Chapter 2: Creating Your Characters
If ogres are like onions, then characters are like cabbages. Or maybe lettuces. Essentially large-leafed and mud-speckled on the outside but dense and complex on the inside.
This broad leafy goodness of the outside corresponds to the lesser important details of your character, the sort of easy-to-plan things such as appearance and hobbies. It’s the inside that’s the best part.
If you were to stand in a street or sit in a park or watch the going-ons of the day from your window, there is one thing that is commonplace in observing the day-by-day happenings that people commonly take for granted. What that is? Character. What make each person you see walk by unique. And we’re not talking about appearance.
Let us give an example:
Once upon a time, during a commute back from a long hard day, the tube we were on was stopped at a red signal. As it was the typical rush-hour-type delays of London, no one reacted in any way obscure since it was all normal. But it was the overall near-silent sigh that ran down the whole carriage that drew our attention. Everyone was thinking the same thing after all; just the usual rat-like behaviour of London. But we noted that what differs between these people was how they held themselves. In particular, if you noted the two men, both dressed in a suit and with a briefcase, standing by one of the doors, you may think why they looked so different? Yes, they were different people but what about them actually made them different? One stood very upright, not stiff but relaxed, your typical Englishman in finance. He came across as a man who was confident in the decisions he made and the opinions he held; stubborn when someone opposed him, although not ungentlemanly. The other also appeared to be in finance, but stood with a wider stance, holding onto the pole for balance. He appeared kinder, a gentler temperament and down-to-earth, perhaps a father.
These small details that you may note in your everyday person are also things that need to be considered in your characters. The personality you choose governs how they behave, even to the point of how they stand while waiting in a tube.
Once you have this personality down, you can start sticking them into the situations you’ve planned for them to face in your book (see Chapter 1: Planning if readers need help). Since you know how your character would now behave in a given circumstance, you can translate it to your events and also add thought processes and emotions. These are what adds the realism or connection a reader has to the character.
Watchers of Ghibli will know that the movements are animated in a way that makes the characters relatable, but it’s the main character’s thought processes that we are shown that helps us choose who we like and who we don’t.
Let’s run through a theoretical example…
Our character is called Bob, short for Robert. He’s balding with white hair and a slightly hairy nose. He also a little rotund but he has crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. This character is kind-hearted and a father of three; he is proud and very protective but he’s not the smartest of people. However, he is admired for his situational awareness and quick-thinking when stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The situation we chose to plug him into: getting chased down by a t-rex.
As is the natural human reaction, our Bob will obviously be scared at first. But since he’s quick-thinking, the man will undoubtedly find a way to escape being eaten by one of the apex predators of the Late Cretaceous Period. Whether he encounters a child along the way of his escape complicates things. In this situation his own life is at risk, however as a father he feels obliged to protect. The human aspect that needs to be addressed in this situation is the debate between doing what he believes is right or wrong and whether it is feasible. This all depends on circumstance and how our dear Bob will deal with the situation.
Now, while we do generally plan things in this order, sometimes the characters come before the planning to help determine the direction the plan will take, i.e. when the main character is at a crossroads of sorts. Other times the characters don’t have an appearance or personality until we finish writing the plan. It all depends on the book you’re writing and how it works for you.
But otherwise, that’s step two of writing your book complete!
On we go!
Khadijah Awan is a pen name for twin aspiring authors Raeesah and Mariya Awan currently writing the YA series Proelium.
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