Having trouble building characters?

By Forinsyther · Jan 6, 2017 · ·
  1. For anyone that's having trouble giving depth to characters, I may have a solution. It's fairly easy and similar to other methods. I get more writer's block when I don't know my characters very well, simply because I don't know what they would do in certain situations. I try to keep things as realistic as possible. I think people fault in stories when character reactions are too easy, for example if the hero deals with everything like an expert etc and have a stiff up a lip more than most. It's harder to make this mistake if they have depth, if they have background, if they have their own personality.

    So basically what I've started doing is making a mindmap of sorts. I pick the character I want to work on, list all the aspects of that person, and then write anything I can think of to do with the category.
    For example:

    Remus;
    -Son
    -Doctor
    -Vampire
    -Cat owner
    -Paranoid
    -Intellect
    -Addict without a fix
    -Addict with a fix
    etc etc etc

    and then an example of one of the explored categories:

    Doctor:
    Loyal and generous
    Can smell when something is wrong with people
    Learned how to be stronger for people, to connect with people
    Constantly learning new things, considering new ideals, and techniques
    Constantly conflicted because medicine is all he's ever been good at, but as a vampire it's so hard to be around blood and not give in to the bite, gets stressed out and aggravated quite a lot because of it.

    I hope this helps anyone that's having trouble, I also find making a pinterest aesthetic board for the character gives me a better understanding too.

Comments

  1. RDD1977
    I do something similar to this. I draw, so I draw all my characters, and then on the back page write a little one or two paragraph bio.
  2. Forinsyther
    I draw my characters too, I've been tempted to put them on the forum
  3. MilesTro
    What categories would a vampire have?
  4. Forinsyther
    For vampire it depends on what kind of vampire you want. I used that category to explore what I could do with it and made a few rules for vampires in my book. The main rule I came up with is that they can only be immortal if they actually drink blood, my character doesn't want to so I made a list of things that would happen to him as a consequence of that eg his hair turns white, he gets weaker etc
  5. MilesTro
    Thanks and that is a very interesting concept.
  6. RDD1977
    I think you should post your character drawings. That would be interesting to see.
  7. Forinsyther
    I am quite tempted to actually, I played a character game on this forum before and uploaded some art and people seemed to like it :)
To make a comment simply sign up and become a member!
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice