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.