Coming to plot through characters

Welcome,

I'd like to share a few words about characters. Or rather on coming to plot through characters. Before you start to design a character, you need to consider if characters will be the driving force of your story. By this I mean; are characters the best way to display your theme? If they are, you can read on and design a round and dynamic character. If they are not, I advice you to start working on your plot/setting elements first. You need to write your characters later on, so you can most efficiently mold them in order to showcase your theme (mirror, echo etc.).

Now I assume you are still reading because you want to build your story based on your characters. This means you will have to develop them to be round, or dynamic characters. Every writer has his own way to do this, and I encourage you to find your own. I would also like to show you mine.

Part 1: Hello my lovely (characters):

My characters start out somewhere on the wheel of emotions, designed by Robert Plutchik. Now for the sake of this article, I'm going to create a character. Since I dislike working with nameless characters, I'll call him Vincent. Vincent is going to take a little trip around Plutchik's wheel.

Now before I continue, I have to consider one thing. Vincent is just a tool, and I need him to showcase my theme. Whitout a theme he would remain hollow, a well written secondary element at best, no matter how many details I include about him later on. So Vincent will help me showcase love.It's as good as place as any to start his journey, and it's convientently located on top of Plutchik's wheel.

So, Vincent's journey starts when he meets (or already knows) someone he accepts. He quickly comes to trust and admire this person. He submits his will to this person, for he had found serenity, joy and ecstasy. At this point Vincent takes a downward turn, as we see him slide along the wheel of emotions clockwise. An event or thought is set in motion that causes your him to suddenly feel apprehensive toward this person. As the events unfold he becomes afraid of this person (or his own thoughts and emotions). Eventually fear turns into utter terror.

Terrified, but still alive, Vincent becomes distracted. He is quite simply awed, either by a new view on excising circumstances, or by the discovery of something or someone new. But although he is amazed, he cannot act. He has yet to deal with his pensiveness, sadness and grief.
Vincent feels remorse for his actions, and the loss of his previous state of bliss. As he enters an inactive (brooding) period, he becomes bored and disgusted with either himself or the previous object of bliss (or life, if he becomes depressed). Eventually disgust turns into loathing.

As Vincent absolutely loathes himself or his previous object of bliss (or both), he comes to consider either the other or himself with contempt. He becomes annoyed with his present state, and spurred on by his sudden awe of something new (thought or external factors), Vincent is determined to take action. He feels his anger rising constantly, as he struggles to leave negative emotions behind. Eventually, he quite simply becomes enraged. he has to get out of this situation, whatever the cost. He might even become aggressive.

If Vincent succeeds, he will pursue a new interest. Or he has gained an insight that causes him to accept his situation. He will anticipate a brighter future, although he is still vigilant. He has just seen the entire spectrum of emotions, and if he can just manage to be optimistic, he will soon be back on top of his game (and the wheel). Feeling ecstatic, joyful and serene. Ready to go another round.

Now naturally you can choose any emotion you like to begin with, and describe the subtle steps of each shift.I took this example full circle, because I recently came to understand how this works, and wanted to work it out for writing purposes.

Before you move on to part two, which deals with character personality,you need to decide how many characters you need .If you have not decided on genre before, do so now. You also need to decide if you want to make your story epic or not, In other words, will you pusue drama or melodrama. If your cast is going to be large, that's fine. Just remember that your readers will only bond with a few of your characters. You could entwine an emotionaly based dramatic plot with a larger based melodramatic plot based on ideologies (E.g.Young love ripped appart by war).

I hope you found this article useful. Have fun writing!