Character Biographies

Ugh. These character biographies are going to be the death of me. Let me 'splain.

No. Too much to 'splain. Let me sum up.

The coffee house book has a large cast of characters. And because of the way I'm writing it, each character kind of has to be treated like the main character. That means each character has a detailed character biography.

For my detailed biographies, I use the Life Story Interview found in Robert Atkinson's The Gift of Stories. (It's meant to write someone's life story, and covers just about everything you could think of for a life story interview. It's great for character biographies, not to mention the rest of the book is great for the craft of writing.) Some time ago, I typed the questions into a template in Google Docs, and when I need to do a character biography, I save a copy and go through and answer the questions. Easy-peasy, right? Well, yes, except that the unanswered biography is 9 typed pages.

Yep.

I have one completed biography for the coffee house book, and it's 16 typed pages. And I have lots more of these to do. It's taking a bit longer to do than I expected originally, but I know it'll be worth it when I start writing.

I know some people who swear by character biographies, and others who create the characters as they write their first drafts. Whatever works for you is fine with me. I'm not here to persuade anyone into using character biographies anymore than I'm here to tell you that you "should" use outlines or scene summaries prior to writing (I use both). But I do want you to know why I do character biographies, and why these particular biographies are so important to the coffee house book, as well as some future books I'm planning.

Let me start by saying that I'm not writing a series, really. The stories I'm working on don't follow a bigger story in the way a series does. However, the stories I'm working on are connected. They all take place in the same town, and there are characters that overlap between the books, and personal characters' stories that are developed across the books. (I'm considering them a collection of books rather than a series.)

Because of the way I'm writing the coffee house book (and the future books I'm working on), every character is just as important as every other. It's up to the reader to decide who's "the" main character. That's why I'm using Atkinson's interview for all of them. They all have stories to share within the framework of the bigger story, and I have to do justice to all of them.

I have a lot of work to do if I want to finish these biographies by the end of the month. The good news is that when I finish the character biographies for this book, I'll also have some of the character biographies done for both the funeral book and the wedding book, as well as the other books I'm planning/working on.

On a side note, this collection will have tons of bonus material for anyone who would want to know more!

NaNoWriMo Prep: Character Biographies

As writers prepare for NaNoWriMo (just a few weeks away!), writing time is spent preparing to write a novel.  Since you can't actually start writing until November 1st, all you can do right now is organization/pre-writing.  Hopefully, you already have a story idea, and maybe even an outline (or a rough idea of your plot, at least).  But there is more to pre-writing than knowing your story.

Just as you need to know where your story is going, you need to know who's in your story.  That's why lots of people take some of their writing prep time to create character biographies.

The idea behind a character biography is to develop your character before you start writing.  That way, you know your character much better, and can write your characters better, making them more believable to read.

So what goes in to a character biography?

Obviously, the basic character information should be included.  The character's name, age, spirituality, ethnicity, etc.  This is the kind of information that would go on a census.  Beyond that, though, think about who your character really is.  What are his/her hobbies?  What is s/he passionate about?  What is his/her biggest pet peeve?

And once you've thought of all of those types of things, go further.  What is his/her favorite book?  If s/he was stuck on a desert island, what five things would go, too?  If your character were a coffee house table, who would s/he want to sit at him/her, and why?

It's strange, but these are the kinds of things you should think about when creating your characters.  After all, if you don't think of them as three-dimensional, how can you expect your readers to do the same?  So when you write your character biographies, don't just write the bare bones of a biography.  Come up with every possible detail you can.  Answer the strangest questions you can think of that would help you (and your readers) get to know your characters.

Something that may be helpful is to get one of those fill-in-the-blank books about yourself.  The types of prompts and questions that are in these books can help create great biographies for your characters.

One of the biggest things to remember is that you shouldn't sell your characters short.  If you don't know them, your readers won't, either.

Character biographies can be great things!

I've been working on character biographies for two of my characters in the coffee house book, and character cards* for the other characters.  Since Ethan's character is the most important, I did a full character biography for him, using the life interview questions found in Robert Atkinson's The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking.†  It's an exhaustive list of questions, but perfect for character development.

In addition to the character biography for Ethan, I did one for Vivi, who is the manager of the coffee house.  I really learned a lot about her, and discovered something.  Vivi is the heroine of my NaNo 2009 novel.  I know NaNo is over, but I'm planning to edit it in March and make it something worth reading.  And as I wrote Vivi's character biography, she really resonated with me as the main character in She Pondered These Things in Her Heart.  So I may change Vivi's name in the coffee house book (then again, I may not), and when it comes time to work with Pondered, I'm going to rework the character into Vivi.

Though most of what goes into a character biography never winds up in the pages of a story, it's important to know a lot of this background stuff so you know your characters.  Your characters' backgrounds are what makes them who they are in your stories.  Here's an example from Vivi's character biography:

Q: Were you ever told anything unusual about your birth?

A: When I was born, Mama said I was very alert and social.  When Mamie [French term for "grandma"] saw me just an hour after I was born, she said I was Trés vivant!, so my parents named me Vivienne, which means "alive."

That little tidbit won't be in the story, but it helps me know more about who Vivi is, and why she has the personality she does.

I'll admit, sometimes character biographies are tedious and annoying, but they can be a very good thing!  If I hadn't done one for Vivi, I'd never have known that she was dying to be the lead in another book altogether!

Do you create character biographies?  If so, how do you do it?


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*character cards: index cards giving the basics of minor characters of the coffee house book, as well as their roles. (Ex. Shawn's card indicates that he is a musician, drinks caramel lattes, and that his story is hiding from his wife at the coffee house.)

†This is a good book for writers!  Even if you're not writing autobiographies, life stories, or personal myth, there's some great info here about typical story structure (the hero myth, that is), and I think the book is worth having just for the life interview questions to use for character biographies.  There's a new edition out.  I suggest you pick it up!

Fiction Friday: writing character biographies

As writers prepare for NaNoWriMo (just a few weeks away!), writing time is spent preparing to write a novel.  Since you can't actually start writing until November 1st, all you can do right now is organization/pre-writing.  Hopefully, you already have a story idea, and maybe even an outline (or a rough idea of your plot, at least).  But there is more to pre-writing than knowing your story.

Just as you need to know where your story is going, you need to know who's in your story.  That's why lots of people take some of their writing prep time to create character biographies.

The idea behind a character biography is to develop your character before you start writing.  That way, you know your character much better, and can write your characters better, making them more believable to read.

So what goes in to a character biography?

Obviously, the basic character information should be included.  The character's name, age, spirituality, ethnicity, etc.  This is the kind of information that would go on a census.  Beyond that, though, think about who your character really is.  What are his/her hobbies?  What is s/he passionate about?  What is his/her biggest pet peeve?

And once you've thought of all of those types of things, go further.  What is his/her favorite book?  If s/he was stuck on a desert island, what five things would go, too?  If your character were a coffee house table, who would s/he want to sit at him/her, and why?

It's strange, but these are the kinds of things you should think about when creating your characters.  After all, if you don't think of them as three-dimensional, how can you expect your readers to do the same?  So when you write your character biographies, don't just write the bare bones of a biography.  Come up with every possible detail you can.  Answer the strangest questions you can think of that would help you (and your readers) get to know your characters.

Something that may be helpful is to get one of those fill-in-the-blank books about yourself.  The types of prompts and questions that are in these books can help create great biographies for your characters.

One of the biggest things to remember is that you shouldn't sell your characters short.  If you don't know them, your readers won't, either.

NaNoWriMo: Character Biographies

When I prepare for National Novel Writing Month, one of the first things I do is to write character biographies.  It helps me develop the characters, get to know them, and have a foundation on which to create their actions.

There are lots of methods to create character biographies and to get to know your characters.  I won't recap my recent blog post on getting to know your characters, but it's important to find a method that works for you, and that can be utilized quickly for NaNo, particularly if you're not working ahead of time on your background information.  Some people prefer to do everything beginning on November 1st.

If you choose to create your characters this month, as I'm doing, don't worry too much about making them complete.  Yes, you have time to do that this month, but don't stress about it too much.

NaNoWriMo is about proving to yourself that you can write a novel in 30 days.  It doesn't have to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, after all.  It just has to be a 50,000-word novel that was written between November first and thirtieth.

What characters are you creating for NaNo this year?