How to Make Stronger Characters in Three Simple Steps

Your characters will be going from flabulous to fabulous!

Step One: Who’s in Charge of Casting?

As the writer you get to choose who plays what part; so don’t settle. You know how they should act and how they should look, so make it happen.

In the winter of 1996 I was working on an independent film. I had written the script and was producing the project. I had done a lot of hard work to put together a good creative team to make it a reality. We had locations secured, equipment ready, a killer script in hand (did I mention that I wrote the script?) and we were taking our time casting the parts.

For the part of the antagonist we had narrowed it down between two women. One was a complete new comer to acting but she had the look I wanted and I knew we could work with her to get up to stuff on the acting portion. The other had been in a few wide release films and would certainly handle acting well, but she didn’t look the part.

It was a mismatch that didn’t feel right for me. My director on the other hand wanted the woman with the SAG card; he felt it added more clout to our little project. But I was the producer and had put this entire project together so naturally we went with the woman who had the SAG card.

That’s what I love about writing. I don’t have to play nice or think about clout. I can create who I want and if I begin to let the outside voices (which might be coming from my own mind) start to change a character in the wrong way I can say, “Screw you, this is my project, my vision and it’s going to be done how I see it.”

Step Two: Eye Patches are so 1999

All characters should be memorable because of who they are not what they are wearing. The same goes for how they walk, talk, chew gum, etc.

Now if you have an eye patch wearing, limp walking, backwards talking, woman who chews her gum with her mouth closed and blows bubbles out her left nostril don’t bother reading this because that character is awesome.

Seriously though you want people to remember your characters because what they do, not what they wear.

In the Harry Potter series JK Rowling created a character that has a magical eye, fake leg and uses a staff to walk with but those are just additions. The real reason people remember him is how he interacts with other characters. As you read the pages you see the traits that make him a great character.

One of the simplest ways to make your character more memorable is with my 2:1 ratio of good/bad traits. Remember that no one is all good or all bad and this keeps them interesting.

For example: your protagonist is brave, tells the truth, but sneaks off to seedy bars to take place in illegal cat juggling.

  

Step Three: He Said What?

Take the time to write out a conversation with your character to learn how they sound and what type of word choices they use.

When I first started writing I knew my dialogue sucked. I knew this because people told me. I’m sure I felt the same way George Lucas felt when people told him the same thing. The difference is I listened.

I became conscious that all of my characters talked the exact same way that I did.

I am not a person who lived a sheltered life. I lived in different places, met unique individuals, and had good exposure to a world outside of my own. I just wasn’t paying attention.

You need to have an understanding of who your character is. One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is by having a conversation with your character. Simply take out a blank page of paper or open a new file and begin to ask your character questions. Think of it as meeting them for the first time.

Go so far as to picture the setting. Is your conversation taking place in your home, over coffee, or walking down a crowded bazaar in Amman?

How does your character interact in this environment? How does your character sound?

If you are having trouble hearing anyone but yourself, take the time to talk to people from different walks of life. A great place to do this is at a farmers market, trust me.

By using these three simple steps you will create characters that pop off the page and remain ingrained in your reader’s minds long after they have put down your book.

Ciao,

Clark

Crafting Characters: Where to Begin

Shoe Tree in Utah

So this is the prodigal return of me. Is it possible to return to yourself? I'm not sure, but I do know I've been gone for far too long. And instead of boring you with my intrepid exploits and occasional lame excuses as to why I have been absent for so long I'd just jump right back into helping you improve your writing.

One thing I’ve learned in my absence is the importance of everyone's story. Think for just a moment about your own life and the stories which you have that have never been shared. It would be terrible if you died having not shared your story. So I want to make sure you become the best writer you can be so you will feel confident to share your story with the world or at the very least your loved ones.

For the next few written posts and some video posts I want to share with you how to create amazing characters. For this exercise take a look at the story you want to write, or perhaps the one you've already written but you feel your characters aren't developed as well as you'd like.

In any story you need at a minimum two characters:

1. Protagonist (good guy)
2. Antagonist (bad guy)

Carrying on the most basic idea here your protagonist wants to accomplish something and your antagonist wants to keep the protagonist from accomplishing said something. Now don't get hung up on the idea these two characters have to be two separate entities, they can be the same person, and it is possible your antagonist isn't a person at all. It could be possible for your antagonist to be the weather, or a great disaster, or even an illness.

The same goes for your protagonist. Just because your protagonist is the hero of the story it doesn't mean they have to wear a white hat. Your protagonist can be a terrible villain as long as your antagonist is an even viler villain. The whole point is not to limit you to one idea or mold.

Now you can see your options are limitless look again at your story. What type of person or thing inhabits the role of protagonist? Grab a blank sheet of paper and answer the following four questions about your protagonist:

1. What does your protagonist do in life?
2. If a person saw your protagonist for the first time what is one prominent feature they would recall?
3. What is your protagonist doing right now at this very moment in time?
4. What is the one thing your protagonist wants?

Was that hard? It’s okay if it was. The main purpose here is to get your mind moving and thinking creatively. Now, this type of exercise is not limited to fiction writing, if your story is a nonfiction memoir or biography this will help you understand yourself or subject at the time in question.

I want you to think about your antagonist. This is the person or thing that will be at odds with your protagonist and the meaner and more diabolical your antagonist is the more your reader will love it. In the United States we love our protagonist to be able to overcome in the end but don’t ever make it easy. 

Now turn the page over so you have a completely blank slate again and answer the following three questions:

1. What is the worst thing your antagonist has ever done in life?
2. If a person had met your antagonist before and was asked any question about them what type of feeling would they have and why?
3. Why is your antagonist compelled to see your protagonist fail?

Okay this is just the basic building blocks you need to start developing your characters. Next time we’ll start looking at what it takes to make a multidimensional character.

Ciao,

Clark

The Antagonist Within

I am currently working on my first full length novel and for the most part I find it to be a real joy. I get excited knowing that when I finish my day job I'll come home and will be able to start working on something that I want to do for me. However there are times when I arrive to my little room after a long day of work that the antagonist inside of me places several obstacles in my path that some days I overcome and other days defeat me. Now the antagonist inside of me is not like the one in my book. No I don't have to battle wits with a psychopathic killer or solve mysteries, no it's much worse. I have to battle the desires that the antagonist within me places in my mind, and believe me there are times it is difficult to beat his logic. He might suggest sitting down on my bed. I agree, Certainly a few moments of rest would do me good before I write. Then he might suggest that some television would help me to unwind. That sounds reasonable I respond. And then to finish me off he suggests enjoying a few cookies. Capital idea! Before I know it I have sat through two hours of television and I realize I've been bested again! As you can see the antagonist inside of me is much more deadly than anything I can dream up and put on paper because the antagonist inside of me is stopping me from what I want to achieve.

Thankfully when this happens I get up a little earlier the next day and spend the extra time making up for the writing I should have done the night before. Five years ago there is no way that I would have been able to recover that quickly. Back then I would have used my failure as an excuse to fail again and again until the negativity I was creating might have stopped me all together from achieving my goals. Today I'm happy to report that I achieve the goals I set in place for myself and I do it because they are important enough to me, and I know that a setback is something to move past quickly and I can still continue to achieve my goal.

What I have learned for myself is what I do first is the most important thing. So I may say Writing is the most important thing in my life, but if I get home and sit in front of the television for two hours then my actions are not fulfilling my desire. It takes conscious effort to sit in the chair and do the writing first and then when I'm done I can play or relax. If I try to do it the other way it falls apart and never works.

One of the clear ways that I have found to complete my writing is to set goals. I set goals for myself that are clearly written, that have a time and date to be completed and contain a reward. For instance this week my goal is to break the 50,000 word mark in my novel. When I set this I had just over 40,000 words complete, so I needed to accomplish 10,000 words in seven days. This goal was simple to put down on paper with a clear completion time and reward. I would write a minimum of 1,500 words per day (which for me is less than half a scene). The reward is a slice of pecan pie with a scoop of ice cream. Having the reward is important because it gives me two things to shoot for, in this case: 

1.     Finish 50,000 words (a real accomplishment for my work)

2.     Get to eat pecan pie (a real treat for my taste buds)

So here is how I learned to beat the antagonist within (at least most of the time) 

• Set goals and write them down with clear dates and times to work on and accomplish the goal.
• Do the important stuff first. First in the morning, first when you get home. If it's important it needs to come first.
• Set rewards for accomplishing goals and don't give the reward until the goal is accomplished.
• Understand that you will not always accomplish what you want every day. Accept it, move on and continue to accomplish the goal.

Stay tuned as I'll be laying out the basis for my book in an upcoming video blog.