Well-rounded characters require serious thought, and authors have far more colour on their characters than the reader will ever explicitly see on the page. We all have our systems. I’ve compiled a lengthy questionnaire which I use for each of my main characters, in order to understand how they think and behave.
Plots can’t happen to the characters; it’s the characters who must drive the plot, usually by way of their flaws. This means that the more I understand my characters, the more creative and outlandish plot lines I can conjure up! You’ll see an example of this below with Rosa from The Winter’s Fail. The plot of the story becomes the vehicle through which a character can confront and beat his or her flaws.
Here are some of the questions and brainstorming prompts I use. I’ve cobbled them together from several wise authors and included my answers from The Winter’s Fail.
From Will Storr—The Science of Storytelling: the flawed theory of control. I find his prompts invaluable. Here are some examples for Emmy.
How has she learnt to control her world?
Let it wash over her—don’t get too settled
What’s her automatic go-to tactic for wrestling with chaos, when the unexpected happens?
RUN!!!
She’s only safe when she …
Doesn’t take life too seriously, doesn’t put down roots, doesn’t get stale
The big thing she understands about the world that nobody else seems to get is …
We are all connected as human beings. There is no us and them.
What will she risk losing, materially, socially or otherwise, if she acts against her flaw?
Her sense of perspective and compassion—she could end up valuing money and her social conscience and choosing entitlement
Her freedom
From KM Weiland—Outlining Your Novel: again, I’m using my answers for Emmy here
Who depends on her and why?
No one really, because she ran off to India to do aid work—those people needed her more than her family and now she’s abandoned them
She was always told by her mother and sister that she had a tendency to mess things up and that she was unreliable, which is why she didn’t feel bad turning her back on them. She’s actually a lot more reliable and competent than they give her credit for.
What if anything would she like to change about her life?
To have some financial security and to want to put down some roots, not to feel so torn all the time
What personal demons haunt her?
The sex workers she walked away from in India
Is she lying to herself about something?
Possibly about how easy it will be to bring up a baby by herself
Or she’s lying to herself that she can always keep running; that she never has to do the hard work and put down roots
Why will the reader sympathise with her right away?
Because she’s given up the last few years of her life to help people and she’s now in a pickle and she’s really screwed up—she’s got nothing to fall back on.
What are the 10 worst things that could happen to her?
I won’t put spoilers in here, but this is a brilliant way to generate plot ideas. It’s also a very fun process to dream up ways to torture your poor characters! It’s a development of my favourite writing prompt, what if? When I did this for Rosa, it yielded me the idea that comprises the defining moment in her character arc: the destruction of her career and personal brand by someone close to her.
From Debra Dixon—GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict
There’s a lot more to this book, but essentially it boils down to ensuring your story has these three elements for maximum tension and satisfaction:
Goal – what does your character want?
Motivation – why does she want this so badly?
Conflict – what stands in the way of her achieving her goal?
And there you have it–a sneak peek at my characterisation process. I usually spend a month or so percolating these questions before I write my final plot outline.