Developing Characters in Context
By Victoria Fortune
Developing complex characters and bringing them to life on the page is one of the most challenging parts of writing a novel. A quick internet search turns up countless sites offering advice for character development. Master Class offers a basic overview and some good general tips, as well as writing exercises designed to help you explore your characters and options for classes offering a deeper dive.
Once you’ve established who your principle characters will be, character questionnaires like the ones offered by the Gotham Writers and The Novel Factory can help in developing specific details such as appearance, mannerisms, personality traits, core beliefs, etc, that help flesh them out. I was introduced to the Gotham questionnaire in the first novel-writing class I took and have found it useful over the years, but depending on the story I’m working on, some parts of the questionnaire seem irrelevant. The Novel Factory site includes some good tips for how best to use such questionnaires to suit your needs and those of your story.
The downside is that you are developing characters in isolation. It’s a bit like getting to know someone through their resume. It isn’t until you meet them in person and see them in action, that you get a real sense of the person. Even after you’ve created all these unique characteristics and personality traits, you don’t really get to know your characters until you set them in motion in your story.
The following prompts offered by professors in the Newport MFA program can help you develop characters in the context of the story you want to tell. Being a multi-tasker, I appreciate that they help me generate and develop ideas for other elements of the story as well, such as setting and relationships among characters. Although they are meant as brainstorming exercises, they are more likely to lead to the creation of material that can be used in scene, which makes them feel more purposeful.
• What’s in a name? The name you give a character should suit the character and setting. Does the name have a meaning that connects to the story in some way? Changing the name of a character could change elements of the character.
• What are your character’s places? There should be 8-10 places your character inhabits. Describe your character in each of these places. Do they always occupy the same space in each place? If so, move them around to view it from different perspectives. How do they feel in each place? What are safe spaces for them, if any? What are the danger zones? Do they inhabit different places differently, i.e. use different language or mannerisms? Why?
• Identify some objects in each of the character’s places. How do they interact with these objects? Do they do so in a similar way every time, or does it depend on circumstances? Does how they interact with the object depend on their mood or circumstances? Is there a way to use these objects to further reveal your character? (For example, maybe there is an object in the protagonist’s grandmother’s house that they always notice but never touch, and then in the midst of a significant conversation with the grandmother, the protagonist picks up the object-- this underscores the significance of the conversation and suggests a change in their relationship.)
• Interview your characters. How do they feel about situations in the story? Other characters? Record their answers as though you are going to write up the interview. Letting your character “talk” at length will give you a better feel for their voice.
• If you are writing a conversation between two characters from one of their points of view, write the conversation again from the other character’s point of view. What preconceptions and beliefs do each of the characters bring to the conversation? This will help you develop your characters’ voices and create more realistic dialogue.
These are great questions for ongoing development or when you get stuck. If you come to a scene in your book and you aren’t sure how your character will act/react, you can use one of these exercises to brainstorm ideas for how the scene should play out.
Photo: ID 200541632 © Ruslan Nesterenko | Dreamstime.com
