First of all I want to say how glad I am to have rejoined the group. This is a professional organization and one I am proud to be a member of. In the current time of belt tightening I consider my membership as an investment. As we are all writers we are mostly loners. Yet we carry our characters in our minds, thus never truly alone.
In the last meeting it was suggested that we do a profile of our characters. To me a simple profile is not enough. First note physical appearnace, any physical disablity, manner of walking, manner of speach. Then pretend your character is a member of a dating service and is trying to find a mate. What would the request be?
Then have the character apply for a job. What would the experiences be?
And finally have the character visit his/her doctor. What would the complaint be and how would the patient handle it?
Of course no one character should impart all this information in a book, but it gives the writer a formula of sorts to know the under laying factors of the character's behaviors.
Does any one in the group have another method of knowing the hero and heroine more completely? What works for me might not for you. To me that is the greatest thing about writing, there is no wrong way, simply what works or not.
Feel free to jump in throughout the day and make any comments you wish. Any questions? Throw them at me. Enjoy this beautiful day. I think maybe Spring has sprung.
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Hey Foxlady,
ReplyDeleteI have a spreadsheet that I have used for my current novel and that really helped me. There were a TON of questions and working out my characters, help me work out my story. It wasn't the "end all be all" but it helped, and I even got ideas as I went along.
Having well-rounded characters is great when reading a book. We've all read them where it seems like the characters are flat like cardboard. I hate that!
Another concept that helped me was to always remember your characters motivation, inner desires, etc. Make sure all of their words and actions stay true to their motivations etc.
Thanks for the blog!
I've never been much of a plotter so character interviews and spreadsheets don't work for me. What works best for me is putting my characters on the page together and seeing what they do. I also spend a lot of time "walking" with my characters until I get to know them better--and by that I mean just living with them in my head until I know them a bit before I begin writing.
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