Are Your Characters Real to You?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by rizzle_t, Aug 15, 2007.

  1. Weaselword

    Weaselword Banned

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    My characters aren't particularly real until about the third draft of any given story. (It's usually around the third run-through that I start to give them distinctive voices in dialogue, habits, etc.) Before that, they're just sort of cardboard cutouts.

    Even with finished stories, they're not as real to me as real people. I call them finished when a beta reader tells me I've brought the characters to life in their minds.

    My characters certainly aren't friends, lol. There's always something I seriously dislike about every character I write; it's a personal rule.
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet New Member

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    What seems to work best for me is if I start with my characters. To me, a story has to be about people. I create the universe in which my characters live and then I create the characters. I write pages about where they grew up and what they were like when they were kids, etc. (none of this appears in the stories, it's just prep work, trying to make the characters real in my own head). There's times when it seems like needless work but I'll promise you, I never reach a point in a story where I find myself asking "What would she do in THIS situation?" I already know.
     
  3. Montag

    Montag New Member

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    Sometimes my characters become incredibly real to me. There was one little story I started, about a guy who lived in his fantasies, and neglected reality. I couldn't finish it because it was too sad, and it reminded me of myself.

    Or sometimes I'll have a character do something that is important to the plot, but still very stupid and I'll think 'Aah, you idiot! why'd you do that!'

    I talk out loud with them too, deliberately. Hearing the actual words is heaps better than just thinking or reading them, it makes it more realistic.

    I might be crazy, but it's okay, I'm getting help. One of the voices in my head is a psychiatrist!
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet New Member

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    Hi Montag - I don't thnk that's crazy. Lot's of people don't pay enough attention to how they write dialog. I can't count the number of times I've read something and said to myself, "Real people don't talk like that." But I think that the secret is having your characters talk differently. They've all got different lives, maybe they were born and raised in different places, different economic classes, etc. But it's got to be real. Some actors are quite good at this (I like the old British actors) and you can learn a lot about writing dialog by watching old movies. Thanks
     
  5. diziet

    diziet Member

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    some really good thoughts on characters in this thread.

    heather - i wouldn't advise using the names of real people for your characters. that can lead to all kinds of nastiness.

    my characters never seem too real to me because they're just characters. they exist only in my head. i think you can get bogged down in writing reams of exposition about the characters you're trying to create - childhood experiences, relationships, traumas and so on. i think this kind of approach to character creation sometimes limits you because you feel the urge to adhere to the profile you've written.

    the best advice i was given about character development was to let that person's actions speak for them. for example, if you want your readers to know that your character is untrustworthy create a scene where they do something immoral. actions do speak louder than words and that will always shine through more successfully than simply stating, 'Geoff So-And-So was a real sneaky bugger'
     
  6. Karpi

    Karpi New Member

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    i agree if you use names of people you really know then you might see them differently in real life as their character develops in the story.

    if you've heard of lucid dreaming, its where your dreaming but you realize you are and you control it. i might be crazy, but if i realize im in a dream, then sometimes i bring these characters into it and it really helps me get their personality down.

    as an example if im in a dream of being chased, i think, what if she (the antagonist of my stories) was the one chasing me.

    if your specific about the direction you want the book to go, though, dont try it. Because of doing this, the main character essentially is me in every way now, and he is no longer deathly afraid of the main antagonist (who tried to murder him as a child)
     
  7. Funny Bunny

    Funny Bunny New Member

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    I must not like my characters. I keep putting them in risky situations I would not wish upon anyone I really knew. I think a character is a stand in for some "place" in the universe. Some emotional state, some set of experiences. In a lot of cases, i would not like to be my characters. I find something worth being in them (most) and valuable to learn from them, perhaps, but I really would rather be the writer. I think if I liked my characters, and they were my friends, I wouldn't abuse them like I do.
     
  8. ACreativeMess

    ACreativeMess New Member

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    My characters are completely and utterly real...to me. I talk about them as if they are standing right next to me and if that makes me insane, so be it. I know the difference between my imagination and reality, I just choose to blur the lines. My characters get what I always wanted, what I never had, and the blunt end of the emotion that I always bottle up. My characters are my friends, my enemies, and those that I would probably pass on the street without a second glance. I can't see myself writing anything if my characters didn't breathe some sort of life.
     
  9. Karpi

    Karpi New Member

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    in my vast horde of usable characters ive created over my writing 'career', there's a few that are VERY VERY real to me. One time i almost called my friend by one of their names!!
    My main 'cast' sitting at around five, they all come from different stories. My newest story has them all together and they develop more personality as a result. One, i realize, i was using to portray the person who i wanted to be. Of course i didnt see that then, but now hes very easy to write about, because in a sense, my characters ARE me.

    Yes i admit it, originally i just take a single trait/fact about that person and extremify it. It makes me feel naive
     
  10. HeinleinFan

    HeinleinFan Banned

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    At least for me, it helped a LOT to develop full character personality - and then ask myself, "Okay, how the heck did Os get that way?" Or Berendon, or the other characters - you don't need to do it for everyone, but it really helps for your main characters. It also helps with portraying legitimate conflicts - think Ron in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. By the seventh book, J.K. Rowling had already demonstrated that Ron was the most likely of the trio to "flake out" or get discouraged or envious.

    I don't remember who said it first (not me), but there is a famous quote that goes something like this: "An author should know everything about his world. He doesn't have to know every tiny detail, and every detail does not have to be included in the story, but an author should know about the "rest of the world" that isn't included in the story."

    It also helps, incidentally, if a plot thread takes an unexpected turn and your character is faced with something odd that he his unprepared for. How would your character react if you, the author, knocked on his front door and asked for an interview? How would your character react if you told him that you were from another world?

    What if your character was walking along on the Great Quest to Save the World, slipped, and broke an ankle - would he curse? Cry? Yell? Stare for five minutes at the swelling area, then pull out a wad of poppy sap and start smoking it? (That's opium, incidentally.) Would he be alone, or would he have an ally nearby - and would his allies be severely annoyed, worried, angry, defeatist, or ....

    Well, you see my point. Acting out scenes, either verbally or mentally, can really help, too.

    *Sigh* I remember really wanting to enter the Short Story Contest, except that if I did, it would put my magic system and chars into the public domain - and I'm pretty possessive about the magic system.
     
  11. Heather Louise

    Heather Louise Contributor Contributor

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    why like??
     
  12. Karpi

    Karpi New Member

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    ill answer it
    -you dont see the person the same anymore
    -if they find your story they WILL be offended by SOMETHING
     
  13. Heather Louise

    Heather Louise Contributor Contributor

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    oow yea,, i guess so. but then again, if it is only first names then i am sure they have seen a film with someone using their name before. it happens. i try not to so much now like.
     
  14. Montag

    Montag New Member

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    I rarely base my characters on anyone but mysef, for the fact that they would only ever be bad characters. The people I know close to me have too many bad characteristics.

    Sometimes I'll use a minor person in my life as a base but not their personality. All my characters are either distlled parts on me or completely fictional. I spend more time thinking up characters than I spend thinking up stories. I have whole life stories put away in my head.
     
  15. mooeypoo

    mooeypoo New Member

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    In certain cases - mostly when the specific character (and usually accompanied by a basic story idea.. a conflict or something) just pops into my head - it is SO alive that I find myself being surprised by its reactions. Sometimes, I plan the storyline more or less, but find myself having to adjust it here and there according to what my character just decides to act like.


    Those are the best times.. but they can be scary, too. :p

    ~moo
     
  16. Milamber

    Milamber New Member

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    I dont think you can write a good book if you dont see your characters as real. if you think of one of them as a character in a story then they ARE a character in a story. the whole point of making realistic dialogue and descriptions etc is so that it looks REAL
    it can't look real if you dont see it that way.
    On the subject of naming certain characters after real ppl you know, i do it sometimes. just so my m8s can get a kick out of being in the story. i dont presume to know what they think when they read, but i suspect seeing themselves in the story makes the character a litle more real to them. and that is wat we want isnt it? a REAListic story??
     

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