Lesson 3: Characters
Whether you consider your novel to be plot-driven or character-driven, your characters have great influence on your plot. Their personalities determine how they react to the events they encounter. In a character-driven novel, the story focuses more on the characters themselves than on what they do and what happens to them. In this lesson, I'll discuss creating new characters, basing characters on people you know, and delineating characters. I'll discuss plots in the next lesson.
(For more information on character development, see Writing the Breakout Novel, chapter 5, and Bird by Bird, pages 44-53.)
Creating New Characters
We relate to the inner conflicts of characters more than to their outer experiences, because they do and say things for which we don't normally have the courage. They experience things beyond the scope of our common lives. Your readers want to meet characters who are realistic, but not ordinary. They want to share experiences with characters who are larger than life, and who are memorable because of distinctive traits such as nervous habits or unique hobbies and interests.
You may begin with a physical image of a character in your mind, a line of dialogue, or a role. To discover more about this character, ask her questions. What does she look like? How does she feel about herself? What do other people think about her? What kind of home life did she have? Where did she grow up? How did she get herself into this situation? What does she most want in life? Etc., etc., etc. Ask her anything you want to know. Chances are that she has an answer for you.
Once you know quite a bit about your characters, ask yourself why your readers should care about each character. Most readers relate to suffering. But they don't want your characters to suffer for no good reason. They want them to struggle and succeed in some way, even if it's not by reaching the goal they strove toward. Give your character a noble goal, then make them suffer for it. By the end of your story, your characters, particularly your main character, must have changed in some way.
Rather than grouping characters into good and bad, try to see them each more realistically as people who have good and bad sides to their personalities. Even "bad" characters should evoke some sympathy from your readers. "Good" and "bad" behavior is more realistically the result of each character's awareness level of themselves and those around them. Did they have time to think about what they were doing? What kept them honest or what lead them astray?
