Lesson 3: Casting Your Book.
W.I.P. Section. Creating your Cast.
You now have the skeleton of your plan, and know more or less what major events will take place in each of your five chapters. You have almost certainly chosen some characters, but perhaps they are still "a child", "a dog", or "three friends". In the initial planning stages, these non-specific characters can be used almost as if they were chessmen, but by the time you have finished your plan, you will probably have an idea of the personalities your characters will have.
List Your Characters
Make a list of the characters you think you will need for your W.I.P. Put the protagonist(s) first, add the major characters, and then the minor ones. Now, consider what personalities these characters have, or need.
If the plot calls for a child character to confront a threat, then the child must have kind of personality that makes it possible, or even likely, that s/he would take this action. Your characters must always have a good and sufficient reason for acting as they do.
You might say the character confronts the threat because this makes the story more exciting, but that is not enough. The key to the characters’ actions must lie in (1) their personalities, or else (2) in their circumstances.
(1) Some people (even children) are confrontationist by nature. They will almost always choose to argue or to fight instead of backing down or turning away. Some people will do this even though they must be aware that they are wrong.
If your nine-year-old girl character is going to display a confrontationist attitude in chapter 4, you should make sure she shows traces of this is personality quirk earlier in the book.
An example of this character trait: the dog at Number 6 Rue Lane always snaps at Lucy. Lucy could easily go home via Tibbs Lane, but she prefers Rue Lane. Therefore, she confronts the dog with a large stick.
(2) If your character is not confrontationist by nature, circumstance must be the driving force. To put it simply, you must set up a circumstance that makes it more difficult for your character to back down than to confront the problem.
An example of this character trait: the dog at Number 6 Rue Lane always snaps at Lucy. Lucy would rather go home via Tibbs Lane, but that’s where the school bully lives. Lucy confronts the dog because this is marginally easier than confronting the bully.
As well as setting up the correct personalities for your characters, you need to work out their relationships, their numbers, and their sexes. Having too many characters in a group can weaken the story, especially if it is a short one. There isn’t enough room to develop so many characters into individuals.
When casting your book, it is helpful to pretend you are casting a movie. Just as each actor has to be justified in terms of fees, so you should justify the inclusion of each character. Is the role necessary? What does it add? Does the heroine really need three friends? Are you aware that your four unrelated protagonists are going to add a possible eight parents to the mix? Or even more, if some of them have stepparents?
If you want a large cast of children, but don’t want to include (or unconvincingly dispose of) their accompanying adults, you have several options. You could set most of your scenes at school (and use a couple of teachers instead of twenty parents), or in the park, or the mall.
You could put several children in the care of one grandparent, aunt or uncle or elder sibling. It’s trickier to dispose of older characters altogether, because in most societies children don’t live in an adult-free zone.
Very young protagonists (the under-sevens) usually need an older mentor/carer character, because it is through the offices of an older person that small children travel, play, acquire pets or toys or visit friends.
Older children (10+) and teenagers have more freedom. They are more able to come and go, and have more chance to select friends and activities rather than accepting those imposed on them by their carers.
If You Have Trouble with Separating Personalities.
When creating a group of characters for your book, don’t overlook the different permutations. Here are some advantages and disadvantages and ways to make things interesting.
Like-minded friends. Realistic, but there’s a danger they’ll be carbon copies. What if one of them changes?
Chalk/Cheese friends. Realistic, but make sure they have some common traits. If not, why do they like one another?
Neighbours, or children whose parents are friends. These might be casual acquaintances, and are likely to know one another well. May become friends through convenience. What if one suddenly realises s/he doesn’t actually like the other(s)?
Schoolmates. Might like one another, or might not. Anything from tolerance to close friendship to hearty dislike or fear is possible.
Fellow inmates in an after-school care facility. As above.
Siblings and their separate friends. The friends mightn’t like one another. Maybe one sibling feels left out.
Friends whose parents disapprove. There can be all sorts of reasons, and such children would try to meet away from the houses.
Friends apart in age. Gaps in maturity. One might be in high school and leave the other behind. Other people might find this suspicious.
Nearly all these scenarios can work with teen romances instead of friendship. You can add physical attraction, which is sometimes quite independent of liking.
