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Creating "Good" Characters?



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Sat Jan 17, 2015 10:10 pm
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AttackOfTheFlash says...



I've wanted to start one of my story ideas, but the characters are holding me back. I can't seem to create a character I like. I feel like if I don't like them, readers won't either.
I suppose my biggest fear is that they will be too cliche. For example, I really like shy, introverted, reserved characters. But a big cliche these days is the shy, introverted, quiet nerdy high schooler who everyone snickers at because she's reading a book. See what I mean?
So the question is: how to do create a good, memorable character? I'm not out to create the next hero that everyone is in love with, I just want to create one that I actually enjoy writing about.
(Sorry it's a silly question.)
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Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:38 pm
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Rosendorn says...



No silly questions! Ever! Everything's a valid one.

So the main thing about the cliche of the shy, quiet, introverted character is: they're often treated as unique by the narrative when, in reality, they aren't all that rare. The sheer prevalence of them on social media (which, admittedly, skews towards the introverted) shows that.

If you want to break out of cliche territory, then you just have to take that base mould and add a few more traits:

- What are her hobbies besides reading?
- What does her friend group look like?
- Does she have any trademark fashion statements that differentiate her?

When you develop characters outside of their stereotypes, then you break away from cliches naturally because you have more depth to them. Cliches become cliches when people stop at the basic model and don't add anything else too it. If you want to start with the base of a quiet, introverted character, go for it! But ask yourself what else is mixed into the personality.

One or two defining characteristics that readers can latch onto are important for memorability. You can have a bug collecting scientist who's obsessed with their work... or you can have exactly the same character who always wears a hot pink scarf. Which one are you going to remember more?

Really, just flesh out characters. Have "traits" that both help and hurt the character, depending on who they meet and their situation (quiet can be useful, quiet can be harmful). Give them random hobbies and preferences and a life outside of themselves.

I've found that all characters end up pretty flat until you develop them in relation to others. How do they relate to parents, friends, siblings (if they have them), extended family (if they're in contact), teachers, other figures they run across? You can start to make them more nuanced that way.

All in all, just throw your characters in situations! Characters don't develop completely in a vacuum, and you really do need to write them to get a better idea of who your characters are.
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Sun Jan 18, 2015 12:15 am
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AttackOfTheFlash says...



@Rosendorn thank you for the insight! I never thought about how characters react to others as apart of who they are. It makes sense. Thank you once again and I'll definitely consider what you said!
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Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:03 am
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RacheDrache says...



The big question, in my opinion, is "Why?"

Why is your character quiet? Why is she shy, quiet, reserved, etc? Motivations mean the world of difference.

Maybe she comes from a bookish family of scientists and nerds. Maybe she's the unwanted child to rich parents and she's used to being told she's meant to be neither seen nor heard. Maybe she would really like to be brave and dynamic and extroverted, but she is so afraid of judgment because of X or Z.

Bookish, quiet, reserved, introverted people are very real. I'm one! Rosey's one! You might very be one yourself! But we are all very different even still, and why we do what we do is one insight into why we're all so alike yet so very different.

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Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:39 am
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DrFeelGood says...



The easiest way to do that is observation. Observe real people around you. There is something unique, something cliched in everyone around you. For example, one of my friend has eating disorder. He can eat a chocolate cake stuffed in a sandwich. Aint that quite an exciting trait to use for your protagonist?

The most important thing is DONT label your characters. Real people have no labels. They are aloof or introverted because they like it that way. While writing a story you'll have several characters. If you want to make them real, you can't keep thinking, "Okay, this character is introverted. So his friend should be a lively creature." That's a cliche!

By 'Do not label characters,' I mean let the story and characters evolve simultaneously. For example, I write realistic satires. My trick is I use dialogues and situations to build my characters. A lot of it comes from observation. You need to have a keen eye to catch how real people react to same situation in different ways.

For example, consider a very bad situation. Things aren't going write for your protagonist. His reaction to the situation shows the readers whether he is optimistic by nature. His reaction tells whether he is close to his parents/sibling/girl-friend/wife. Craft scenes which give various shades of his personality.

You can get away with many cliches if you flesh your characters neatly. I mean consider this: A secondary character who is mostly joyous throughout the story turning emotional after the second half is a cliche. But when your readers are in love with that character they begin to react with him. They laugh, cry, hope and cheer for him. They root for him. But to reach that stage his reaction shouldn't be half-baked or overtly dramatic.

To conclude it, I'll say, you need to strike a fine balance between the narration of the story and scenes which develop your characters. Try to give traits to your characters which you observe in your parents, siblings, teacher, friends, neighbours or any other person. That'll make them very believable and real!
  





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Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:52 am
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Vervain says...



DrFeelGood, just a few questions and comments to clear up some of the information you tossed out there in your response --

First, I would argue that it's a safer bet to stay away from the extreme cliches for fear of falling into "quirky" teen fiction areas. That is, while quirks are acceptable character traits, they by no means should be character-defining, and that's quite a bit of what people tend to pick up from initial observation. One of my quirks is that I find red food to be better than other foods, but I would hesitate to apply that to a character, especially if they're already treading on the edge in terms of "quirkiness".

Secondly, you say that real people have no labels. What about self-assigned labels? I would consider myself an introvert, for example, not to mention I'm a non-binary gendervague bisexual feminist college student etc. etc.

This actually leads into another comment of mine: You cannot understand the internal part of humanity through external observation. I mean, yes, you technically can on a shallow level, but unless you go back and parse through their entire lives from birth to the current moment, you're not going to understand exactly why they're acting like that.

External observation is useful for seeing how people react in real life situations, but the internal wiring of human beings is completely individual -- no two people are going to react to something exactly the same way, and you can't see the internal wiring. In order to understand why they react, which is what you're portraying as a writer, you have to understand the person as a whole, from beginning to end.

Also, I'd argue that while clichés do have their place in writing, they should stay away from initial character creation. Tossing a character into a situation, putting a character through their life experiences and seeing how they react, is far more important in my book than throwing some clichés together into their development arc and saying "well, if I make the audience feel, it's okay". Sometimes they end up far more half-baked than the author may originally see, and sometimes when the audience separates themselves from the emotion they look at the prose and go "why am I reading this?"

It's important to think of the characters as a whole, interacting with each other and the world, in the sense of the character and plot development arcs. If you rely too much on shallow external observations and clichés -- not saying that they're a bad thing all the time, just when they're the primary basis of something without deeper thought -- your work may fall apart at the slightest touch of criticism.
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Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:57 am
DrFeelGood says...



I think a bulk of your character sketching depends upon the format you choose for narration. I generally choose first person format. So I sketch my protagonist through the observation he draws. His reactions take my story forward.

The quirkiness comes naturally into my stories because they are mostly humorous satires. May be this won't apply universally, but my point is, observing people and putting their unique traits into your character helps them look real.

About the labels, I am talking about labeling people. People labeling themselves is a trait but labeling your character is not. Labeling limits your character development. What I am focusing on is, spontaneous reactions. Labelled characters react in a singular manner. I mean when I tell my readers in the first 2 chapters that my protagonist is thoroughly optimistic, I have to keep justifying him as an optimist throughout the story.

The readers have to figure out my character along with the story.

I would like to disagree with the external observation point you made. Yes, it looks shallow and half-baked, but it depends on your presentation. Reactions are what I depend upon. An externally observed character might look like a real person if I develop his character along with the story.

I use various devices to crack internal wiring through external observation. I use situational humor which tickles the funny bone of my readers but simultaneously gives them a dimension of my character. I also use satirical conversation between my characters to develop them without giving info-dumps.

About the cliches, yes I try to avoid them as much as I can but yes sometimes I do get carried away with them. I don't generally rely on cliches because I first try to crack a unique plot. When I have a unique plot with characters developing themselves along with the story I don't think my readers will ever have a question like, "Why am I reading this." That's what I hope at least!
  





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Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:12 am
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Vervain says...



DrFeelGood wrote:I think a bulk of your character sketching depends upon the format you choose for narration. I generally choose first person format. So I sketch my protagonist through the observations he draws. His reactions take my story forward.
Yes, but your protagonist's observations and reactions obviously can't be correct 100% of the time -- or else you wouldn't have a story with a protagonist, you'd have a story with an infallible narrator. The characters have to be developed outside of the reactions to keep them in line with their actual personalities and their histories most of all. The present is important, but the past has shaped it.

About the labels, I am talking about labeling people. People labeling themselves is a trait but labeling your character is not. Labeling limits your character development. What I am focusing on is, spontaneous reactions. Labelled characters react in a singular manner. I mean when I tell my readers in the first 2 chapters that my protagonist is thoroughly optimistic, I have to keep justifying him as an optimist throughout the story. The readers must figure out my character along with the story.
I agree with the "limiting your character development" sense if and only if that's the only way that someone is expounding upon their character. If an author states outright "this character is optimistic", they cannot expect their readership to take it at face value. However, some may find it beneficial to write down simple character traits in "label" format and go back and ask themselves, "Why does my character fit into this label? How do they fit into this label? How do they define themselves within this label?"

Stating that labels never work ever because they don't work for some authors is like saying that everyone should take less than 6 months to write a novel because that's what works for Stephen King. An important part of writing advice is the part where you add, "but you can toss this out the window if it doesn't work for you".

I would like to disagree with the external observation point you made. Yes, it looks shallow and half-baked, but it depends on your presentation. Reactions are what I depend upon. An externally observed character might look like a real person I develop his character along with the story.
Another point of disagreement -- it doesn't depend on your "presentation", it depends on your understanding of the character. If you don't understand why they react in a way they react, then even in humor and satire -- arguably, especially in humor and satire -- the readership isn't going to understand and will be forced to assume that the reaction happened For The Funnies. Even if it's something that's explained chapters later, it needs to be something with a legitimate explanation and some kind of insight into the character.

About the cliches, yes I try to avoid them as much as I can but yes sometimes I do get carried away with them. I don't generally rely on cliches because I first try to crack a unique plot. When I have a unique plot with characters developing themselves along with the story I don't think my readers will ever have a question like, "Why am I reading this." That's what I hope!
I'd worry less about the "unique" plot and more about the style, tone, what you're trying to convey through the piece and the characters, and where you want the story to go. I'm absolutely sure that the premise of my current novel project has been done before, but it's not something that's going to get in the way of me actually writing the novel. It's less originality and more freshness that readers are going to enjoy. You can have the most original plot in the world, but if it doesn't have the reader draw, and if the characters don't make sense, then it could fail dramatically.
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Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:47 am
DrFeelGood says...



Let's agree to disagree. We both follow different style of writing. Of course, I take care to justify my characters, they are all sane people. I do try to bring in freshness as well but I dont think you understood my point. It looked more like personal attacks than a logical debate. I don't want to stretch this debate. Peace.
  





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Sun Jan 18, 2015 3:21 pm
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AttackOfTheFlash says...



Um wow, I didn't know this would turn into a debate... I'm sorry.
But lovely advice, everyone! I appreciate you guys stopping by to help! :)
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Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:06 pm
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Vervain says...



DrFeelGood -- I don't see where I attacked you, considering my posts were impersonal commentary on writing styles and advice, but if you'd rather drop it, I understand.

Attack -- I'm glad that at least some of that was useful! I wish you the best of luck in your writing endeavors!
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Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:16 pm
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Stori says...



Just a thought- consider whether there's a setting where an introverted, bookish person doesn't stand out.
  





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Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:20 pm
AttackOfTheFlash says...



@Stori Good point. (I was just using the introverted character as an example.)
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Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:26 pm
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Stori says...



You're welcome. I've just had another thought.

Why not write a story that questions how the soft-spoken character so often becomes a leader?
  





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Sat Feb 28, 2015 7:34 pm
AttackOfTheFlash says...



Hmm I think I could actually incorporate that into one of my story ideas. Thanks again!!
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