Your characters

[Chessie]

I also like to write with a vague idea/cardboard cut out of who the characters in my story are. The one exception to this is the protagonist. I need to be familiar with that character a bit more, since the story revolves around them. But I don't do character profiles. I just ask a lot of "why" and "what if" questions, trying to get a better sense of who this person is and why they are important to the story (are they the right fit).

I do also like to know what all of my characters look like, their names, and 1-2 things about them that give me an idea of who they are. Then I can start writing. The characters jump out of at me as I write, then revision is all about tweaking the story so that it fits who the characters are and the decisions they make are realistic, as Bruce McKnight said.

 

[skip.knox]

As with most others here, my characters change as the story progresses.

One issue I have with making 'character sheets' relates to this changing during writing; specifically, if I spend a lot of time sketching out character attributes, characteristics, background, while it does create a clearer image of them in my mind, the sketch becomes one more document I have to keep updated.

As the story progresses, and I change this or that about a character, I now have to update the character sketch file, to cross out this, or add that. I've done that, but I found it became unnecessary overhead. Whatever I gained by investing in character imagining up front was outweighed by the overhead down the road.

FWIW, I'd say the same applies to rules of magic, setting, details of fantasy races, and so on.

I'll go a bit further. To me, adding a great deal of detail about characters, world, and so on, tips the balance the wrong way. It forces the story to serve the character, rather than having the character serve the story. Admittedly, some stories are character studies, but I've never written one of those. Your Story May Vary.

I've never had my characters jump out at me as I write. Sounds nerve-wracking.

And finally, I can envision a down side to not keeping character sheets: one risks lapses in continuity. If one has a character sheet, then when I say my elf has gray eyes then I don't have to worry about him turning up with blue eyes. (sneaky shout out to the Summoner geeks clip)

 

[ThinkerX]

My gaming days still influence me despite being decades past.

With some exceptions, very first thing I think of with a new character is 'character class,' followed by 'stats.' A not so strong warrior? A foolish mage? I use both AD&D and WFRP for this; the latter, being career based, makes for a broader range of characters.

Next, a few words - six or eight tops - about the characters appearance and personality.

Everything else comes out in the story.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

I've done both ways, but I prefer to do a work up on them and change things along the way as needed.
Just helps me get into their head a bit better.

 

[Fyle]

I do both. Sometimes the whole thing hits me at once, sometimes I just plant a seed and let it grow.

 

[Sheilawisz]

When I start to write a story I already have certain knowledge about who the characters are, what they want, what troubles they face in their lives and how they interact with each other.

I follow a very natural and instinctive approach to Storytelling, so I do not have detailed guides and sketches about the characters. It feels like I am writing about their lives and adventures instead of directing everything, so the characters evolve, change out of my control and many times they do unexpected things that surprise me a lot...

That's what makes telling a story an adventure: Even though I know what the end of the story will be, I can never know everything that will happen during the way to get to the end =)

 

[Penpilot]

For the most part, I don't need too much before I can start writing a character. I just need to know the answers to the following questions.

What do they want physically?
What do they want emotionally?
And Why?

The first two questions I definitely have to know before I write. The "Why" I sometimes know but usually figure out along the way. The "Why" is usually what unlocks the character for me. If I can't find the "Why" the character remains kind of flat in my eyes. Knowing why, for me, opens up the third dimension of a character.

 

[DaFlaminUnicorn]

I can only learn my characters as I write the story. Sometimes they end up being quite different from how I originally envisioned them.

Same here. I recently had this happen with lelani in my q & a. I intended for her to be a bit rude but reasonable. then later after Ireth's character met her and they talked and interacted she became kind and understanding. also curious. she seems very agreeable and I like her now. at first, I wanted people to not like her. but now she's completely different.

 

[Guy]

Same here. I recently had this happen with lelani in my q & a. I intended for her to be a bit rude but reasonable. then later after Ireth's character met her and they talked and interacted she became kind and understanding. also curious. she seems very agreeable and I like her now. at first, I wanted people to not like her. but now she's completely different.

Yeah, I have kind of the same thing going on. I started a character intending him to be an obnoxious, god's-greatest-gift type, but as I wrote him he became more of an amusing wise ass who, despite his wise assery, is a decent guy, and the fate I have in store for him has started to seem a bit unkind.

My two flagship characters, though, popped into my head almost fully formed.

 

[Aspasia]

When I started on my WIP I only had a pretty vague idea of who my main character was. As I wrote he evolved and changed and I got a much better feel for him.
When it became time to introduce the Other character into the story I didn't want the same thing to happen with her. What I did was I wrote a few short stories with her as the main character. The purpose of this wasn't to actually tell a story, but for me to get into the head of the character and get familiar with her. It forced me to think from her perspective and I got to know her a little better.
I believe that helped me make her a better, more well rounded, character right off the bat when I introduced her into the story.

I think this is a great idea, one which I will be trying For longer projects, I try to plan everything out in a file, have character profiles, etc but I find that I often have great difficulty giving each character their "voice" for about 5k words -- despite my planning and profiling, they don't seem "real" to me until I've actually written them. On the other hand, characters I just spontaneously make up for short flash pieces / stuff without planning seem far more "real". Yet I need to have things written down / planned out or else I start forgetting stuff about my character for longer works.

I found that the character who is the clearest to me, who I feel the most comfortable with, is a character I hadn't touched for a LONG time, and randomly decided to throw into a fun, very silly RP with a few friends. That helped a LOT. I was pretty surprised. It forced me to put her into rather strange situations she'd never face in the story, and find out a bit more how she reacts in a "safe" setting that I know will never enter the story, and therefore won't "ruin" it. Kind of like a "fork" of the character, an experimental tangent. It was very freeing, something I wish I could do with more WIP MCs!

I might try to write short flash pieces with each MC in a situation that's not important to the main story, just to get a feel for them. I often have a problem with my characters being flat and cardboard in longer works, but this sounds like a great idea to try and change that!