Before I have a story to write, I have a main character. Usually not anything solid, just a few details, a rough sketch of who they are. A female. A mercenary. A woman far from home. Sometimes I even have a name but usually, this is one of the final bits to come into place. Why? Because a character is not just a name, a job, or gender, or plot device, they are a person. Have you ever read a story in which you couldn’t remember a single character’s name? There can a host of reasons why this is, but I would bet that the main reason you can’t remember the characters is that they didn’t feel real to you. So how can we avoid this trap?
We start with the questions we want to know when we first meet a new person in real life. Where are they from? What do they do? Who are they? I go in that order, starting with developing where they came from. Why? Because we are all the sum of our experiences. I would not be the person I am today without growing up how I did. Overcoming obstacles. Persevering through adversity. Our character is shaped by their past. Likewise, just as our pasts shape our futures, so to will our character’s goals and motivations arise from their past. Not only will this past give me a bit more spice I can choose to use in the story, but it also helps me set up the character and their place in the story better. They have come from somewhere and dream of being someone, and the story always takes place somewhere in between those two points.
Now we get into some details, what do they do? Do they have a job? Do they like it? Are they wealthy or did they have to make a living on the streets? This will shape how your character interacts with the world around them. My job is very tech-oriented which for me means that my writing involves a lot of tech. While I brainstorm on paper, I write on my PC or phone. Maybe another person who works in tech will write by hand, the answer to why they do this is important to who they are. Another thing to consider are hobbies, do your characters have any artistic hobbies? Do they devote themselves to a religion or to philosophy? These questions will usually not be relevant to the plot but they will be key to writing a character that feels like a living person. These seemingly insignificant things do a lot to bring another dimension to the characters. Some authors like to discover these tidbits as they write but I find that I like to have them on hand before I delve into things. Why? Because of the next point.
I like to think that understanding where our characters are from, and what things they and what they do like gives us a concrete idea of who they are. It works sort of like this. In Facet the main character is from a rural town outside of the city. She grew up hearing stories of knights and magicians and elves and fairies and vowed one day to go on an adventure. She wanted to be a knight, one that would save the day just like the stories of old. She learned how to hunt with a bow at a young age, to honor the local deity she grew up worshiping. When it was time for her to take over the family farm, she runs away to join the elves.
Our story takes place while she is in training, not a hero just a grunt learning all the other weapons of her trade. She wears a hunters medallion around her neck, the only thing from her home she was allowed to keep upon joining the elves. She misses her mothers bread. Remembering the smell of it baking in the oven on hunt days is almost enough to make her yearn to go back. Almost. She will never go back, not with her dreams of adventure so close at hand. Still, she regrets not learning to bake before she left. The elves don’t eat bread.
Now answer this, is this character a good cook? It’s not explicit but we can tell it is not high on her priority list. It’s subtle but you can see how a character gains their own agency when we take the time to learn who they are. Blending who they were, who they are, and who they want to be, we form a more complete character. What you read based on the main character of Facet, a young woman, thirsting for adventure, confident in her path forward. I will do this process for almost all of my heroes and my villains because I want my characters to feel grounded. When it comes time to write the story I have a well of information I can easily draw from and I don’t need to constantly think up new stuff as I write. I don’t need to wonder how they will react now that a dwarf is in the party or what they will do when they encounter a wolf. I can focus on just writing an engaging story set in a world just as tangible as the characters I am setting in it. How I make that world will next week’s topic! See you then!