posted
Hi, everybody, my name is Jane and I'm new here. I've been active in fan fiction for about three years now (please don't throw rotten tomatoes!) and I hope to make the change to completely original fiction one day soon.
But I have a question about creating lead characters. Whenever I try to create the main character for a story, he or she always comes out as basically me in a different set of clothes. The character acts and reacts about the same as I would in that situation. For instance, it's hard for me to write about somebody who's really outgoing, because I'm rather shy, and I just don't know what it's like to be able to go up to a complete stranger, or even someone whom I know only slightly, and simply start a conversation. It's also hard for me to write about someone who doesn't share the same basic values that I do. Example: I don't drink alcohol, so none of my main characters drink it, either. I can write about secondary characters drinking it, but not from the POV of the main character.
Does anybody have any tips for 'jumping over your own shadow' and creating characters who are radically different from yourself? I'll gratefully read any advice you have to offer, and thanks in advance!
[This message has been edited by Jane Jinn (edited March 04, 2003).]
posted
Hi Jane. I am new as well and -in my opion-hardly in the position to give adive, but I have had the same obsticle. Just as you said yourself my characters always end up like me in different clothes. The way I overcame this promblem was a change of perspective or imagination. What I mean by that is I would focus on the character I wanted or needed him/her to be and research that person's history, family background, and daily lifestyle through a character skeleton, which is a detailed portfolio that I create. I would try to understand and predict thought paterns, emotions, and sub-conscience reactions to a given situation. I also look for motives and incentives that may drive my character to do certain things. By doing so, I understand my character better, and I am able to direct the story far more effectively. I hope that my advice has helped in some way. Godspeed to you and your writing.
[This message has been edited by Sharp (edited March 04, 2003).]
posted
Have you ever known someone so well that you could almost know their thoughts on certain subjects or perdict there next move? If you try to know your character that well and even better, then characterizing a personality different from our own becomes easier. Especially if you always seek to understand with questions like: why does he/she feel this way?, why does he/she do this?, or what causes this and why?
Posts: 5 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
When creating a character different from myself (and with a boring guy like me, I do it quite often! ), I usually think about a friend or someone I know as being the character. Would that person do this? How would he or she react to this situation?
Fortunately, I don't have to be accurate when I do this, since the character isn't really the person I know. (In fact, I always change their name and physical description. I wouldn't want the person to come to me later and say, "I wouldn't have stolen the Cursed Ruby, and you know it!") The character is my perception of the person. And as long as I'm true to my perception, the character should be fairly believable.
posted
My characters always start out with one unique thing about them. This is also the advice OSC gives, so i might be doing something right. I build them on how this characteristic would effect the way they interact with people, or how they developed as a person.
posted
The better you know someone (read: the more experience you have with a person to base your understanding of them on), the better you can predict what he or she will do next. Likewise, the more details you know about for a character, the more he or she will start to come to life. As an exercise, I challenge you to write a story about a man who likes his alcohol. He doesn't have to be an alcoholic, but he does have to think about drinking at least some of the time. I also challenge you to make this character extremely outgoing, one of those people who can make a new friend on a subway in five minutes. Watch people who can do this before you try to make Mr. Character do it. But try to completely leave yourself behind in your writing. Use your imagination to be someone entirely different, and then try to think about what motivates you as this person.
As a test, I did several personality tests online (there's a thread about this somewhere, very interesting) as if I were my character. And I was very pleased to find out that the test recommended exactly the same career for this character as I had given him. I was amazed to find out, also, that he turned out to be very different personality-wise from my INFP. When you're finished writing about Mr. Character, I suggest you try something like this and see how you did. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.
posted
So basically the trick is to create a character and get to know him almost better than I know myself? It sounds like this can be done by basing the character on somebody that I know well, or creating the character from scratch by writing out a detailed profile on him, or a combination of both. Motives and incentives seem to be very important here for both methods.
One unique thing ... yes. That's a good start. I'll never read OSC's books the same way again -- I'll always be looking for that one unique thing about each character.
Brinestone, that's quite a challenge! Both thinking about alcohol and being outgoing ... now if I could just find a plot that goes with it, I'll be on my way.
posted
I usually have my characters in my head before I start writing the first sentence, so I’m not sure if I’ll be much help, but here’s my suggestion.
Take a simple conflict or situation---it doesn’t have to be terribly original this is just a writing exercise---it can even be something that happened to you, write the story (like a page or two) the way that comes naturally, you as the main character and all. Then go back, now that you have the story written out, and make the character as much unlike you as you possibly can. When you do it again, with another story or character, forego the “character as you” first draft and just make them someone else. It can even be the same character from the last one—just with a different situation.
Did that make sense???
Not to bust your balls, but I think this problem could steam from the whole fan fiction thing, and writing pre-established characters. But it probably helped you beef up your plotting skills, so now you just have to put two and two together.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited March 04, 2003).]
posted
Okay, I'm going to go against the flow here and say everyone else is wrong (Hah! betcha' already knew I was gonna say that, eh?).
Jane, if you are just writing with one character POV, then you should draw on yourself as much as possible to create the character's internal and unique reality.
quote:Whenever I try to create the main character for a story, he or she always comes out as basically me in a different set of clothes. The character acts and reacts about the same as I would in that situation.
This is the way that all people who create truly believable characters do it, by putting themselves in the character's shoes. It is the first law of portraying a character for an actor, put yourself in the character's clothes
The trick is (yes, there's a trick) finding the right costume to make yourself into the character. You don't drink? What would have had to be different in your past for you to have been a drinker? You're not outgoing? What kinds of experiences would have made you outgoing rather than shy?
Sometimes you just won't be able to get past certain ingrained character traits. You simply can't imagine what would cause you to...participate in human sacrifice (by the way, for the majority of Americans, this requires only imagining that a human fetus is actually human). If you can't imagine yourself doing or believing in something no matter what, then don't try to portray a POV character that does and believes those things. You'll just end up getting it wrong, and your audience will notice that you've produced a wooden, unrealistic caricature.
posted
John, you said, Not to bust your balls, but I think this problem could steam from the whole fan fiction thing, and writing pre-established characters.
I don't know if that's the reason, but that's where I first started noticing it, especially when I moved away from the pre-established characters and started trying to write original characters that fit into the fan fiction background. Looking back, I can see a lot of myself in the pre-established characters, too, though.
Survivor, you wrote: The trick is (yes, there's a trick) finding the right costume to make yourself into the character. You don't drink? What would have had to be different in your past for you to have been a drinker? You're not outgoing? What kinds of experiences would have made you outgoing rather than shy?
That's a good tip. I like that a lot! Thanks! :-)
And thanks everybody else, too. I've really been given a lot to think about and new things to try out.
posted
Actually there's nothing wrong with writing pre-established characters. If that's all you do and you have no desire to do anything else then there's something wrong with that.
I love comic books, and if I ever make a name for myself as a novelist don't think for a minute I won't use my stroke to get my hands on a few monthly titles.
It's like the cover band full of twenty somethings that sneak their own stuff in every once in a while, compared to the cover band of forty somethings who only plays other peoples' stuff and say over and over "We're gonna be huge one day, man." While they play the same dive bar every weekend.
posted
Of course, there is nothing stopping you from using a pre-existing character in an original story, as long as they have a different name, description, background, and live in a different location/universe. If they just happen to act just like Captain Kirk, well, you know, these things happen. Posts: 180 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
You know, the other thing too is to take what you like/dislike from a pre-established character and LOOSELY base your character on the pre-established one.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Then just build on that and make him or her your own.
posted
Well, the problem was that Captain Kirk was starting to act like me, and that was waaay out of character.
Anyway, I'm trying out some of these suggestions already in my latest fanfic. (The plot idea that I came up with just happened to be in fan fiction -- maybe the step to original fiction is going to take longer than I hoped.) I'm having the main character think about alcohol, and it's not as hard as I thought. I couldn't fit in the part where he was really outgoing, but I decided that he liked a particular kind of alcohol the way that I like chocolate, and suddenly it wasn't such a big step anymore. I guess the main thing was to just get over myself, roll up my sleeves, and do it.
But thanks again, everybody!
[This message has been edited by Jane Jinn (edited March 08, 2003).]
posted
I have to admit, if chocolate were alcoholic, I would get stinking drunk whenever occasion permitted (of course, I'd also display an amazing capacity for holding down truly disturbing amounts of liquor--just to balence things out).
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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I think another way to go with this problem is to try to expand the circle of people you really know -- from youself only to include others close ones. I often say to myself -- this character is like this friend, only not so..., but more... So, I ask myself, what would she/he be doing in this situation. Maybe I can recall a simiar situation and the behavior of this person in it, then do some modifications. Though Crad warns you that these people can recognize themselves in your writing, but maybe you just try to change them drastically. Anyway, there's a whole sectionj in CHACACTERS AND VIEWPOINT on exactly this topic.
One way to wean yourself off of the fan fiction characters might be to read some good old fashioned mythology (Greek, Roman, Norse, etc.) They typically have partially developed characters that you can use for your own purposes and flesh them out more. Also, this would put you back into "mainstream" fiction because mythology based fiction is generally considered superior to fan fiction even though it shares many aspects.
posted
Apart from people watching, which can train you to observe all those minute details that make for such believable characters, try reading autobiographies and biographies of various folks. There's nothing like plumbing the depths of reality to figure out what really makes folks tick.
Posts: 70 | Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
The problem with Kirk, is that he splits infintives . Generally, when I write, I usualy come up with either a character I want to write about, or an idea. Then I think of a character that could work with the idea and vice-versa.
An interesting tatic is if your character is boring throw him a problem. The problem can be anything from zoophobia to transexualism -but it should reveal the character. [in retrospect, I didn't express myself clearly. What I meant, was if your character is boring give him a fault/challenge/gift. Generally giving him a gift leads to a challenge.]
[This message has been edited by Phanto (edited April 10, 2003).]
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), I usually think about a friend or someone I know as being the character. Would that person do this? How would he or she react to this situation?
