Define a viewpoint. Throughout the story I’m currently writing, my hero’s arc, transformation, or ‘inner journey’ is to realize that things are not always perfect, or easy, and they probably never will be. Life is the process of surviving adversity. Sure, life is ‘unfair’ and the world conspires against you, but in the end you either fight to survive, you fight for your rights, your sanity, your freedom–whichever battle you choose, but you must fight.
My hero encounters both a mentor and a mentee. The mentor is of course, older and wiser, and although my hero is slowly realizing that life is simply unfair and he must fight, the mentor is there to teach him that picking your battles is very important. In other words, where my hero realizes that he simply must fight, the mentor can teach a simple fact; How you fight your battles is often just as important as choosing to fight them in the first place.
At the same time, there is a very young and naive character to which my hero plays the mentor. This young character is stuck at a naive stage many of us have been through. It’s the stage where everything is somebody else’s fault, and the world should bend over backwards to satisfy a single individual. It is the naive bitter bus, maladaptive viewpoint. The self-defeating, helpless hand-wringing impatience of youth.
While other writers might define their characters by the character’s habits, quirks, and obsessive personality traits, I’m choosing to define my characters by the purpose their viewpoint brings to the story. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot of work to do in defining those odd quirks, and unique individualisms.
But so far the easiest way I’ve found to create a character who actually means something, is to give their perspective relevance and symbolism within the overall themes of the story. Perhaps this may seem a bit obvious, and so I must ask; What tricks do you use in developing characters?
My approach is similar to yours. I think if you know what a character ultimately wants, and why they think the way they do, everything else will flow from that.
I sometimes worry that this might be too two dimensional, but I do think a person’s perspective defines them and determines every other aspect of their personality right down to their quirky habits and particular ways of expressing themselves. Of course you could get into a chicken and the egg argument, saying that the personality determines the perspective but…
[...] Eric has an interesting post about character viewpoint. [...]
Here are tricks I use. They can really help me flush out characters’ dimensions (even if I don’t use the tricks’ results in later drafts):
1. Dialogue — Having my characters talk at length with someone in the story, especially about a conflict, helps me define their viewpoints. Sometimes I feel that I’m writing too much dialogue in my drafts, as I let them have these philosophical discussions, but at the end, I have a better sense of who these characters are. Then I edit as needed.
2. Dreams/Nightmares — I’ll write vivid dream/nightmare sequences for characters occasionally, seeing where they lead. The dreams often explain underlying conflicts, the subconscious, etc. Then I do a lot of editing or even delete entirely.
Another trick I’ve heard people use is to put their characters in a “tricky” situation. Seeing the way they get themselves out of it reveals a lot about their underlying strengths and weaknesses.
I’ve never thought of anything specific that I do. I’ve always when writing a story had a problem that my character must over come and which usually makes the character grow if they work thru the problem.
It’s much more simplified that your adult novel. But again my problems have to be something that children can relate to in a way or another…
I have to say I use dialogue all the time thought to help define my characters and give them a personality.
Not only do I use dreams, I use everything I can get my hands on. I watch people. A mother and daughter were arguing in a doctors office about a year ago. I quickly took out paper and pen and jotted down notes. No, not the conversation. Yikes. It was the situation. The little girl was wearing THE perfect outfit. I used it in a travel scene for a girl in an airport waiting room. Right down to the pink pastel flowers embroidered on her pants. I also used the arguing in Spanish as she tried to translate for her mother.
Never go anywhere without pen/paper or a blackberry or some way to take notes.
This is how to give your characters personality.
Other ways:
Give them a tragic past.
Make them have nervous tics or habits
make them afraid of something
describe their love of something and re-visit it
make us feel bad for them or pity them!
Good luck.
Oh– would you object to me asking for a linkback. I have you listed in blogs I read daily.
I could sure use the readers.
Thanks
Kay
Thanks for the comment Kay. And you’re added!
When I’m writing, sometimes I’ll get a feeling about a character, something that makes me go “huh?”. Or the character will say something odd. And I’ll look more closely at it. Where did this come from? From that I can usually find a great backstory to explain how and why this comes about.
For example, in my NaNo, I have a woman doctor, an intern, who is caught up in a situation where the police were involved. But she’s afraid of them. Why?
From that I found she was a minority, and her brother was shot by the police for no reason. Well, other that he was deaf and at the scene of a crime and trying to get out of the way of everyone who came running out of the store after it was robbed. They ordered him to stop but he didn’t hear them.
The whole story, she’s having to deal with police, not feeling comforted by their presence, but afraid, because she feels they are unpredictable, people who could just shoot at any time. It adds a sense of fear to an already fearful situation (a serial killer).
I have used this help from my characters (and I guess my subconscious) time and time again to develop their stories.
Patty, you raise an interesting point by bringing up the fears and emotions behind things. People often say they don’t want to read another novel where the writer is just using the story as a front for their politics, but politics are a good source for character emotions and motivations. Instead of preaching, I think it’s interesting to look at each character’s individual reasons and feelings behind their beliefs. Maybe the character doesn’t even know themselves? They haven’t thought it out enough… that can be interesting too if it represents a flaw or brand of ignorance.
There’s a lot of mileage to gain out of beliefs, and exploring the reasons why characters believe the things they do, as that pertains to the overall themes and symbolism of the story.