Get to Know Your Characters

A friend of mine is exploring writing, so I've given her a few suggestions, the biggest of which being: get to know your characters!  When writing fiction, it's important to know the characters in your story in order to accurately write about them.

It's kind of the same idea as writing about someone's life, or telling a story about a celebrity.  You have to know the celebrity you're writing about in order to tell the story.  And even if you don't include every aspect of that celebrity in the story, you have to know it so your writing reads as complete.

Your characters need to be round characters, and in order for them to be round, you need to know who they are.  Fortunately, there are lots of ways to develop your characters.

Character Biographies

Probably the best-known method, writing a character biography is simply writing about your character in the same way you would write a biography for yourself.  These biographies can be as simple or elaborate as you choose, and I regularly use them to get me started with a new character.  Simple, straight-forward, and informative.

Character Interviews

There are lots of great interviews available (especially an in-depth life interview included in Robert Atkinson's The Gift of Stories), so find an interview--or create your own--and answer the questions from the perspective of your character.  Don't limit yourself to one-word or one-sentence answers.  Elaborate as much as you can, the way any person would in answering the same questions.

Character Journaling

This is a technique I use often.  I get out my writing journal and just start writing as if I am the character, and let things reveal themselves through the writing.  This can be especially beneficial when working through a particular aspect of the plot with the character to help get the character's opinion on the situation.  Some people find this technique useful in conjunction with character interviews; it works best when you have some sort of foundational knowledge of your character on which to journal.

Character Outlining

I know outlining is a bit of a sensitive topic for some, so please don't assume I'm saying you must outline to get to know your character.  However, for people who use outlines, it can be a great resource, especially for referring back to your character's life as you write.  All you have to do is outline your character's life as if you're writing a story about him or her.  Start with birth (or even family background information), and go from there.

Character-based Free Association Writing

Anyone who's done free association writing knows it can be utilized in a number of ways, and character development is just one of them.  In free association writing (FAW), you set an amount of time and keep writing through that time, usually without picking up your pen or pencil even to worry about punctuation or paragraphs.  You let your thoughts drive the writing, even if you get a bit sidetracked.  With character-based FAW, you use the character as a jumping-off point for the writing.  This is similar to character journaling, but is written instead in the third-person.

These are certainly not the only ways you can get to know your characters, but these are methods I've used effectively in my own writing practice.  I'm always open to other writers' suggestions!

Next time you're stuck with what a character would do or where to take your plot next, try getting to know your character a little better.  It just might be the jumpstart you need to keep going.

Happy scribbling!