Creating convincing characters that are believable takes time and discipline. Creating dynamically real individuals without imposing your own thoughts and impressions upon them is not easy to do, but this step is often the difference between a novel or screenplay that sits in a closet and one that finds its way around town and into the hands of audiences. Spend time with character development - building your characters before they enter the world of your story - and you turn the process of writing your manuscript into an easier and more enjoyable ride. You also get the added reward of a finished product that agents, publishers, producers and readers can truly be excited by.
There is no magic to character development. You can create living, breathing people, monsters, animals and settings by following a few, simple steps. In the end, you will have created three-dimensionality that breathes life into your story.
As a former executive with LA Film Lab Entertainment (a literary development and production company), I have learned that good writing isn't a gift. Talent equals discipline multiplied by time, and you must practice (daily) the art of development to master your craft.
Here is a proven framework to assist you in creating rich and complex characters. The complexity that you desire comes through:
1) Labeling their desire essences
2) Labeling their fear essences
3) Getting specific about their past
4) Labeling their behavior
5) Raising their stakes
6) Not meddling in their lives
7) Letting them play.
Ask provoking questions in line with these steps, answer them thoroughly, and then repeat the process to provide constant individual growth in your characters that mirrors life.
In this series of articles, I will guide you through the seven steps to successful character development. In this first part, we'll work through the first two steps: your characters' desires and fears.
1) Label the Desire Essences of each of your main characters
The first key to deepening your work comes from finding the major motivators in the lives of your characters. What drives their actions and reactions? Do their desires stem from specific experiences? We all have deep-seeded aspirations that spur our choices, thoughts, acts, and responses. These stimuli are what differentiate us from one another and we will refer to them as "Desire Essences." Some examples of Desire Essences are the desire to: be intellectually brilliant; be socially famous; hide from the world; belong to a group; be loved; party wildly; or end your suffering and die.
Desire is at the core of every being. We naturally aspire to be, do, or possess something that is just beyond our reach. Desire can be simple or deeply passionate. Write down the ten most important desire essences of each character! Once you have explored this component of your character's psyche, you are on your way to mastering their voice.
2) Label the Fear Essences of each of your main characters
What lies at the root of each of your characters' darker sides? For every desire they possess, they should also exhibit the antithetical fear of failing at attaining that desire. These fears will battle their aspirations for control over their behavior. Understand and then label the darker sides of your characters. This step is imperative to creating the dimensional and imperfect characters you are after. Some examples of Fear Essences are the fear of being: stupid; ordinary; socially exposed; rejected by a group; loathed; boring; or having to face life. Write down the ten most important fear essences of each character.
In the next installment of this four-part series, we'll work on developing the backstory behind these essences that creates the foundation for your characters' present lives. We'll also delve into their behavior and explore ways to build characters that are exciting, dynamic, and unique.
In the meantime writers, keep your rear in the chair, your fingers on the keys, and your writing reaching for the stars.
The quality of your characters will form the foundation you desire for a strong story. In this four-part series, we're looking at ways to develop three-dimensional, dynamic, story driving characters. Using the following seven-step framework, you can develop rich, complex, and multi-dimensional individuals:
1) Label their desire essences
2) Label their fear essences
3) Get specific about their past
4) Label their behavior
5) Raise their stakes
6) Don't meddle in their lives
7) Let them play
In the previous article, we looked at the first two steps in this process: 1. Label their desire essences and 2. Label their fear essences.
In this installment, we'll explore your characters' backstories - where they came from - and then determine how their histories shape their behaviors. As we continue to the next two steps, you'll take a great leap in crafting your characters into engaging parts of your story.
3. Get specific with your backstory
Human behavior is made up of a string of moments and the reactions to those moments. A character's present is carved out by her past. Current behavior is a battle between fear and desire, and your character's immediate choices are based on very specific (yet unconscious) experiences from her past ? experiences that leave imprints much like DNA. Though your characters should be unconscious of these past experiences that have influenced them, you the writer must create these histories in your preparation of their backstory and be fully aware of them before you move into your manuscript or screenplay. Here is an example of what won't benefit you versus what will when you get specific with backstory.
Bad example of getting specific: Rachel is a pretty girl who thinks she is unattractive. She prefers to live in her books as opposed to being with friends or family. Her father abused her sexually throughout her youth. She hates attention.
Better example of getting specific: On her graduation day, at a party her mother is throwing for her, Rachel's father shows up drunk and congratulates her, hugging her too closely, grabbing her rear end with both hands, and calling her pretty in front of a room full of her friends and family. She runs away humiliated and hides in her room, escaping into one of her fantasy stories. That night she moves out to stay with a friend and doesn't tell anyone where she is going. Two weeks later she finds out through another friend that her father died in a car accident. He was drunk.
In the better example of getting specific, the reader can have a visceral reaction to the words. This is caused by the detail. The generality of the bad reaction is logical, but lifeless. In the better example, it is easy to determine what the essences of our leading lady might be: desire to hide, maybe even desire to die, desire to live in her books, desire to be valued for her intellect instead of her body, fear of loneliness, fear of her appearance, fear of the opposite sex, fear of losing a loved one, fear of being abandoned, fear of people who drink.
4. Describe their current behavior
Take the essences and the specific examples you have created and determine what kind of behavior your character might exhibit as a result of their past.
Simple example: Our leading lady - a woman who hides her body, avoids friends from her past, mistrusts anyone who comments favorably on her appearance, desires to control her education and her intellect, and avoids alcohol.
In the next installment of this four-part series, you'll put your characters into action and let them come to life.
In the meantime writers, keep your rear in the chair, your fingers on the keys, and your writing reaching for the stars.
Bea Fields And Corey Blake has sinced written about articles on various topics from Writing, Internet Marketing and Writing. Corey Blake is President of Writers of the Round Table, Inc., a unique literary development and author management company that assists best-selling authors, directors, executives, magazines, publishers and producers to generate writing content of substant. Bea Fields And Corey Blake's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.