Character Development - Chicken or Egg Approach

[meg_evonne]

Every writer is different. Every manuscript is different. Things come at us at odd times and in weird ways.

Yes, I suspect we each have our preferred methods. That's what this is. I'm curious how everyone answers.

[Griffyn612]

I'm not published, so I'm probably a bad example to follow. I'm writing my first book, and I didn't even write out an outline before starting. I had a vague idea of some plot points I wanted to hit, and just started writing. almost everything I've written has evolved naturally as I've written. I later tried to write an outline for future plot points to include, but didn't keep up with it.

my characters have all formed out of necessity. I need someone to teach, harass, support, or tickle the main character, and then they appear. I had an idea for the bad guys, and they ended up being the goods guys. I developed another lead bad guy, and killed him in the first act, as my story changed.

my story might be crap, and I've got a ton of editing to do. since people changed as I developed them, I have to go back and change some of their dialog or descriptions. I have to add scenes that develop who they are, rather than having already has that in mind because they were last minute ideas.

I recommend starting with a short story or novella, to help you flesh out your process. it's going to take me almost as long to edit the second draft as it took me to write the first, and I'm not even done yet.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I would call myself 80% of the way towards having them fleshed out and solid before I start, but I do expect to learn new things about them with every chapter.

[superpsycho]

The level of character development needed before you start often depends on the plot and storyline. Usually at minimum, you have to have enough to justify the character's basic motivation. I know one author who includes things like birth order to create the personality they need for a characters motivation. I've done characters where their history is a big part of the story and what motivates them so I've had to create a lot of detail before even starting an outline. Other projects have required little to no background simply because it wasn't a motivating factor or pertinent to the story.

[LizW65]

I voted #1 as that's my principal M.O. but I do a lot of tweaking in rewrites, especially to the supporting cast.

[meg_evonne]

I'm not published, so I'm probably a bad example to follow. I'm writing my first book, and I didn't even write out an outline before starting.

Ha! What does that have to do with anything?    :-)

Remember the movie Drive? It's based on a book written by an author I heard at DNRS. His style scared the you know what out of me. Literally his current WiP at the time was an MC who finds bodies in a mine shaft. He had no idea where it was going. More crazy for me? He didn't really care. He figures if you aren't scared to death writing and not sure where the plot and characters are going, your reader will be just as terrified reading it.

Me and my little excel sheets, developed after years of work and study and weaned from suchuncontrolled writing, couldn't even grasp the concept. Now, even farther along my craft learning curve, I can understand the tension that kind of relationship with your writing can offer. It terrifies me still, but I can see the day and if I have the write concept for it, that i'll try another seat of the pants writing experiment. TRUST your method, right?

I would call myself 80% of the way towards having them fleshed out and solid before I start, but I do expect to learn new things about them with every chapter.

And wow! i figured you for it all being planned out. This was cool to learn!

.... I know one author who includes things like birth order to create the personality they need for a characters motivation.

I remember at a conference where a mystery writer insisted that to be successful (and she was) that an author needed to use the Briggs Meyer Personality Test (or it was something similar) so the characters would be real and their interactions would be real. Thankfully, I must get that kinda organically, but since she said it, I am more conscious that I'm consistent with my character's personalities.

I voted #1 as that's my principal M.O. but I do a lot of tweaking in rewrites, especially to the supporting cast.

You're writing in a series right? I can imagine that the supporting cast does take on different characteristics by necessity. How about your MCs? Have they taken you on surprising paths that enriched the manuscript?

[LizW65]

I had to Google the Briggs-Meyer test but I promptly performed it on one of my protagonists. I have a feeling he'd laugh hysterically if he could see the career choices it picked for him (Nurse, caterer, elementary school teacher...really? He's a private detective.)
Both of my protagonists have taken some interesting turns, personality-wise, though they don't really surprise me so much as feel right. And a lot of what I've discovered about them is backstory that will never make its way onto paper, but helps to inform what they have become.

[superpsycho]

Some schools of thought suggest questionnaires.
Writingclasses Questionnaire
The one suggest at the above site, seemed to have a lot of pointless questions that wouldn't often come into play but I could see some writings generating a set of questions that would cover what they need for a specific story.

[OZ]

I like to know my main characters, both "heroes" and "villains" very well before the story begins. I will often even sketch out a history for them even if it never appears in the story. That's just their starting point though. The events of the story will change them just as major life events can change most people. I didn't check any of the boxes though because the one thing I usually struggle with is names. I will sometimes change the names several times before I find one that feels right.

[meg_evonne]

. . . . I didn't check any of the boxes though because the one thing I usually struggle with is names. I will sometimes change the names several times before I find one that feels right.

Me too Oz.

And what a riot Liz!

Also, I am pleased to announce, and Shecky will probably agree, that it's about time I figured out there is a difference between "..." and "...."  Who'd a thunk?

[Lumpy]

I'm one of those guys where everything flows from character.  Same plot and/or MacGuffin with different characters gives you completely different stories.  If it doesn't, your plot is pushing your characters, not the other way around. 

A runaway train is a plot.  Watching someone run away from a runaway train is a story.  (Or try to stop it, drive it, eat it, turn it into a poodle.)  So when I'm stuck writing a scene, or can't figure out how to move the plot forward, I tie someone's shoelaces together (figuratively).  Watching them figure it out while the train keeps coming usually provides what the story needs, or what they needed.

Not that plot's not important, clearly.  But people relate to other people, and that's characters.

That said, I know I'm ready to write when a) I know the final scene/reveal; and b) I've walked around with my characters long enough that I can hold conversations with them, out loud.  (My family's quite used to it, bless them.)  Literally acting out scenes in character while I walk around the house or whatever, and the characters say something that reveals something to me I hadn't considered that most always drives the plot forward in a way I hadn't imagined, that's better than what I'd planned.  That's when I know the coffee's ready.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I'm one of those guys where everything flows from character.  Same plot and/or MacGuffin with different characters gives you completely different stories.  If it doesn't, your plot is pushing your characters, not the other way around. 

That's entirely true, but plot pushing character is not inherently a problem.  Look at any number of Hitchcock films, for example, where the plot is basically "Unfortunate random guy falls into scheme of which he knows nothing, and has to run around staying one step ahead of danger while figuring out what is going on"; that's a character literally being pushed in ways he has no desire to go by the plot.

A runaway train is a plot.  Watching someone run away from a runaway train is a story.

I'd say, a story is a bunch of events happening in order. A plot is a bunch of events happening in order because one causes another that causes another.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I didn't check any of the boxes though because the one thing I usually struggle with is names. I will sometimes change the names several times before I find one that feels right.

Names are an opportunity; they allow you to imply things about background and social context.  The only place I really struggle with them is when I bump into test readers who read by word shape, and who come back saying things like "It's easy to read 'Dumitrov' as 'Dumbledore' so maybe this guy's first name could start with a letter other than A?" because that is entirely not natural to me (because 'Dumitrov' does not sound in the least like 'Dumbledore' at least to me).

[OZ]

Names are an opportunity; they allow you to imply things about background and social context.

I think this is one of the reasons that I struggle. I want the names to say something and sometimes I feel like they are not saying what I want them to.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I think this is one of the reasons that I struggle. I want the names to say something and sometimes I feel like they are not saying what I want them to.

What sort of setting are you writing in ?