Everyday Canvas

Me and Characterization

Prompt: What is your most valuable resource for help in creating character traits? Do you just think up yourself? Is there a book or reference on the internet where you look for characteristics? Or do you keep a notebook and make note of people's behavior for future reference?

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Usually, I find a character on my own, for having always been interested in people. Plus, I studied psychology as part of my higher ed. curriculum and still read a lot on the subject. My experiences with people in life also do help; although, I have never written up a character specifically on any one person I know. It is true that I downloaded a few character sheets just to have them at hand but have never actually used them for a story. They are for giving me ideas for possibilities.

Most of the time, for a story, I think like this: What if a character did such and such an act? What kind of a person he/she could be?

Now, that act may not have any bearing in the story that will be written or it may get in as an opening scene or it may find its way into one of the scenes somehow, but in thinking, it helps me create a character. Knowing the age of the character is important to me, for other details. Once a bit of insight about the character is there, I find a photo to fit the image in my mind and attach it to the character sheet. This helps me to see the character as a person rather than a cartoon figure, even though I am not too keen to write (or read) physical descriptions of characters, unnecessarily.

Sometimes, if the character is suffering or is elated, I write a poem from his point of view as if I am him. By the way, a funny thing happened with one of the reviews I received during the last week. The reviewer kept consoling me that the guy didn’t deserve me in the first place. This has happened in the past, also, and several times. Another funny one was when a member I was friendly with and who is not in WdC anymore asked me if I was really pregnant (which would have been a medical miracle). These types of misunderstandings make me feel good, though, about my writing. They feel like they are genuine applause.

As to a book or other references, I read everything I can get my hands on related to the writing craft and let that info simmer in the back of my mind, but I have never opened a how-to book to give me any ideas for creating a certain character. My only book as a referral, rarely, is The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. It shows each emotion and its possible manifestations by a character. Not that this would apply to each character in each situation, but it is a road sign if I am writing about someone whose traits might be alien to me, say a serial killer. I use it only (with adaptation) if I can’t think of any character’s reaction in a scene.

A characters-notebook for future references do not exist for me. I have files in the computer and in a notebook on interesting events, news clippings, etc., but they are rarely about characters, and I still have to use any one of them in my writing.

In addition, I have never used character names to tip off character traits, a la Harry Potter books. For kiddie books, this may be all right, but names just come to me on their own whether they mean good or bad. In addition, I believe the choice of the POV, also adds to the characterization. I think some characters would not tell a story from the first person point of view, especially if they are closed inside themselves.

After all is said and done, the fact I always remind myself of throughout the writing is that the story is the character’s story and not mine.