Character Creation
The nuts and bolts of how you bring characters to life
Characters are the lifeblood of any story. You can’t have a story without characters. Well, I suppose you could, but it would be awfully boring. Your world needs to be populated by people (or other creatures) to make any story happen.
But how does one create characters? What makes a character? Well, there’s a lot of ways to go about it.
Happy Accidents
The easiest and simplest way is when a character just pops into being fully formed. this has happened to me more than once. The Irish fishermen in my Emrys books were like this. I didn’t have to wrack my brain over them; they just popped into existence. They were just there and it seemed like the story needed them, so I just rolled with it.
Your imagination is an idea machine. Let it work. If you’re writing something and a character just appears, let it happen! If you’re walking through the park, daydreaming and a character comes to mind, write that character! Let your imagination be your guide. However, one cannot always rely on this particular method, as inspiration can be so fickle.
Borrowing
Stealing or borrowing, if you will, a character from something else is not unethical, as long as you alter the character enough that they can easily be distinguished from the character you based them on.
For example, my character, Walter Ulic, is based pretty heavily on Wolverine from X-Men and many of the Clint Eastwood films I’ve seen. I just took the traits I liked about those characters and combined them together in such a way that it would make the character fun to write and fun to read.
You can do the same. Take a character from a book or movie you live and retrofit them for your own story world, changing them just enough that they aren’t identical and you can’t be accused of plagiarism.
People you know
I often base the characters in my books on the people I have met in real life; my friends, my enemies, relatives and the like. I’m sure you know a few people who would be great characters in your story. This method may be even easier than “happy accidents”. You don’t even have to know the person all that well. I have a few characters that I’ve based on real people I only met a couple of times. Don’t make it too hard. Experiment a little!
Online tools
Nowadays, writers have far more resources than in times past. The internet is a wealth of information— some of it good some bad— and there are a number of free tools available to help you create good characters. Now, to be fair, I have never used such tools; I know some of them are AI-powered, but some aren’t. You’ll have to experiment with them yourself. You could even try creating an account on DnD Beyond and using their free character builder to create something for your book. Don’t be afraid to try it!
So what are your favorite character-creation methods? Tell me! I’d like to hear all about it!
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