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How do you formulate characters?

  • 01-10-2020 2:32am
    #1
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,176 ✭✭✭✭


    Do they just come to you?

    Do you research or write about people you know (while changing things)


    Im writing about a woman ...60s ....suddenly i realized i need to factor in the man she married why she married him when in her 20s who she was then ....

    I can't get a grip on her.

    Also do you get angry with your characters when they are not nice people? Or do you feel ......distanced from them?

    Sometimes i write about people i hate.


Comments

  • #2
    Das Kitty
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 17,231 Mod ✭✭✭✭Das Kitty


    ILoveYourVibes wrote: »
    Do they just come to you?

    Do you research or write about people you know (while changing things)


    Im writing about a woman ...60s ....suddenly i realized i need to factor in the man she married why she married him when in her 20s who she was then ....

    I can't get a grip on her.

    The best way, IMO, to get a grip on a character is to ask how you would be if you had that set of life experiences. What happened since she met her husband and how has that all changed her? Unpick each of those things and see what you're left with.

    Another tip someone gave me is that when you have two characters getting together, one fulfils a lack in the other. Say if she was broke, and he had cash, or say if she had no freedom and he offered it. Or if she felt like everyone was looking down at her, and he's someone she can look down upon.

    Also do you get angry with your characters when they are not nice people? Or do you feel ......distanced from them?

    Sometimes i write about people i hate.

    haha. Yep, tis only natural. Characters are strange facets of ourselves, so we get pissed off with them quite easily.


  • #3
    ILoveYourVibes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,176 ✭✭✭✭ILoveYourVibes


    Das Kitty wrote: »
    The best way, IMO, to get a grip on a character is to ask how you would be if you had that set of life experiences. What happened since she met her husband and how has that all changed her? Unpick each of those things and see what you're left with.

    Another tip someone gave me is that when you have two characters getting together, one fulfils a lack in the other. Say if she was broke, and he had cash, or say if she had no freedom and he offered it. Or if she felt like everyone was looking down at her, and he's someone she can look down upon.




    haha. Yep, tis only natural. Characters are strange facets of ourselves, so we get pissed off with them quite easily.


    This is REALLY helpful.


  • #4
    Sunny_Arms
    Registered Users Posts: 79 ✭✭Sunny_Arms


    Das Kitty wrote: »
    The best way, IMO, to get a grip on a character is to ask how you would be if you had that set of life experiences. What happened since she met her husband and how has that all changed her? Unpick each of those things and see what you're left with.

    Another tip someone gave me is that when you have two characters getting together, one fulfils a lack in the other. Say if she was broke, and he had cash, or say if she had no freedom and he offered it. Or if she felt like everyone was looking down at her, and he's someone she can look down upon.




    haha. Yep, tis only natural. Characters are strange facets of ourselves, so we get pissed off with them quite easily.

    thanks for this!


  • #5
    km85264
    Registered Users Posts: 146 ✭✭km85264


    A great way to get to know your character is to write little studies of them outside of the context of you story:
    They are eight years old when they fall off their bike and gash their knee, how do they react?
    The girl finally gets off with the really fit guy but when he takes her outside, he starts to go too far? How does she get out of this?
    The man gets a dream job in a small office, but on the first day his boss drops dead beside him, how does he deal?
    None of these things will impact your story but you and your character will share some secrets about their past that will help you understand what might be going on their heads, and give them an extra dimension that they might lack if you’re only thinking about the storyline at hand.


  • #6
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    It's a little tangential to the OP - and I believe was in relation to scriptwriting specifically - but one piece of advice I like re. characterisation is: is this the most interesting day that ever happened to this character? No? Well, why aren't you showing us that?


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