Hey, guys!
So this week, despite having a ton of in-progress ideas already, and despite working on a perfectly good debut novel that I love, I got a new story idea that just wouldn’t leave me alone. So I’ve been thought-dumping ideas for that all week, figuring out plot points, and creating characters. So I thought this would be a good time to give you some insight into how I create new stories! Today I’m sharing my process for creating characters. I’m sure there are more efficient ways of doing this, and I think mine is probably quite unconventional. But if there’s one thing I learned about making a book, it’s that we have to figure out our own ways of doing things.
The first thing I do, is make a storyboard on Pinterest. I’ve talked before on how useful Pinterest can be for writers; I love being able to put my story ideas into a private board that I can use to reference characters, settings, plot points, dialogue, whatever. It gives me a visual to refresh my mind on all my ideas.
So what goes into the storyboard where characters are concerned? I like to collect actual pictures of people, then kind of use that as a guide for how I’m going to describe a person. This helps me paint a mental picture to work with all through the book. Then I add in things that remind me of that character, like the types of clothes they’d wear, special belongings, hair colors, etc. And something in particular that I love to collect is words and phrases my character would be likely to use. These range from sarcastic and funny to heartfelt and deep thoughts, so I can remind myself how they would react to different situations.
Next, I make a written profile, to has out specifics. I have used a number of character profile worksheets for this step. Sometimes I only need a few questions, and other times, I use several dozen to help me get a feel for my characters’ personalities, habits, and look. this is also a great place to list out exactly what a character wants, desires, and how those motivations are going to be different at the end of the story. I try to keep these profiles in their own notebook or in a binder so as I’m writing, I can go to a certain character and see how they should be reacting to the current situation, given their profile.
If I’m writing a fantasy story, I also make sure to include profiles for the rules of magic and society.
I usually also have a playlist for each story. I normally have music going when I write, and certain songs help me write certain scenes. Whenever I hear a song that reminds me about a character, I write it down so I can check it out later and if it fits, I add it to my playlist.
While the individual character profile is super important, one last thing I always consider is how each character interacts with those around them. It’s not really necessary to know how every character reacts to every character, unless they’re going to have a big role in each other’s lives. Sometimes your MC will only interact with a few characters and not even met others. But right now, I’m considering three best friends and I absolutely need to know how they react, not only to each other, but to people who react with each of them. So when they have scenes alone then a scene where they talk about their interactions with another person, I know how the remaining characters will respond.
So, in a nutshell, that’s how I go about making characters. I really don’t know how much or how little work goes into each story/character until I get the plot going a little; and for me, the amount of detail tends to vary from character to character.
How do you create your own characters? Profiles? Storyboards? Note cards?
For more ideas on what I do, feel free to check out my Pinterest boards:
Such a Character
Such a Character’s Stuff
Such a Character’s Costumes
Such a Character’s Words
If You Give a Moose a Blog... 
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