Authentic Character Development

[heredoncove]

I'm back with a question. I've been sitting on this one for a bit although I don't know why.

How do you make sure your characters are developing authentically? Do you ask certain questions? Do you ask yourself would this character do this? Do you just know your character so well that you don't have to ask?

This question started to pick at me especially when I start thinking of the future of HC and how the characters should develop as the 'years' pass. So start discussion.

[Sarahjane]

I've started to ask myself the same thing about my characters. For some, I feel like I know who they are, but I don't think I know yet how to get that across. And others are just vague shadows to me. To help me understand my characters better, I've been thinking about trying to generate character profiles (like the ones at Lakeside Heights) for some of them. I'm hoping it will give me a better feel for their characters and help me write them with more personality.

[laura]

Characters, like people, are drawn to fill the voids in their lives. Whether that be in destructive or healthy ways is another matter though. But regardless of what they do, people tend not to want stasis in their life unless they're already truly happy (and how many people do you know like that? lol!). And a truly happy and complete person will probably not be very interesting to read about.

Also like people (talking about my characters at least), they might feel a void before they know how to explain it, or know what to do with it (happens to Summer a lot). Or they might have a huge gaping void that they don't even feel at all until they're put in a certain situation (like Corbin - he thought he was perfectly happy until he met Leila). So I don't always know exactly where a character's development will go from the start, but I might feel them headed in a certain direction. Sometimes they're also hell bent on heading in the wrong direction for a while (ahem... April!... and Jodie!), before they figure out what the right direction is. People are much like that in real life too.

History is always really important to me as well. I can never really see a character and know where they're going until I know where they've already been. I think a person's history really shapes the course of a life, and the things a character has been through will affect the decisions they make and the way they handle the conflicts they run into.

So how should a character develop over time? That mostly depends on how many voids they have in their life, I suppose. Character development should always be so individual and fine-tuned.

(Man, I hope this makes sense. My brain has already switched off for the night, lol!)

[Stacy]

I guess I'm in the "don't ask" camp. I just kind of type things.

[dinuriel]

Yeah, I don't really think about it either--I just sort of write what feels natural.

Sorry that I couldn't be more helpful :S

[celebkiriedhel]

This is my theory of Character development. Ahem.

Character development.... comes in two flavours... Wants and Weaknesses. (Yes, I purposefully called them that because I like the alliteration).

Weaknesses are my favourite:

When a character improves/learns in their life from their flaws. This is called drama. Pretty much every hero in every book.
When a character self-destructs over flaws. This is called tragedy. Macbeth is a good example of this.

If your characters have flaws or weakness, then you're going to have the possibility of character development. How they develop, is based on how they overcome/don't overcome their flaws. Throw a situation at them that highlight's their weakness, and see how they handle it.

Wants:

Wants are more about what your character will do to get them, and whether they are worth getting in the first place. Concrete wants are better than vague ones.

So for example - in Last Sunrise - Amelia wants to escape her hopeless life, and makes a bad choice. Her life becomes more hopeless, although it takes her a while to realise it. She tries to escape her hopeless life by easier ways and fails. She finally works out how to escape her hopeless life - and makes a good choice. Thus the story ends hopefully.

The prime mover in that story is Amelia's desire to escape. So the first want is to stop being a barmaid. The second want is to stop being a vampire. They illustrate her growing into a person who actually knows what she wants, and learns what to do about it. In the meantime she learns what's important to her.

That is, character development.

Generally, I work on the basis of - if a character is getting boring or the same - give them something to do - a want to chase, a situation to deal with. Character development generally feeds from there naturally.

[thelunarfox]

I like Laura's idea of them having voids. Oh that's an interesting way to look at it. That's different from what I do.

Basically, I'm in the whole just write and it'll come camp.

But while writing, I do think about experiences. I think about a characters past, how they react to things, and how their past has made them who they are. And then I think about what's happened to them as I've been writing and how that would affect them. I think that's the basic level of what I'm doing when I write.

[bex]

Every time i begin a creative project, I buy a notebook. Every character gets a page and I just write down what comes to me. Lots of quirks and nuances and little development things. I try not to put the characters in a box and say what they would not do out right, because just like life, people can surprise you. However, you do grab a basic knowledge of the character and an idea of what they're about and what their values are by juxtaposing their background and their life experiences. That's what I've found, anyway.

[hrootbeer]

I love this question. I like Kiri's "wants" and "weaknesses" explanation. I think character development starts here for sure. You start out with a template person and give them flaws and desires. These things make the person "unique". I think a third thing also needs to be added in, though, to give a good characterization. I can't think of a good W word to alliterate what I mean, but I think if this as "reaction".

Characters don't exist in a void. If you are a good story-teller (and I think all of you are), you give your character conflicts to go through. Characterization often is developed in how they react to the conflicts you throw at them. Someone mentioned the Hunger Games in another thread. I think this series has some awesome characterization...especially of minor characters. The author doesn't always tell us the character's wants or weaknesses, but we are shown those things through how the character reacts to the conflict happening over all.

All of that being said, I sort of fall into Stacy and Dinuriel's camp. I just write and let characters develop. Eventually, though, I do start thinking of their flaws and desires. Then I find myself asking questions like, "Would she really do that?" I had to do this a lot with my character of Kindra, who was date raped. Date rape has many psychological effects on a person that may not be seen right away. Kindra's character was tested because of what had happened to her and what happened to her colored her reaction to every other conflict she faced. Likewise, what happened to Kindra--and her reaction to it--also affected her son and colored his reactions to conflicts. I actually think that her characterization made his a lot stronger, if you know what I mean.

[heredoncove]

I'm of two minds. I'm a big write and see what happens with characters and at times their developments shock me because it wasn't what I expected from them.

I also create templates where I ask questions of my characters. It's just my way of getting to know them better. So in regards to the Sims my favorite questions are: What do your aspirations (family/fortune/etc) mean to you? Where do you want to be in 10 years? What is your problem?

I wasn't able to do some of them until I really got into their stories but it helps a lot because now I feel like I really know them.

I do like the idea of voids because that's so true of actual people. We know we have a problem but at times we simply don't know what it is or know how to put it into words.

[choco]

I'll add my two cents and hope it's of use to you or anyone else.

I have an idea of the history of my characters. Sometimes when I think of a story, whether it was long-term or just a quick writing exercise for myself, the character's history just pops up for me. It seems almost instant and natural. Sure, I have characters that I need to flesh out if just so I don't get feel like I end up repeating the same character with a different name. Sometimes, there are cases where I would have to write in down, if just so I don't intersect the past, present, and future without some semblance of sense.

[mdpthatsme]

I've been thinking about this for awhile...well since heredoncove posted the original post...I have well over 1,000 characters and not all of them were created the same way. Some were made by my usual person's looks + background = personality, but then some were made after I created a world.

For instance, Twister from The Gang, he is from a desert habitat (feels like I'm talking about animals). It's a harsh world and only the strong can survive. So, in effect, Twister is a very proud individual because he did survive the harshness of his world, to escape and find the rest of The Gang. He's also very competitive and strives to be the best.

I like Kiri's Wants and Weaknesses too. It's a prescription of making flawed characters and such. And I see how that process can make some really good villains. I first thought of Macbeth. Wants: to rule/god complex; Weaknesses: the evil in all humanity, greed, listening to his wife, trusting the witches fortunes over common sense. Yep, definitely a classic.

[infinitygoddess]

Usually what I do is introduce the characters, and then get into their development as the story flows. I usually have it in my head what the characters are like in terms of their personalities, special abilities (if they have any), other particular attributes, occupations, and sometimes family, but things like back story happen within the flow of the story itself.

[laura]

Anyone ever have to write negative character development before? Meaning the development is causing the character to deteriorate rather than move in a positive direction. (Not sure what to call it - a normally well-adjusted character who experiences something that makes them sort of unravel?) I have two characters, between different stories, that I need to do this to.

I can't say that I've ever done this in any story I've shared before, and I'm a little nervous to try. Maybe April, but she was never well-adjusted from the start, so that's a little different. And I've done some of this with Stephanie, but I get the feeling people don't like that storyline, lol! (doing it wrong?) I've had healthy characters sort of "back-track" a little before, or take some wrong turns, wallow in self-pity, or get a little depressed, but I'm not sure I've ever written a character who went from fine and healthy and strong to just completely lost. (Hayden maybe, but that was back when I was doing more gameplay-style, so I didn't have to really own it, if you know what I mean.)

So basically, how do you take a character that your readers love and respect, and cause them to fall apart to the core in a realistic way? (You know, before they find enlightenment, of course - I don't make a habit of destroying perfectly good characters and leaving them that way, lol!)

[dinuriel]

I've done that before. I can't think of an example right off the top of my head within any of my Sims stuff, but one of my offline projects (which I have now scrapped but am thinking of restarting) was pretty much the main character's "mid-life crisis" (in quotes because he was like, twenty). His whole world was a web of illusions and when it unraveled, so did he.

Although, I did always plan on getting this particular character back on his feet. I have a few other characters that may deteriorate in the near future, and not all of them will be so lucky.

[Sarahjane]

I've never written a character who unraveled, but it would an interesting challenge. I might work that into next rounds' ROS. (I've already rolled them, and they're very traumatic. I was dreading having to write some of them, but now I think I might let some of my sims unravel a bit and see what happens.)

And Laura, I'd like to say that I really like Stephanie's story! It seems very realistic. She's a new mother, and her husband just went off to war - I'd find it weird if she didn't unravel a bit.

[laura]

Van, ah, the quarter-life crisis! I suppose you might say one of my characters is about to be smacked with one of those, for sure!

Beth, you're right about the believing it part - and I do, to the extent that I think it would be sort of unrealistic for a character in either of these situations *not* to fall apart. I guess the question is how far? (I know, my own question to answer.)

Illandrya, lol! Well there's a way to add even more pressure to it! Yes, that's just the thing - I've spent so long building these characters in a certain light, so it'll be hard to demonstrate the change. I guess the key is maybe that the unraveled state doesn't necessarily negate the established character - it's like a subset of it, or something. It's a shade of their healthy self. Their true self still lies beneath though. <-- that's what I'll tell myself

Sarah, thank you! I'm quite sympathetic to Stephanie myself, lol! Poor girl! Yes, you should try it! We can consider it a writing exercise, lol!

Thank you guys!

[Stacy]

I shared that question with John, and he laughed. He said I didn't start from healthy characters though, that I take characters who start out sort of messed up and drive them into complete insanity. And then kill them.

So, yeah.

Err - I don't have anything helpful to add, except that I would definitely like to read such a story. I don't like good healthy strong characters who learn and grow and have happy endings. I much prefer destruction and chaos and death, lol.

[laura]

Stacy, lol! I have to say, hardly any of my character get by without at least some amount of torture or distress. I almost went and said "but at least they don't die" but, lol!... they kind of do sometimes!

I know, we're not the shiny-happy story types

Though my characters do usually get about a 60% happy ending. I make them earn it though!

There's a good point though, about starting from messed up characters - I have to wonder if any character is truly healthy and good and normal? The more I look at mine, most of them (especially these two in particular) have some kind of underlying trauma or distress. Nobody's really truly healthy, are they? And if they seem it on the outside, they're probably faking it.

[mdpthatsme]

Jan 15, 2011 21:03:19 GMT -5 @laura said:

Anyone ever have to write negative character development before? Meaning the development is causing the character to deteriorate rather than move in a positive direction. (Not sure what to call it - a normally well-adjusted character who experiences something that makes them sort of unravel?)

OOOH! OOOH! Pick me!!!

I've made tons of characters start positively awesome-ness and become scum or worse. I won't give out names *coughMarvelousMac*cough, but there's quite a few.