I read a blog article on a writing website the other day, and it interested me a great deal.
I tend to write the barest minimum for character profiles. Perhaps that hurts me, because people often say you have to have the most interesting, well rounded characters.
It’s my opinion (and I’m frequently wrong) that writing a good character is somewhat intangible. You just can’t put your finger on it. I’ve created many characters, and sometimes it’s certain ones that just have that added something.
Getting back to the article, the entire thrust on it was – don’t overplan your characters. The three weeks it takes to fill out character profile sheets, or do a 400 question interview with them, is time that could be better spent writing.
This was one of those things I agree with. I’ve read many writers who say things like “you need to seclude yourself with your characters”or “I write a 30 page synopsis on the character and its life.”
For some people that works. For me, when I think of a character, it usually boils down to:
a fitness focused COM IT guy with humanitarian interests.
I see the entire character right there. He loves coffee, but is careful to balance it with water. One cup of coffee, one cup of water. Co-workers fuss at him and tells him he needs to drink more water. He tends to like a daily lunch snack at McDonalds (Filet o’Fish is his weakness) – but he obsessively runs a half marathon every day. Works jobs that can’t pay him what he’d make working for Apple, but allow him to do something to help the world.
Why water? Foreshadowing of the plot of the book he’s in. Notice the Filet o’fish lunch. Foreshadow in the weakest of things, because sometimes people get it and sometimes they don’t.
I got all this immediately once I thought up that one sentence.
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What it boils down to is this – do what works for you. I don’t think Tom Clancy ever worried about what Stephen King did to write his novels.
Do you work better writing out exhaustive bios on your characters? Then do it.
Would doing that waste your time? Don’t do it.
Would you rather write out actual interviews with your characters? Do that. Doesn’t help you? Don’t.
Some people have to see a photograph of the character. I have a few characters I’ve actually either had their face in my mind, or one or two where I’ve asked my wife to find a photograph of that character, and she does.
Other times, what they look like is completely irrelevant to me. When it becomes a feature film, surprise me who you pick.
[Tweet “Don’t feel like you have to do what works for someone else, because it may not work for you.”]
Do what works for you. Don’t feel like you have to do what works for someone else, because it may not work for you.
