 18, 2013 in What's in Character

 

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What’s In Character?

08 Feb

Every story has at least one character. The character can be almost anything. It could be a person, a spider, a tree, a rock, a dragon, a storm, etc. What ever the character is, it has physical and emotional features. It has a point of view, perhaps a history, some kind of future. Most likely, it has a personality, a temperament  even feelings. A story without a character is not a story.

Characters are depicted in different ways by various writers. Some go into lavish detail about how characters look physically while others use virtually no physical description at all. These latter writers rely on the reader to create a mental image of their own based on the character’s actions and dialogue. Even though the physical description never makes it onto the page, I would bet that the writer knows what the character looks like and how they dress. Interesting characters have detailed backgrounds. It’s the character background that I am interested in exploring.

Most of my stories start with a character. My first writings were, in fact, character sketches for role-playing game participants. I enjoy character creation and have approached it from many different angles. Sometimes I start with a physical description, sometimes a profession, sometimes a core personality profile, and sometimes a history. Each one works and very well-rounded layered characters can be created, regardless of where you start. The key thing is, always build more into the character than you will actually use in the story. Sometimes, your characters will go someplace or have to deal with an issue that you may not have thought about when you started writing. If you have a detailed character background, you can easily determine how your character should respond.

Recently, have I tried to write without having a fully fleshed out character to start with. I am finding myself having to re-read previous sections to remind myself what the character said or did. This is time-consuming, so I have started taking notes as I write. I hope the characters turn out okay. we shall see.

My intention is to offer a series of posts devoted to character creation. During the series, I will tear apart the main character from several flash fiction pieces and my short story, “Good Night’s Sleep”.  I will show you how Yursi was developed. I actually created her twice, using two different methods. Each gave slightly different results, as it should be.

I look at character creation like creating a painting. The artist starts with a blank canvas and begins by drawing a pencil sketch, the a base layer of paint is applied. Then, the picture begins to take shape as the artist adds layer upon layer of paint to the canvas. Each layer uses the layer beneath and adds detail to painting until together, all of the layers make up the final image.

I have seen characterization addressed many times in blog format. Usually, it is a brief discussion talking about character tags and traits we use to describe characters within the story. I have posts covering those areas as well. I hope this series will be a deeper dive into the background material where those tags and traits originate.

If you are in the initial stages of a story or have a story with a character that seems flat, I will give you suggestions that may help you bring your characters to life. Along the way, if your character has a major problem area that you would like to discuss, I would be happy to do so. :-).

 
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Posted by on February 8, 2013 in What's in Character

 

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First Drafts

14 Jan

Those of you who follow my blog have seen several posts entitled, The Actress and the Warlock parts I, II, III. It is an experiment that I started after a writing exercise during a writer’s group meeting. For those who are just viewing this blog for the first time, let me give you a little background. I took the character and setting from the writing exercise and am trying to write a complete story using a series of flashes. So far, each flash has run fifteen or thirty minutes. Once the timer goes off, I finish my last thought and go back over the piece to clean up spelling and obvious grammar issues so I don’t look like a complete idiot when I post it. They are VERY rough pieces.

I’m still not sure where the characters are going to take me and that’s half the fun. But, to help keep some continuity, I went back to the beginning and am taking notes on what I have already written. Three things jumped out at me as I re-read the first drafts.

One, I need to add more sensory interaction, including character tags and traits. This was not really surprising to me. I am trying to write as fast as I can (which is not all that fast) in a limited amount of time. So, the result is the bare bones plot with very little description or back story. I like to take my time and look through character and setting notes to add these details. Giving the reader key sensory details makes the characters and setting come alive.

The second thing that I realized is that I will need to add considerably more tension during the re-write. This did surprise me a little. Maybe it’s because, I see the story in my head and the tension is there. However, because I am writing fast, the tension does not make it to the keyboard as fast as my mind has laid it out.

Lastly, writing in first person POV is different from what I’m used to. This is my first extended experience writing in first person. It’s fun in that I am the protagonist with all of his traits and abilities. However, I have to be careful handling the other characters since I no longer know what they are thinking. I can only respond to their words,  actions and what I already know about them.

I need to hold off starting any re-writing until I finish the first draft. I do need to create some back story on a couple of the characters. They came into being outside my usual method so I have to do some character building based on what I’ve written so far.

So far this has been fun and educational. I originally thought this would be a short story, but it seems like it will go much longer. I will just keep writing the flashes and see where it takes me. I hope you are enjoying this project and I look forward to hearing any feedback you would like to share.

 
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Posted by on January 14, 2013 in Thoughts on Writing

 

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Writing is like a Train

05 Dec

For me writing is like a train.Train

The Warm Up:

Train: The engineer gets into the locomotive, turns on the power, and fires up the engine.

Writer: I create characters that I think will be interesting. Next comes a situation the characters find themselves in that will create tension and lead to further adventures. The setting is somewhere within the fantasy world I created years ago. Finally, I gather my plot notes (islands), character sketches (Traits and Tags), and a big bottle of water and head to the Storyboard. Once the islands have been laid out, I go to the computer.

Leaving the station:

Train: The locomotive winds up and builds to a roar. The train begins to inch forward. It crawls along for a few yards as the full weight of the train is taken on. Now there is some momentum and the train begins to pick up speed.

Writer: The blank screen is deafening. My mind is full of the possibilities that await the characters but, nothing is happening. There is a moment of panic and self-doubt. My hands reach for the keyboard as I try to formulate the first sentence. It has to be the best sentence of the story. The hook has to be perfect. I stop and take a drink from the water bottle. Then I remember that the first draft is always crap. My hands return to the keyboard and I peck out the first sentence. No, it’s not perfect but, it is a start. Take another drink. Back to the keyboard. Soon the first paragraph is complete and the head is getting into the game. Each paragraph that follows is easier than the last.

Coming up to speed:

Train: The train accelerates to its cruising speed. The power and momentum seem unstoppable. The cars jostle around over the uneven tracks. However, the train keeps going forward.

Writer: Once I get into a writing rhythm, woe unto any who disturb me. My mind is in high gear and the fingers begin to have a hard time keeping up. I have become the characters at his point and the story flows out like a lake draining though a broken dam. I just stay out-of-the-way and let it happen.

Coming into the next stop:

Train: The Engineer reduces the power and the train begins to coast. The friction of the wheels against the steel rails begin to slow the train down. As the train enters the station, the brakes are applied. The momentum of the train strains against the brakes because it wants to keep going. At last the train jerks to a halt and the sound of the locomotive drops to a hum. It’s not off, just waiting for the command to crank it up again.

Writer: The mind is racing forward ahead of the fingers and it sees the end of the scene/chapter/story before the fingers do. Once the mind reaches the end, it begin to coast. The fingers continue to bang away but by now fatigue is beginning to set in. The keystrokes are becoming softer and begin to slow down. The final paragraph flows forth but much weaker than before. Finally, the fingers type out the last few words and then become motionless on the keys. The Save button is pressed. The mind, however, is already working on the next scene/chapter/story. Wanting to move forward.

 
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Posted by on December 5, 2012 in Thoughts on Writing

 

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Writer’s Notebook in Action

26 Nov

My, but it has been a long time since my last post. I have been reading your blogs and commenting as time permits. The good news is, I have been able to get some writing done on my novel. More on that in the next post.

Over the last year, many blogs have discussed the importance of keeping a writer’s notebook. Something you carry with you to jot down things like: potential plot lines, interesting characters you see, phrases, dialogue, scenes, landscape, tag lines, poetry, pictures, and anything else that fires your imagination. Almost every writer I know of uses some form of ” The Notebook”.

I actually keep three active notebooks, one at home, one at work, and one in my commuter backpack. My home notebook goes with me when I take the CEO of my domicile on shopping excursions and to writer’s group meetings. It may sound disorganized but it seems to work for me. All three are used daily. They are not fancy, just spiral bound notebooks with hard covers

Last week I watched the Michael Jackson “BAD 25” special. Normally not my first choice of entertainment, it turned out to be kind of interesting. It included interviews with his many collaborators and went into some detail on the process of generating and producing songs. During one segment that discussed the song “Man in the Mirror”, we got to see the lyricist’s notebook in action. The album’s producer, Quincy Jones, was looking for a “feel good” anthem song for the album. He contacted songwriter, Siedah Garrett, and asked if she would work one up. She agreed and immediately pulled out her  “Lyric Book” to find a fitting theme. One line she remembered from a conversation months before pinged in her head.

At this point in the interview Ms. Garrett opened her actual “Lyric Book” and opened it to the page with the line that simply read, “Man in the Mirror.” The close-up of the pages was interesting as it showed how Ms. Garrett used her book.There were lines and lines of potential lyrics. Some just a few words and others were several lines long. Notes filled the margins and there seemed to be some color coding used as well.  It looked like any other Writer’s Notebook only tweaked to fit her specific “Genre”, song lyrics.

At the time she wrote the line in her book, she did not know that one day it would become the basis for a number one hit by Michael Jackson. She did not rely on her memory; she wrote it down because it sounded interesting. It could have been used for any number of song ideas. By the way, it would make a great flash inspiration piece, wouldn’t it?

We all use our Notebooks differently and that’s okay. It was interesting to me to see a how a world-renowned song writer used hers.

I recently wrote a scene introducing one of my antagonists. It did not feel right and I wanted to make sure this scene was right before I moved on. So, this weekend, I was killing time in a parking lot at the Domestic CEO’s favorite shopping facility and pulled out my Notebook. I started thinking about the plot and how each of the character’s should be introduced and when the major plot conflict should be inserted. I started by writing down the sequence as I originally worked it out. Then I began playing with the order that the character;s are being introduced and the then jotting down the effect that might have on the plotting. I tried to write down every possible combination. It sounds like story-boarding but, at this point it was more brain storming. After several pages, I reviewed the possibilities. One jumped out at me as the best approach based on the character types involved and overall story arc. However, I could see that given different character traits or slightly different plot line, several of the other sequences might be usable. I just know that I will revisit this list on some later project. Lord knows I won’t remember each possibility without it.

The solution I found is making me rethink the opening scenes. However, I believe the middle will be much easier to write once the characters and plot hooks are introduced properly.

What kind of Notebook do you use and how do you use it?

 
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Posted by on November 26, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Next Big Thing

29 Oct

I have been off participating in other areas of my life for the past couple of weeks.

What do I find when I return but a very nice tag from Anne Woodman. The Next Big Thing is a fun little exercise going around some areas of the blogging world. You are asked to provide information on your current project.The topic for my next several posts will be WIP so, this makes a great segue.

Here goes.

What is the working title of your book?
Smoke & Goblet

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I have always liked the Luther Whitney character in Clint Eastwood’s movie, “Absolute Power”. It was a very different role for Eastwood and the Luther character was full of depth and interest. Seeing this type of character in one of the cities of my world was easy and helps me flesh out details relating to world-building.

What genre does your book fall under?
Fantasy – Sword and Sorcery

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I’m not very good with actor’s names. The only one that comes to mind to play the main character is William H. Macy.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Liam Livsey tries to fence a stolen item, he finds out that this bauble is actually a phylactery that contains the source of all fear; and that the former owner stole it from a necromancer, with an insatiable appetite for new thralls, who is more than willing to add Liam, and everyone the thief knows, to his collection of souls if the phylactery is not returned.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The original plan was to obtain an agent. That may change as I get closer to completing the manuscript.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro?
Currently unfinished. The target date for first draft completion is March 2013. Total time would be a little over a year. As for seeing an intro, I will be posting that in an upcoming post.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
“Raven’s Strike” and “Ravens Shadow” by Patricia Briggs; “Witch” and “Warrior” by Marie Brennan

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
As I stated earlier, I love the character. The other area I want to explore is the different types of fear, their sources, and how fear affects different personalities.

 What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Adoption relationships, death and necromancy, interesting settings within a fantasy city.

I am tagging some of the next big things:

Scott Weber

4amwriter

Shannon M Howell

Corey M P

Elisa Nuckle

Rules of The Next Big Thing:

*Use this format for your post
*Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)
*Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

 
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Posted by on October 29, 2012 in Journey into Fantasy

 

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