I've started writing a story and I'm wondering if I can have some help developing my characters, I'm keeping it light with current main characters only having 3 which is my main character Brooklyn and my secondary mains her brother Sam and her dad. I have also introduced a temporary character who is Jessica (they are moving so Jessica will be throughout the story but she is brief and won't be a big impact character) I tend to sometimes get lost in characters and lose sight of what I planned them to be, would anyone be willing to help me develop my ideas into structured profiles for my current and planned characters?
Where are you having a problem in developing them? Main thing would be to give them interior and exterior goals -- for instance if you take a book like It by Stephen King exterior goals would be hunting the deadly clown -- interior would be more personal goals like overcoming a stutter and the mc reaching out for his father etc. A lot of the other stuff -- looks, interests, problems, conflicts, fears, prejudices, faults can be developed in the scenes as you write. It's hard for me to develop a character without a scene and a setting because it's easier to bring out their personality by playing them off someone. That way they can react, withdraw, lie, yell, cower or bluff their way threw a situation and it's going to give you a ton more insight than filling out a character sheet. Think also about your plot -- what can your characters do with it? What are their limits.
My main issue is I tend to forget to pin point a character, like one minute they'll be smart then suddenly they aren't smart enough because I get lost. I'm wanting to create some solid profiles that I can keep along side my story so that I don't stray from what I'm attempting to produce. Like my main character Brooklyn, I know what I want her to be like. To begin with she's lost, insecure and scared, after her mothers death shes moving a long way from home and saying goodbye to everything she knows and she's finding it tough, but her brother isn't finding it as tough and I don't know how to portray this without making him sound arrogant. Sam is upset but he's trying to hide his emotions and since my story follows Brooklyn's thoughts I don't know how to portray this without his thoughts?
If she knows her brother well enough she probably knows he's dealing with his emotions in his own way and she could relay that to the reader. Because we only get Brooklyn's impression you can somewhat use her to give the impression you need for him. If she's as confused, you can still relate that to the reader with some subtle actions that she might be wrongly judging him. Could be more of a plot problem than a character problem -- maybe someone else has some other ideas? -- but sometimes when I need the character to be dumb when they're not supposed to it's cause I wrote myself into a corner and need to back up and offer more options. But if a character profiles helps -- go for it.
I'm writing as first person since my story is set in the past somewhat, it begins in the present which is Brooklyn on a plane pretty much running away from her problems, during the flight she uses a blog she hasn't used in a long time to write the story to ask her readers for advice, eventually it will loop back to the present and continue on to the final ending. I've currently wrote it as if Brooklyn is the only one affected although her dad is going to be supportive throughout as he knows how much this has effected her. But I'm wanting Sam to be a 'jock'/'alpha male' kind of character, where he doesn't like to show weakness. I had an idea of Brooklyn knowing about his pain by hearing him cry at night and being unable to confront him about it because since their mothers death they aren't the closest. From there I had the idea of Brooklyn losing it (I'm unsure how yet) and confronting Sam in an angered state later on in the story, in return Sam finally opens up breaking down in front of Brooklyn and telling her how much he's actually hurting which could once again strengthen there sibling bond. I'm sorry if that's a mess, I just have idea's for the characters flying round and I'm wanting to know them before I portray them. (hopefully that makes sense)
Also do you have any idea's for how I can portray the mothers death? Like I don't want it to be a horrific death that could cause mental scars but I don't want it to be like a basic death (I in no way mean death is basic, I just want it to be interesting if that makes any sense?)
