How I Keep my Characters Organized
The secret to keeping your characters the same throughout your book
Do you ever have a hard time remembering what characteristics you have already given to a character? Maybe you can't remember what aspects of the person you have already described. Outlining is a pain, but when it comes to your characters it is SUPER important. I actually think it can be kind of fun.
1. Model them off of real people.
I never realized how helpful it is to base characters off of real people until I intentionally did it. I'm not saying that every character in your book must describe a person from your life, but you should describe them as if they did.
Whenever you go to write a description of a character, perhaps about their hair, you wouldn't make a blanket statement like: Her brown, wavy hair was the first thing that caught my attention. For one, it is just generic and boring to read. Second, if someone asked you to describe what your friends hair looks like, I bet you could go into a lot more detail. Why? Because you know exactly what it looks like. In order for you to describe your characters, you must also know exactly what their hair looks like.
I like to think of a basic picture in my head and then match it as best I can to a person that I have seen before. This helps to really bring the image to life, and allows it to flow into your story. For example I based a character in my book off of my sister. I described her hair like so, "Half of her tight, light brown curls were pulled back into a bow, but despite her efforts to keep the wild mess out of her face, a few pieces still lingered." It is so much easier to visualize this than what I wrote in the paragraph before. This allows you to not only see the character, but to also infer a bit about their personality.
So, your characters should become a number of different people as you write. Their hair might match your best friend's, and their style might match your brother's, but the picture is real, because the character is real. The minute you start seeing them in that way, the minute the readers will too.
2. Write a short list of Minor & Major characters
Before you begin writing, establish a short list of a few characters. Of course you won't know from the beginning every character that will be in your story, but you should at least have a few. When you first take steps into life, you don't come in alone, so neither should your main character. Keep in mind you don't necessarily have to use every character you write down, it just helps you develop who your other characters are.
Once you know who your main characters surrounds themselves with, you already know a million more things about them. Personalities bleed. What I mean by that is, if you write that your main character loves the outdoors, then most likely her friends do too. Maybe some like hiking, and others just enjoy reading a book outside. Or perhaps it works in the other direction and they are opposites. No matter what the case characters are going to share similar characteristics. It is important that you keep that in mind when planning.
Here is an example from my own story:
Main: Marlo Mayes
Major: Principal Naloa
Major: Emmet Denholm
Major: Sage Goodman
Major: Jamie Mitchell
Minor: Courtney Church
Minor: Piper Netley
Once you have established a short list like the one above, go a little bit further. Write how they are each connected next to each name. Give short personality descriptions, but save the gory details for a different section of your outline.
3. Fill in the blanks
A lot of people like to go ahead and write out every detail of their character before they even begin the story, DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! Personalities and or their physicality come about as you write. It takes time to discover a person you meet in the real world, and the same goes for your characters. They deserve to be discovered along the way, piece by piece. As you read a novel, you learn bits and pieces about the character and this is what allows us to build intimate relationships. Writing is the same, you write and you discovery, but the intimacy takes on a whole different level because these are people that you created, and you were first to discover them.
What I mean by fill in the blanks, is go ahead and jot down some of the basic things that your character should posses. Like hair color, weight, nervous habits, things like that, but don't fill them in just yet. Fill them in as you discover them. This not only allows you to spread the details throughout the book, but it allows you to see what pieces you are still missing. Let me show you an example of a basic outline that I like to use for my characters.
4. Take notes
We already talked about how it is important to model characters off of real people, so pay attention. Look around you and notice the weird, silly things people do and write it down. This is something that I struggle with myself. It is often hard to just carry around something to write with all the time, or to write something in the middle of a conversation, but it helps. You don't have to carry around a full on notebook, just a pad of sticky notes would suffice. Paragraphs aren't necessary either. Just a short description: habit: spins ring on finger or if you need shorter just simply spins ring
Taking real life encounters helps readers to connect with your characters without even really knowing it. My favorite characters are characters that resemble real people. I hate reading about a person who has every move already articulated. I want to discover who they are and feel what they feel. If they spin their ring when they get nervous I can feel the nerves, not hear about them. That is something so many people overlook, but yet it is such a powerful writing tool.
I hope these tips were helpful. If you have any of your own tips for outlining characters, comment below. Also if you have any questions feel free to ask!
1. Model them off of real people.
I never realized how helpful it is to base characters off of real people until I intentionally did it. I'm not saying that every character in your book must describe a person from your life, but you should describe them as if they did.
Whenever you go to write a description of a character, perhaps about their hair, you wouldn't make a blanket statement like: Her brown, wavy hair was the first thing that caught my attention. For one, it is just generic and boring to read. Second, if someone asked you to describe what your friends hair looks like, I bet you could go into a lot more detail. Why? Because you know exactly what it looks like. In order for you to describe your characters, you must also know exactly what their hair looks like.
I like to think of a basic picture in my head and then match it as best I can to a person that I have seen before. This helps to really bring the image to life, and allows it to flow into your story. For example I based a character in my book off of my sister. I described her hair like so, "Half of her tight, light brown curls were pulled back into a bow, but despite her efforts to keep the wild mess out of her face, a few pieces still lingered." It is so much easier to visualize this than what I wrote in the paragraph before. This allows you to not only see the character, but to also infer a bit about their personality.
So, your characters should become a number of different people as you write. Their hair might match your best friend's, and their style might match your brother's, but the picture is real, because the character is real. The minute you start seeing them in that way, the minute the readers will too.
2. Write a short list of Minor & Major characters
Before you begin writing, establish a short list of a few characters. Of course you won't know from the beginning every character that will be in your story, but you should at least have a few. When you first take steps into life, you don't come in alone, so neither should your main character. Keep in mind you don't necessarily have to use every character you write down, it just helps you develop who your other characters are.
Once you know who your main characters surrounds themselves with, you already know a million more things about them. Personalities bleed. What I mean by that is, if you write that your main character loves the outdoors, then most likely her friends do too. Maybe some like hiking, and others just enjoy reading a book outside. Or perhaps it works in the other direction and they are opposites. No matter what the case characters are going to share similar characteristics. It is important that you keep that in mind when planning.
Here is an example from my own story:
Main: Marlo Mayes
Major: Principal Naloa
Major: Emmet Denholm
Major: Sage Goodman
Major: Jamie Mitchell
Minor: Courtney Church
Minor: Piper Netley
Once you have established a short list like the one above, go a little bit further. Write how they are each connected next to each name. Give short personality descriptions, but save the gory details for a different section of your outline.
3. Fill in the blanks
A lot of people like to go ahead and write out every detail of their character before they even begin the story, DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! Personalities and or their physicality come about as you write. It takes time to discover a person you meet in the real world, and the same goes for your characters. They deserve to be discovered along the way, piece by piece. As you read a novel, you learn bits and pieces about the character and this is what allows us to build intimate relationships. Writing is the same, you write and you discovery, but the intimacy takes on a whole different level because these are people that you created, and you were first to discover them.
What I mean by fill in the blanks, is go ahead and jot down some of the basic things that your character should posses. Like hair color, weight, nervous habits, things like that, but don't fill them in just yet. Fill them in as you discover them. This not only allows you to spread the details throughout the book, but it allows you to see what pieces you are still missing. Let me show you an example of a basic outline that I like to use for my characters.
Character Name
Physical Characteristics:
Weight:
Glasses:
Hair:
Eyes:
Style (as in clothing):
Piercings:
Tattoos:
Skin:
Personality:
*things that come up over time for example*
~ extremely quiet
~ mysterious
~ really funny
~ habits
Background:
*This is the section where you write about all the things that made that character who they are*
~ was adopted
~ friends were jerks
The good news about this outline is you can add whatever you want. You can add more than three categories, you can add more to the Physical characteristics, whatever you would like. The key is just that you are patient with it, and don't rush to judge your characters.
4. Take notes
We already talked about how it is important to model characters off of real people, so pay attention. Look around you and notice the weird, silly things people do and write it down. This is something that I struggle with myself. It is often hard to just carry around something to write with all the time, or to write something in the middle of a conversation, but it helps. You don't have to carry around a full on notebook, just a pad of sticky notes would suffice. Paragraphs aren't necessary either. Just a short description: habit: spins ring on finger or if you need shorter just simply spins ring
Taking real life encounters helps readers to connect with your characters without even really knowing it. My favorite characters are characters that resemble real people. I hate reading about a person who has every move already articulated. I want to discover who they are and feel what they feel. If they spin their ring when they get nervous I can feel the nerves, not hear about them. That is something so many people overlook, but yet it is such a powerful writing tool.
I hope these tips were helpful. If you have any of your own tips for outlining characters, comment below. Also if you have any questions feel free to ask!
Comments
Post a Comment