Finding the heart of a character

[rj_anderson]

I've seen a lot of discussion about how to generate and flesh out new characters for books, and I've dutifully worked my way through a variety of questionnaires designed to help me get to know my fledgling heroes and heroines better. Which seemed like a good idea in principle, but in practice turned out to not especially helpful, at least for me

Comments

[fandoria]

Making data sheets for my characters never really works for me either. I find myself just making up stuff that totally doesn't fit them just for the sake of having an answer. The way I develop my characters is I let them slowly form themselves in my head along with the rest of the story before I'm ready to write them. I learn bits and pieces about them over time, enough that I feel like I'm ready to start really getting to know them. And that I do by writing them. I just plunge them in the middle of something and see how they react.

[sartorias]

Yep, same here.

[pameladean]

Me too.

P.

[rj_anderson]

Making data sheets for my characters never really works for me either. I find myself just making up stuff that totally doesn't fit them just for the sake of having an answer.

Oh, yes. That's my problem too, exactly. And if I try to keep myself from making up stuff too hastily, I end up spending forever thinking about filling in the character sheet and feeling guilty about not doing a proper job of it, instead of actually writing the character and getting to know them naturally in the process.

[olmue]

Ditto for me! I might use something like this chart once I'm revising to make sure I can clarify those things about a character--but no way before then. Not to develop the character. Totally kills it all, and it feels so fake. I've gotta write it, throw the character into different situations, and see how they react.