Discovering Your Characters

One thing I love about being a pantser is the process of discovering who my characters are.

When I start a story, it's usually from a random scene that has popped into my head. It's almost always dialogue, which makes me feel like I'm eavesdropping on a conversation between two people who just eased into view. I sit there, quietly, and try to look like I'm minding my own business, when I'm actually minding THEIRS.

Then I go through the usual first impression stuff we all go through when we meet new people. We notice what they look like, and despite our best intentions, we make judgments based on our previous experiences. Since these are heroes and heroines, there isn't a lot to criticize at this point.

But, just as with people we encounter in real life, there's a lot we don't know about characters when we start a story. If we did know everything, the happily-ever-after would be at the beginning of the book, not the end.

I think it's fun to learn new details about the hero and heroine as I move through each chapter. When I'm writing, I'm constantly picking up on the clues they toss my direction, usually via an offhand phrase or an unexpected response to another character's words or actions.

This is when I stop to plot and ponder and decipher exactly what this information reveals about the character. I'm in awe as I learn what is important to them, and what they are going to fight for, and what they are willing to sacrifice.

The tricky part is when a character won't give up their secrets. Even worse is when they do give you juicy information and you're not sure how to interpret it, or how to weave it into the story. I won't even mention how heartbreaking it can be when they drop a bombshell in your lap, requiring you to dismantle chapters you lovingly polished before that shocking moment.

Still, I'm not sure I could write a story where I knew everything about the character ahead of time. I enjoy that slow unfolding of character traits, that leisurely method of learning what makes a particular person tick. It's a process that involves trust, and a huge amount of it. You can only expose your inner self when you believe no one will try to harm you with the information you're divulging.

It makes me happy when my characters demonstrate their willingness to put their hearts in my hands, trusting that I'll take care of their hopes and fears. It's a little frightening at the same time. But hopefully by the time they give me that responsibility, I'm so in love with them, there's no way I can say no.

Comments

[Quantum]

When you feel that you are discovering characters as people, with inner secrets, ambitions, loves and hates, I think that you are actually creating them from assorted fragments of memory collected from both the real world and fictional worlds to which you have been exposed. The creative skill comes from the way that the fragments are pieced together and that can reveal a lot about the author as a person. Your villains will reveal what you hate in people and your hero and heroine will reveal aspects that you admire and to which you aspire.

If as a thought experiment, you imagine that your memory is wiped clean and you start life as an author with a clean slate, and have to create characters from a mental void, I imagine you might come up with a story about a woman struggling to find herself, to find her roots and identity.

I think I'm trying to say that the story that comes to you is in a way a reflection of the inner you. It may be a pale reflection, distorted and filtered, but it contains the essence of you and the way that you see the world.

So if a reader chooses, he can learn a great deal about an author from reading their fiction. By publishing you are in a way exposing yourself, rather like a patient on a psychologists couch.

Of course I could be totally wrong and the story simply wafts into your mind from the aether. But even then the way that you tell the story also reveals a lot.

So far I really like and admire what I see.

Please keep the creative cauldron bubbling Donna! *smile*

[Mae Clair]

Characters are the best part of a story. I agree with you, Donna, that it's always intriguing learning bits and pieces about them as you write and they surrender those secrets. Sometimes they offer up total surprises and I always love those moments of discovery (even if it does involve rewriting what-came-before, LOL).

Fun post!

[Donna Cummings]

Q, I swear it feels like my memory is wiped clean on a daily basis! LOL You're definitely right about an author exposing themselves via their writing, and that was one of the fears I had to overcome before I could start writing my books. Now I don't really think about it anymore, since the characters form themselves behind the scenes, and the stories DO seem to waft into my mind from some mysterious place. :)

I'll keep the creative cauldron bubbling over! Thanks for the admiration too. :)

[Donna Cummings]

Mae, characters are always my fave part of a story, when I'm writing OR reading. They can be delightful and maddening, but they're what keeps me coming back, even if I'm visiting them with a big eraser in my hand. LOL

[Sassyspeaks.wordpress.com]

lol wonderful post. This morning my character told me something astounding but she's leaving it up to me how to incorporate it into the plot. She constantly tells me stuff, mostly idle chit chat that I can't use. Two other characters are very private. I ended up sitting them down and forecing me to tell their story. They finally did but I need more. I swear I talk to my characters more than to "real" people