Creating Characters

fuck this thread is just a bunch of people replying to the wrong posts

meant for

I start with a comic exaggeration and then tone it down/add details to make the character more human. The appearance is usually fairly timid and normal except one striking detail which corresponds with character's themes or their purpose. Example:

His room was clean the way that dirty rooms become clean in three hours before the parents return from their off-screen holiday trips - more erased than anything, isles of furniture separated by empty spaces, still giving off the betraying smell of many people sleeping dressed. Books on the shelves have grown tiny cobwebs, glass vases too. On the wardrobe proudly stood a collection of empty cans of Japanese soft drinks; a year ago in the City sprouted the forests of asian vending machines, on every corner, and now the solemn row looked like obsessed man' junk. Suppose he grew sentimental. Man was late again - a shoddy recluse, self-proclaimed, left his house perhaps too often to make this theatrical image vivid - and room provided little entertainment. Really, it was a sorry museum.

>When your characters are based off other characters you don't have enough life experience
I know that, your post doesn't really help. I can't just go out and meet the right people.

I view myself as a very disjointed and skewed person; I draw inspiration from all the forms I've taken in the past, and all the forms I can see myself going down in the future.

You must have a story in mind, yes? Characters should work fully towards that story and nothing more.

If the character adds nothing to the story, cut him or her out.

all things must be done in service to the story. come up with several points that you want the story to hit and then figure out how your character, given their wants and their personality and abilities, would navigate from one point to the next.

>them heavenly trips
I base them on people that I've met or grew up with. Writing helped me realize just how different people really are from one another, in every aspect.

A story generally is outlined with some sort of general plot with very basic character outlines, then I expand them and they make the story happen. They need back story, they need previous experiences, they need a sense if humor, personality shortcomings, religion, family. Even if it's not part of the story they need their own story to help shape who they are. That's where friends/family come in, it's easy to insert people you already know and reshape them a bit. I only do self-inserts if I'm reflecting a personal flaw of mine. It's cathartic I guess.

The easiest way to get the hang of making characters is to make really generic stereotypes to see how they interact with one another, then introduce more complexity as you get comfortable. The plot will demand certain characters, however, but they ultimately decide how that plot unfolds.

For instance I'm writing about two people stranded on an island. They rowed there from a crashed ship, one knows quite a bit about survival, the other is emotionally intelligent, wounded, and resilient. A murder is involved, so the character has to be the sort of person with moral ambiguity and easily subverted psyche. That's the rough character outline for that plot needs.

>You must have a story in mind, yes?
I have a story, but I don't have a plot. You know what I mean?

>I draw inspiration from all the forms I've taken in the past, and all the forms I can see myself going down in the future.
I've done that for my other stories, but I can't ever see myself being a gang member.

I can't figure out for there life of me what my characters want.

This is really good advice, but I don't know if I can apply it to myself and my story.
Just so I understand what you're saying: you start off with really generic stereotypes, flesh out the plot, and then later on further develop the characters?

Figure out what you're trying to say philosophically, and create a character to exemplify it for you.

>Figure out what you're trying to say philosophically

Rand, stopping posting from your grave.
I knew that shitty objectivist vibes this board has been giving off recently must have had come from somewhere.

Kinda.
First, your plot demands it's main characters. You start with an idea:
>a princess is kidnapped by a villain and a hero goes on a quest to save her
That demands three characters right off the bat, and the scope, while wide, is somewhat narrowed by each character's objective: a girl who's subject to a sort of thing like abduction(attractive, dependant, fragile), a villain with questionable intention (lonely, powerful, morally ambiguous), and a guy who's willing to put his life on the line for his woman(righteous, brave, strong)
That's the characters at their most base in the most skeletal plot.

Now you expand your characters BEFORE writing the story. That's how the plot unfolds. Maybe the princess is actually possessed by some dormant evil that the villain wants to awaken. Maybe the villain is a former hero who's lost his mind. Maybe the hero is completely inept and has seemingly no chance. What is he like? Is he religious and stoic? What weapon does he prefer? Why? What sort of experience prepares him for this quest?

Then you world-build. That can take a while and is a whole different process and decides the overall tone. Obviously I pulled this nonsense out of my ass, but you should get the process.

Developed characters in a developed world makes the plot move, but it's the plot that initially decides both of those ingredients

Holy shit, you're good. Thank you.
The only problem is that I don't actually have a plot, just a premise.
I have no idea what the plot even could be, everything I come up with is unrealistic.

A premise is the first step to a plot :)
Writing is practice, a lot of practice.

How is just writing going to help me come up with a plot?
It's a lot more complicated than that.

Thinking is going to help you come up with a plot, but you should write down every idea you come up with. Read more, get out, watch movies, life will introduce you to ideas

I come up with plots, well really, I've come up with one plot, but it doesn't work with the premise.
It's either I come up with a plot that doesn't work or I come up with one that works, but I don't like.
I have quite a bit going on with my premise and I'm not sure how to tie it altogether.

I've watched movies with similar things going on and none of them have hit the mark.
It'd be easier to just explain what it's about, but I don't want to discuss my ideas on a public forum.

I have a plot but I didn't have a premise when I created one. Now, I have a premise if I think of the events of what will happen on my book, even though I'm unsure if that's my premise.

What does this mean?

Read some Film Crit Hulk. He's got a book called Screenwriting 101 and it's one of the best collections of writing advice I've seen, plus his articles cover a lot of other useful stuff.

This is a video that essentially reiterates his process of creating characters. It uses an example from a dumb youtube show as the character, but it shows the process itself fairly well.
youtube.com/watch?v=FoH82EuXfjg

Thanks, do you have any videos/articles on coming up with a plot though?

scribd.com/doc/91702873/Filmcrithulk-Screenwriting-101

Why the fuck is it in all caps?

filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/yes-internet-there-is-a-film-crit-hulk/

thanks

>Hulk

Work around the story. Determine what you want to happen in each scene and how many characters you want to encorporate to get it done. Then choose which ones to use. Cut out any you don't want

One angle of attack is to add archetypal qualities to your characters to give depth--the hero, the rebel, the princess, the magician, etc.
Next you should have characters exist in relation to each other. Read one of Lajos Egri's books. The gist of it is have characters exist in opposition to each other. Vader wants information from the princess. Luke wants to rescue the her. Add some perpendicular motivation. Han needs cash but doesn't want to risk his ass.
Another good book is How to Write a Movie in 21 Days by King. The main character shouldn't be moved around by the plot. His motivation is the whole reason why there is a plot. What does he want? How far is he willing to go?
Make sure to have more than one motivation, otherwise you have a one dimensional character. Have two or more different reasons to reinforce your characters motivation. Have internal conflicting motivations for wanting and not wanting to achieve their goal.

Etc

that video was shit and their character is generic

bump

1. Know what kind of story you want to tell.
2. Understand what the principle points of view are in whatever you want to tell the reader. These are characters.
3. Explore how you would expect each character to react to a variety of situations, both in and out of the plot.
4. Add details to each, by logically understanding how these traits would develop from step 3. Also feel free to add some of your own, as long as they don't logically contradict or are there just because you think they're cool.

Are you gay, or something?

>. Know what kind of story you want to tell.
Political 80's sci-fi action thriller
> Understand what the principle points of view are in whatever you want to tell the reader. These are characters.
Huh?

I come up with a slight idea for a character which I might take from my own psyche, my own random thoughts, observations I make of other people, sometimes people on the TV, or other characters, which I'll expand upon, giving them more traits until they're interesting. Then I'll usually just come up with a small premise, and then I'll let the characters just interact with one another from there. I don't plot first, I come up with the characters first and let them work it out themselves. Like I imagine how their interactions will make stuff happen. Doing it the other way around seems completely wrong to me.

Is this from something?
If it's your own it's good

Use archetypes and deviation from archetypes to work out a wireframe for a character. Fill in the gaps with life events and personality quirks. Some characters can be left very shallow if they are just devices to advance the plot while others can be made deeper if it furthers the narrative. Dichotomy between differing thought processes of two different characters can be a very stimulating way to relate a story.

Go back to the monomyth, study the monomyth and know it like the back of your hand. This shit is why people say to start with the Greeks and read the bible. I work from Nietzsche's assumption that everything is an expression of the will to power, that's the underlying motivational force. But how this is expressed varies, some want physical excellence, some want political power, some want to learn, some want love (and especially to be loved).

Example: current story I'm working on has a student who craves knowledge, knowledge that his teachers do not have for him. He encounters an immortal wanderer who craves love yet runs from the inevitable death of all that he loves. Wanderer and his student encounter a woman who the wanderer becomes enchanted with. She's on a mission to deliver a message and slay a monster. The wanderer and student join her party, the wanderer claims he will teach by doing while in truth he just wants to be near the woman he desires.

Initially she keeps things serious but begins to feel for the wanderer. The frustrated student continues to be frustrated but over time begins to overcome his resentment towards his ignorance (expressed as resentment towards his teachers). Ultimately the wanderer and girl become attached, but the wanderer is forced to make a choice, he wishes to love and be loved but is immortal, so he outlives all which he loves. He allowed himself to love the girl because he believed her to be immortal as he was, but she was not. Either he surrenders his immortality or he will be forced to endure the loss of yet another love. In the end he is separated from the two as he confronts the demons of his past and they confront the a trial of their own.

The girl is killed and the student maimed as he slays a beast which represents his juvenile obsession with knowing the unknowable and his shift towards accepting boundaries , the wanderer arrives and sacrifices his immortality and his life itself to resurrect the girl, finally overcoming his resentment of his own mortality which haunts him throughout the story. The wanderer directs the two to go down separate paths to further their ends, admitting that both further his own.

>which I'll expand upon, giving them more traits until they're interesting
How do you go about doing that?
>Then I'll usually just come up with a small premise, and then I'll let the characters just interact with one another from there.
>I don't plot first, I come up with the characters first and let them work it out themselves.

It's mine. Thanks.

The problem with what you're saying is that I already have a premise and I can't figure out what my characters could possibly want.

wtf is your premise that you can't figure out what your characters would want under it? People are fairly simple user and desire somewhat similar things across time and space. While there is a great diversity of wants and needs amongst individuals, when aggregated these needs fall into quite similar categories.

People want power
Power can be
Control over the self (physical training, meditation, abstinence)
Control over others (teaching, politicking, coercing, love)
Control over nature (observation, exploration, categorization i.e. science, learning)

Our individualistic culture tends to place preference on people who seek control of the first and second types but most people seek power in the second.

Have you seen Akira? My protagonist (or deuteragonist, I'm still not sure which she is) is essentially Tetsuo, but without inferiority complex.
But the inferiority complex is Tetsuo's driving motivation.

I agree with this to an extent. I do believe you have to start with some general ideas, philosophical points, or message and then work the plot and characters around it.

However characters are different in that they have to be personable and have depth that make them believably true to the reader. This is much more difficult to create with a character than say a plot twist, or the facade of a building you saw. It takes more time and focus

Mostly based on a combination of habits and looks and voices I hear from people around me and my own inner thoughts and motivations.

What do you want the reader to get out of it? Just entertainment or some idea that is important to you?

For example Brothers Karamazov is about the power of religion so you have main characters that represent ideas such as faith, pragmatic atheism, and materialism.

I really have no idea what I'm trying to say, it's about racism, specifically systematic racism and police brutality. There's so much to say.

There's also not too much to say. The best you could go for with that theme is very obvoius distopian fiction.

okay kid

You know that's true. That's why you have no plot faggot

Just by taking interesting habits of behaviour from people IRL, intensifying them and then adding more from disparate sources. For instance, I have a character that I've taken from my girlfriend's uncle. He's a forty year old man who loves to troll forums about surfing. He calls people on the forum faggot and stuff like that. Basically just like everyone on Veeky Forums. But I took the overall tone of speaking pattern of this character from an accountant I know who is particularly meek. And I just keep piling it up, either from real life, other characters, or my own thoughts or personality.

>Then I'll usually just come up with a small premise, and then I'll let the characters just interact with one another from there.

I'll just imagine how those personalities would realistically interact with one another. So my premise might be: Character A is trying to find a boyfriend. Character B walks into her house. And depending on the character traits, who they are, this might develop into a plot which sees character B offering to help character A find a boyfriend, and they go on a humorous and wacky adventure. Or. instead, character B might want character A himself, so he becomes standoffish and shy, and she can sense there's something wrong, so they have to deal with a rift in their relationship and the story becomes a more introspective sort of thing. I just imagine how they'd behave in my head.

coursera.org/learn/craft-of-character/home/welcome

There's a whole bunch, plot, style, I can't remember the 4th.