Getting Characters

It’s almost like pick-up sticks, but better; the mass you see to the left are slips of paper with character traits on them, color-coded for their particular character. First, it was just fun writing these things and beginning to discover the characters themselves, and beginning to see how they might relate and come in conflict with one another.

So I begin, once again (I started on this book a while ago, then switched to try to get the first one good; now I’m switching back) diving into book two. Let me do this, for the sake of clarity: when I first conceived this series, it was going to be called the “Destiny” series. The concept was that each book would then be called “Destiny: _____” with one word for the blank. I have since become disenchanted with that idea. Suffice for clarity’s sake that the book I had been working on would have had the initials “D:F” and the book I am switching to would have been called “D:R.” So from henceforth, I will refer to the book I am currently working on as D:R.

That’s out of the way. So there are three characters in D:R; using Microsoft Excel, I made a sheet with each of their names – one in black, one in blue, and one in red – then listed in the cells below some of their traits: how they view each day, and the future; what they love, hate, and fear; and bunch of others things -- about fifteen in total.

The object of this game is to then shuffle or scramble the traits, then pull out two that are different colors and set them below their characters. Then I concoct a scene or snippet in my head where those two traits are present in conversation. And we see what happens.

For instance, it’s easy to think about someone who has a “seize the day” kind of attitude conversing with someone who has an anti “seize the day” kind of attitude; but what happens if, say, someone with a “seize the day” attitude gets in conversation with someone who has lost their identity? What kind of advice might the seizer give the loser? What of someone who loves discourse talking to someone who fears being wrong, but is also a braggart?

The aim of this exercise is to think of your characters in more than simple “pro v. con” attitudes, and helps flesh them out more deeply in your mind – which will, of course, translate on paper. At least, hopefully it does.

Even if you don’t do the scrambled-opposition kinds of things, simply listing for yourself the traits of your characters and considering the implications in your mind can be quite helpful. But I think a great benefit will come from pairing unlikely sets of traits, traits that seem to have nothing in common.

Let me know how it goes, and I’ll do the same. See you Friday.