Character Development: Finding a Friend for Life

Like all writers, my methods for building characters are a mix of mishmash and melting pot, drawn from both personal experience and academic study. Below is a short list of the ideas I’d like to cover.

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1. A Character Who Refuses to Die

“We care about what happens to people
only in proportion as we know what
people are.” (Henry James)

With any book I write, I usually start with a character who has lived with me for years, even decades. The character is a shadow, perhaps invited, perhaps not, inhabiting a mysterious vault in the mind, but he/she sticks. Somehow, I already know that person in an intimate yet blind and undefined way.

That ‘sticking-power’ is a kind of litmus test for me; my subconscious is fascinated by the character and I can assume that this proto-person will prove a bountiful subject to explore, love and allow his flaws to tear him to pieces. Be wary of the infatuation with newly invented characters offering fiery but brief affairs. Seek a long term relationship with your character; make them your friend for life and offer that relationship to your reader.

“Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent
your leading characters, make awful things happen
to them—in order that the reader may see what they
are made of.” (Kurt Vonnegut)

2. Know Your Archetype

“Summoned or not, the god will come.”
(Motto over the door of Carl Jung’s house)

No matter how original you think your character might be, warrior queen or tree frog, he or she will fall into one of a limited category of character archetypes. Seek out the archetype in literature and film and study how other artists have tackled it. Your character shall be original in the sense that he/she will be someone we’ve all never met before, but don’t deny yourself the rich brain-fodder you can feed on studying how the masters of your craft explored similar territory. If you are creating a fantasy king, read E.B. White’s The Once and Future King about King Arthur; if you are creating a French-Canadian Second World War nurse, read The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.

“The concept of Archetypes is an indispensable
tool for understanding the purpose or function of
the characters in a story.” (Christopher Vogler)

3. The Great Man/Woman Theory

“…some are born great, some achieve greatness
and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
(William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night) 

Which one of Shakespeare’s descriptions in the quote above best fits your character? I find that using this mirror to study my character helps illuminate my entire story. Who am I building and how does she react to the obstacles in the way? Remember that ‘greatness’ is a relative term. The courage of a door mouse defending her litter from a rat is a form of greatness, is it not? Greatness can be either good or evil. Achilles was born great. Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood achieves greatness (albeit a twisted version of it). Harry Potter has greatness thrust upon him (or does he? You could argue that he is born great, and you can argue he achieves greatness as well, but I personally think ‘thrust upon’ is the most fitting formula in his case). Some characters don’t seem to fit into any ‘greatness’ category at first glance; look at Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. But wait; I would suggest that you look again.

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but
the form of every virtue at the testing point…” (C.S. Lewis)

4. What MUST your character do (and what does your character think he/she must do?)

“Every man has three characters: the one he shows,
the one he has, and the one he thinks he has.” (Alphonse Karr) 

This one is huge. Characters can of course be multi-layered and complicated in their motivations—often consciously misrepresenting their true selves and intentions, but, generally speaking, they have to be driven by something specific and singular at their core. You can break this driving force down into two categories: one, what the character must do; and two, what the character thinks he/she must do. Human beings often do not understand the real issues which compel them to act and neither should many fictional characters. For example, in the beginning of the film Casablanca, Rick Blaine is a disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran who rejects heroism and thinks that he must regain the love of Ilsa above all things; but by the end of the film, Rick realizes that he must return to the fight, and rejecting Ilsa’s love is a part of the sacrifice he must make to help win the war. Knowing the difference between what your character must do and what he/she thinks they must do is a brilliant way to discover and exploit their desires and contradictions.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank you for your attention if you managed to hang on all of the way through this guest post. Just keep on spilling the ink, which often seems to be the same color as blood. Writing is difficult but writing is life—and life is difficult.

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