How Do You Create Characters?

[intim8]

Did you just make this up?

I can see where maybe he might have gotten that, but until I understand the question he led with, I won't really know how reasonable it is.

Keith just can't help psychologizing. It's one of his loveable quirks, but this might not be an example of it.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

It's not a universal rule. It's a nice rule of thumb to use in many stories. I personally find it a useful way to think in writing stories. But there are plenty of successful stories where the character experiences no growth. James Bond never grows. Part of his appeal (in the books I've read) is that he's an implacable, unchangeable character. He might fall for a woman and soften for a little while (as in Casino Royale) but by the end of the book she's probably dead and he's right back where he started.

Jack Reacher books are the same way. In the Agatha Christie books I've read, Hercule Poirot shows no growth or change at all.

He had changes in a few of the books and short stories, ever so small, but still changes from his norm. The most notable was in The Spy Who Loved Me. In a total departure from his usual ending, he not only fell in love (real love) but married Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo. That didn't end so well. Another one, a short story which I can't remember the name of, he violated his orders and murdered the man he was assigned to protect.

 

[AG31]

I did. I responded to it above. Our posts might have crossed in the mail.

Ships in the night.

 

[AG31]

Where do you generally draw up inspiration from? What's your process like for coming up with characters? What is your relationship to them and to this process in general? I'm interested to hear about how other writers do this, as I'm opening myself up to new methods.

Feel free to also talk about how character development arises naturally in your writing (or if you have to force it), etc.

And can we hear your answer, Madeline? How do you come up with your characters? From what I've read, they're some of the more unusual on Lit.

BTW - Good thread! Thanks!

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

"Successful" depends on your definition. They are very commercially successful. Artistically, meh. I've never read the novels, so I'm just going by the movies.

But hey, James Bond changes a lot. It seems like every few movies, he's a completely different person.

The books and the movies only have a passing resemblance to each other. The closest story to the book version is On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Usually, one element from the book survives the names of the villains and the women, and not much else. They have recycled the plot element of a killer satellite (from the movie, not the book), Diamonds Are Forever two times, Golden Eye, and Die Another Day. They transplanted the shark attack on Felix Leiter from the book Live and Let Die to the movie Licensed to Kill. The books are far superior to the movies, but they are spy books, and the movies are an institution.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not sure I can articulate why I find it so appalling. Part of it is that real life is 99% mundane boredom. People don't want to read mundane, they want to read something that is extraordinary in some way, or that at least gives them something to think about.

I think you are ignoring the classic appeal of a certain kind of hero, or a certain kind of villain. Some heroes do not evolve, and they are appealing for that reason. Beowulf doesn't grow or change. The interest in him is that he is unbeatable and implacable.

Also, in the majority of cases here we are talking about short stories, not novels. It's much less important for a person to grow in a short story. A character can be introduced as interesting but not necessarily evolving in a short story.

I'm not disputing that the "change and evolve" concept is vitally important, because I think it is, and I think it gives many stories their "umph." I just don't agree that it's a necessary concept.

 

[intim8]

Some heroes do not evolve, and they are appealing for that reason.

Sometimes the people around them change. Or the society as a whole, which in many stories performs the same, or analagous, function as a character.

In that case the hero's reliable stability is the fulcrum that all the change pivots around

 

[intim8]

It's much less important for a person to grow in a short story.

On the other hand, a short story is more able to focus on just that, often making the process of change itself almost the whole of the plot.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I think about someone I've known, using little quirks they had or personality traits. I add a dash of whole cloth. Season them with a bit of another's essence, and there you go, someone new emerges or not!

 

[intim8]

Think of the stories here. First time is all about a life changing moment for a character. E&V is full of themes of characters coming to acceptance of themselves. Romance commonly has characters discivering what they really want, or discovering that what they thought they wanted was not what they needed. I'm sure the more specific kink categories have a lot of the same.

This place is full of stories, both long and short, that do that.

 

[SimonDoom]

Think of the stories here. First time is all about a life changing moment for a character. E&V is full of themes of characters coming to acceptance of themselves. Romance commonly has characters discivering what they really want, or discovering that what they thought they wanted was not what they needed. I'm sure the more specific kink categories have a lot of the same.

This place is full of stories, both long and short, that do that.

Personally, your principle is central to how I write. When it comes to erotica, I often like to focus on first-time experiences and introductions to kinks, because I find the transition from vanilla to kinky to be very sexy, much more interesting than telling a story about somebody who already has a kink.

 

[KeithD]

I honestly don't understand the question. Can you elaborate?

You were discounting in your post that a story ending in no change can't have extraordinary and entertaining plot up that point. It can.

My muse is weaving a story in which "no change" in the protagonist is the point of the story--a character maintaining loyalty to something/someone despite all sorts of nefarious characters trying to bend the protagonist to do/be something else.

 

[KeithD]

Think of the stories here. First time is all about a life changing moment for a character. E&V is full of themes of characters coming to acceptance of themselves. Romance commonly has characters discivering what they really want, or discovering that what they thought they wanted was not what they needed. I'm sure the more specific kink categories have a lot of the same.

This place is full of stories, both long and short, that do that.

But it's not the only choice/scenario for a successful story here or anywhere else.

 

[intim8]

I find the transition from vanilla to kinky to be very sexy,

Yup, that's the crux of everything I'm talking about.

 

[intim8]

maintaining loyalty to something/someone despite all sorts of nefarious characters trying to bend the protagonist to do/be something else.

I have to go for an appointment, but I will come back to this. I think you're almost agreeing with me, through the back door (no pun intended )

 

[KeithD]

Yup, that's the crux of everything I'm talking about.

But, again, it's not the only scenario for a successful story.

 

[MillieDynamite]

One man's happy ending is another man's sad, sad tale. Happy endings aren't necessarily the only or best way to tell a story. Ambiguous endings can work well, leaving it to the reader to add what they think will happen. Character growth isn't required, especially in short stories. Sherlock Holmes stories don't have much growth of either Watson or Holmes. However, Holmes changed over the series, becoming kinder towards the later tales and not as caustic or condescending in his remarks to Watson. But that's over 66 short stories and novels and 30-plus years in storytime. His personal habits changed little (he did, however, at some point, kick the cocaine).

Watson was married three times (only the first Mrs. Watson, apparently, had a first name).

Oh, shit, my adverbs are showing through!

 

[madelinemasoch]

For the most part, being I write interracial cuckold stories, the characters are cookie cutouts. Now, in my horror series the characters seemed to create themselves.

Just because it’s interracial cuckoldry doesn’t mean the characters have to be cookie cutouts. There’s like a million different ways of doing interracial cuckoldry with any myriad cast of characters involved, like a friend who coaxes a wife into it, an alternate love interest from the husband/boyfriend who does the same because they enjoy it and the boyfriend wouldn’t, a wife who’s actually reluctant to do it but does so for her cuckold’s pleasure first, and so on. I could literally go on forever.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Oh, the stories have variations, but I think I have very little character development. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, the characters aren't three-dimensional in my cuck tales.

Just because it’s interracial cuckoldry doesn’t mean the characters have to be cookie cutouts. There’s like a million different ways of doing interracial cuckoldry with any myriad cast of characters involved, like a friend who coaxes a wife into it, an alternate love interest from the husband/boyfriend who does the same because they enjoy it and the boyfriend wouldn’t, a wife who’s actually reluctant to do it but does so for her cuckold’s pleasure first, and so on. I could literally go on forever.

 

[THBGato]

As dialogue is very important in my stories, I do spend a lot of time thinking about how characters speak. That means deciding on ethnicity, class, level of education, family situation, and geographical origin before I start writing (many of my stories involve University students, which is a helpful device for bringing together people from a range of backgrounds). I don't want them all to sound the same.*

Side characters will often come from people I know/knew, but my main characters are always total inventions. However, for me it's usually the inciting incident - a blind date, an audition, having to share a bed regularly - that comes to me first, not the character. Therefore, my main character design is based purely on what kind of women would be a) in this situation and b) would find each other attractive.

*Though my efforts to make each character sound, like, vocally distinct is the main thing my readers have, you know, complained about. Ya get me, fam?

 

[madelinemasoch]

And can we hear your answer, Madeline? How do you come up with your characters? From what I've read, they're some of the more unusual on Lit.

BTW - Good thread! Thanks!

I’m reluctant to answer. Let’s just say I construct a lot of my characters from my own wishes and unfulfilled needs in life. The wounds of unfulfillment can open up a vast space for fantasy. I heavily draw on my own unconscious connections, aspects of those real life relations within, beneath the surface. There’s quite a lot of me in almost every character. I put a lot of my own emotionality into them and try to understand them from that perspective.

As I create and visualize them, they grow into their own (in my head). They often guide the writing themselves in a literal way. For example, while I was finishing Letters, Eliza told me “I’m in love with Hector” so I changed the originally planned ending.

My real “wife” is the art itself (I’m not married). Her end of the relationship is inspiring me and mine is serving the ideas she feeds me by writing them out. She always comes back to me no matter how depressed I get.

A lot of the time I’m illustrating the way things ought to be, or exploring darker recesses of my own consciousness.

 

[SmokingFap]

I hardly consider myself an author. But I've written dozens of short erotic fantasies for myself in spiral-bound notebooks over the years. I've only recently started transcribing and publishing them on here. Three chapters of one scenario so far. But I go by that old saying, "Write what you know." So all of my characters are either based on me or people that I know.

 

[CarmineBlancheJr]

This is an excellent question for a couple of reasons. It makes the author think about the work they put into the character and the asker learn, potentially, a new method.

So...

I have three general character types for the stories I work on.

Static, Walk-on, and Throw-away.

The static characters are the ones I put a lot of work into and usually use in my long-form work that I put up for sale or in some of my multi-parters. These are people with whom I build a background and give quirks, personalities, job histories, etc. Their "Birth", so to speak can take many forms. First I usually use a name generator like my go-to of https://www.behindthename.com. These are the people that I will use throughout the story and save for expanding stories or series.

Walk-on/off characters are ones that I just need a name and excuse for them to be there. For example a butler in the house, a maid, the annoying kid next door. People that have a role, but not enough of one that I am going to invest time in.

Throwaways are just that. Throwaways are the ones that you have ONLY the name for but no story, no background; you run into them once. Tim, the gas station attendant; Alfie, the street-corner, priest with tourettes. Etc. You mention them in passing, and you may get the feeling the main character is more familiar with them, but since they are not integral to the story, you never hear about them again.

I am sure that each and every one of us has our own way, but this is the way that has always worked for me and I have literal notebooks full of handwritten notes about some of these people. I do not think any one way is wrong, as long as it works for you.

 

[AG31]

I hardly consider myself an author. But I've written dozens of short erotic fantasies for myself in spiral-bound notebooks over the years. I've only recently started transcribing and publishing them on here. Three chapters of one scenario so far. But I go by that old saying, "Write what you know." So all of my characters are either based on me or people that I know.

I think you may be the first person I've bumped into here on Lit who, like me, writes down their fantasies to produce stories.

 

[samhasstories]

I let my subconscious drive when it comes to characters. If I find they're coming in flat I might free-write a bit to plump them up in my head, but I don't do it with any goal or archetype in mind. I need people in my stories, and they tend to just sort of walk in when I need them.