Character Building
Jan. 22nd, 2013 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliHow to make your characters real. . . .
What do they want. What do they really want. . . and what sort of backstory they have
And how they can come to life, and run off with the story.
One audience member had a problem that he kept inventing backstories to enliven his bit characters, and they kept growing until it seems that he needed a novel for all of them -- except that a new novel would have new bit characters. One-dimensionality is not always your enemy. I brought up my Greek pantheon technique: pick a major Greek god, and assign a trait, such as he's like Ares and so bad-tempered, which does have the danger of bringing them to life. Panelists ran with the notion of using real-life people like that. (The secret to the Greek one is that you can assign the traits from different gods and so orchestrate them.)
What do they want. What do they really want. . . and what sort of backstory they have
And how they can come to life, and run off with the story.
One audience member had a problem that he kept inventing backstories to enliven his bit characters, and they kept growing until it seems that he needed a novel for all of them -- except that a new novel would have new bit characters. One-dimensionality is not always your enemy. I brought up my Greek pantheon technique: pick a major Greek god, and assign a trait, such as he's like Ares and so bad-tempered, which does have the danger of bringing them to life. Panelists ran with the notion of using real-life people like that. (The secret to the Greek one is that you can assign the traits from different gods and so orchestrate them.)