I don't know about you and your way of working, but my fiction is
character, rather than action, led. This means that my characters
dictate the action based on their profiles - what is in keeping with
their 'personalities'. I find that pretty easy with the main characters
because I get so much into their heads, but minor ones that are needed
as a foil are often a bit trickier to pull out of the bag. I find that
having a 'bank' of characters that I can draw upon at a moment's notice
is a handy thing to have.
It all started with a
workshop weekend in Northumberland run by Steve Bowket. Steve is an
experienced and well-established writer of teen fiction, but he also has
another string to his bow as a hypnotherapist.The weekend in question
we were looking at creating depth to characters, settings and
situations, using guided meditation techniques to help us visualize and
so go further into our characters and descriptions. I found the
technique invaluable and started using it regularly. However, sometimes
when I'm writing to a theme for a short story competition I get stuck on
character so what is useful is if I already have characters I can use
neatly written up - name, age, sex, personal likes/dislikes/talents etc -
on index cards. It saves doing everything from scratch and these can be
modified if necessary.
So how do I create these
characters that are rootless and not intended for any particular story?
This is where the fun part comes in. One thing I do is to randomly list 6
names on a sheet of paper. On another I list and number 6
characteristics, another 6 ages, 6 physical descriptions, 6
likes/dislikes, 6 peculiarities and so on. Then I throw a die and
whichever number comes up I write down the corresponding name etc and go
through all the other attributes in the same way, relying on the die to
make the choices for me. These I write on an index card and do the
exercise 5 more times so that I end up with 6 characters that I store
till needed.
When the time comes to use one of these
characters I then use their details to fill in a profile sheet that
requires more information , like what job do they do, what hobbies they
have, if they're introvert or extrovert etc, thus building up a picture
and back story of the character. After that I visualize them and
mentally put them into situations to see how they'll react. When I'm
happy I've got them fixed in my head I 'hot seat' myself with a friend
who asks me questions that I answer as the character.
Of
course with pressing deadlines it's difficult to fit all this in, but
it's fun and can take the stress out of writing because the characters
are firmly fixed in your head and imagination. Try it; you might be
surprised how productive it is.
