Character
Next step in creating your
masterpiece is to establish your dynamic characters. To make sure the main creature appearing in
your writing/script is interesting to your audience, you must emphasizing
distinctive traits.
I suggest you do the following
exercises. It is time consuming, but so worth the effort because of two main
reasons:
- 1. Really knowing your character, you will never get lost or have to decide what would they do, they will literally drive your plot.
- 2. You can defend them later in the editing processes, because no one knows them like you do.
That is not to say everything in
this list will be in your manuscript, it will just be a driving force that you,
the author, understands and knows to the depth your soul.
Here is an
example of an outline once a character analysis is done.
Brett (father/step
father/foster father)
Married to Kathy
and the world’s greatest entrepreneur.
He has been married before and has a son named Yoda that he has custody
of because his ex-wife is a movie star. He
is the youngest child of distant parents. He is over 40, but handsome and full
of mischief. He has 3 businesses at this point and has had up to 10. He is young looking and full of life. He prides himself that he finds his clothes
on the side of the road, in dumpsters, thrift stores or acquires them from the
teen boys that leave them at his house. The
depth of his thriftiness is sometimes his downfall. His businesses right now
are a wholesale bakery, a doggie poop business and a restaurant. He claims to hate them all and is always
looking to sell them and buy something new.
He also claims to want to sell it all and live on a sailboat doing
nothing, but no one believes it. He
loves kids and would like even more foster kids. He loves dogs. He likes to ride motorcycles and jet skis.
His greatest desire is to be rich and have a “handle it”. (A white slave who does everything for him.)
His greatest fear is not to consider himself successful and other people to see
him as boring. He displays outrageous
and socially unacceptable behavior often.
Can you see
this guy?
Let’s
get started:
This exercise typically takes
around 4-5 hours per personality and it is wrought with pure inspiration. You must
prepare. Make sure you are able to be uninterrupted during the time completing
this, because you are literally birthing a human being. It must be a complete one or you will lose
your readers attention. This exercise is unadulterated inventiveness. You must
create your characters using the first thought that pops into your head and not
based on anything you “want” to happen in the story. Your plot will be stronger
if the personalities are birthed of their own free will.
In turns of space, I am going to
break this down into many lessons, so pick a character and lets do six to seven
lessons building them. Get a blank page and write the characters name at the
top. Your answers can be short or rambling, this is a workspace, so just write.
Remember, this is a marathon, not a
sprint.
Ready?
Character Traits- Lesson 1
1.
Gender
You
may think there is only two, but you are mistaken. In Thailand they generally
believe there are three genders, male, female and homosexuals. They also
believe that the one with both sexes are more special and are revered as the
Gods chose to give them both attributes. There are woman who act more like men,
there are men who behave more like lady-boys. There are asexual humans that
show neither gender.
Background
1. Parents
Tell
about their parents. Where do they come from, what kind of family situation
were they raised? How do they feel about being parents? Are they loving,
strict, enabling, educated, dumb, self-centered, racist, kind, saviors, mean,
honest? Do they like their child? What are their dreams for this child?
2. Family
structure
Are
they first, last or middle child? The family placement is one of the strongest
personality builders.
· First children tend to be over achievers and pleasers.
They are driven by perfection, reliable, well organized, natural leaders,
serious, critical, do not like surprises and usually bossy.
· Middle children tend to mediators, compromising,
diplomatic, avoid conflict, independent, loyal to peers, maverick, secretive
and have many friends.
· Youngest children tend to be manipulative, charming,
blames others, attention seeker, tenacious, people person, natural salesperson,
precocious, engaging, affection and loves surprises.
While
this is not an exact science and years between siblings and more than three
will give you nuances, it is a generally good trait catalog.
3. Brothers and
sisters
Talk
about their siblings or are they an only child? How many years passed between
each child? Was a sibling lost to death young? Was there an adoption or foster
child added to the mix. Are there big physical differences?
Good Job! More tomorrow- now go have a little fun.
(The entire Character lesson plan
will be available after for one complete download and I do teach this 4-hour
class live in person).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment if you find this inviiting your fingers to tap the keyboard (or screen if you are an IPhone homo like me).