The Secret to Intruiging Characters

Think of your favourite book. Got it? Good. Now, answer the questions below.

• What was the plot like?
• What were the characters like?
• Which of these made it your favourite book?

So. Do you have you answers? I bet you didn't do them, did you? Well,  do them.

Okay, so now that you have your answers, we're ready to move on from there.

Good authors know that that last question up there, it's a trick question. Why? Because a story can't solely rely on only one of the two in order to become a success. No, you need both of them working together. So how do you come about that? Well, you need to have solid, three-dimensional characters. Not simple cardboard ones which have been cut from the back of a cereal box. And so, how do you come about developing in depth characters?

Well, that's what this articles is about. If you look up at the title, it says, The Secret to Intriguing Characters. That means, today you're going to discover the secret to bumping up your characters to be even more real than they were before.

But before we continue, I just want to make one point clear. The reason we're talking about intriguing characters today, and not plot,  is because your readers are introduced to your characters first. The plot unfolds along with the rest of the story, but what's the point to keep on reading if the victims (AKA, the main character), is someone we don't want to read about?

Okay, so now that I have made my point up there, I think it's time to move on.

Character Profiles

This little blurb was taken from an interview with KP author, Chelsea.

"First of all, I find a good character profile that you get to fill in the blank and there I fill in all of empty fields with information. But it doesn't stop there. I put them into action into the story to display their emotions, opinions, thoughts, and of speech because it's one thing to write down what a character is like but another entirely to put them in action.
"I do so sometimes base them off of myself, not out of selfishness, mostly to see how I would react in those type of situation I put my characters through. And I've also made some promises to put people into some of my stories as minor characters."

If you notice, one of the first things she said was that she fills out a good character profile. Now, I don't know about you, but I find filling out character profiles very difficult for me. So, I just like to put my characters in a really tough situation and see how they would react. However, recently, while going over random links in my "Favorites" on my browser, I found a really awesome character profile sheet thing. Here's the link:

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/crissychar/crissychar.html

The Voice Journal (James Scott Bell)

This is something I found out about while reading The Art of War for Writers which is written by James Scott Bell. The Voice Journal is basically where you write as if you were the character. For example:

My name Black Moon. I don't suppose it's a pretty decent name for a thirteen year old like me, but then again, my parents are freaks. People always told me-every single time I saw them-that my parents were psychos. But I never believed them. How could I? They were my parents after all. But one day, that single thing happened that changed my life forever...

When I first started writing this, I had no idea his/her name would be Black Moon. Even after I wrote that down, my mind was trying to come up with possible reasons for such a queer name. Well, I just kept writing, not really thinking, and eventually, Black Moon kind of unfolded his story for me. Well, just the beginning. I would write more, but am too lazy too and we need to move on. Oh yeah, and because that's a Voice Journal, it's simply a rough draft I came up with off the top of my head, so if it sucks, don't eat me.

Speech Patterns

What would you do if one day you woke up, and everyone was wearing the exact same thing, talking the exact same way, walking the exact same way, and thinking the exact same way? It'd be pretty boring, huh? Well, characters are like that. Can you tell the difference between these three characters? Try and guess who is saying what.

James-an ace student. Has many friends, has a scholarship to Harvard.

Mary-A total girly-girl. Is insecure. Belongs in a clique of exclusive airheads.

Luke-A slacker. Is into drugs. Has a shaky relationship with his parents.

Now, try to match up the following dialogue with the correct person.

Dialogue #1: "What's your problem?" I demanded, slamming Jake against his locker.

Dialogue #2: I seriously could not believe she would say such a thing! I'm messed up? Please! Who does that b**** think she's talking to anyways?

Dialogue #3: My hand were shaking as I held the envelope. I wondered whether I should open it or not. Maybe I should just burn the cursed thing instead. But then I'd never know what their answer was.

Answer key-Dialogue #1 belongs to Luke. The second belongs to Mary. And the third belongs to James.

You see, every character should have their own unique voice. It should be flooding with personality. Now, I admit that I'm not the best dialogue writer in the world (look at Mary's example!), but I'm not good at writing as if I were some girly girl because I'm not, and probably never will be, so there you have it.

Here's a link on the WB to help you get your character's voice patterns in your head.

http://www.kidpub.com/forum3/showthread.php?t=711

Also, you can try doing this exercise at a bookstore as well! Turn to any random page of a book you've never read before while at your local bookstore, then try and guess what the personality of the character is like. Then, read the first page of the first chapter, and often times, you'll find out whether you're right or not.

BIPOLAR, YO!

Yeah, this technique will probably get a lot of people to think of you as bipolar, but it's VERY effective! Go a whole day acting like your character. That's right. From the time you wake up to the time you set your alarm for the next day. However, if you're character's a snob, uhh...well, if people start thinking of you as obnoxious, I am not responsible for any damage which may occur to your face, so...

Well, I think I should wrap this up now. Try all four of the techniques mentioned, and soon, you will have intriguing-3-D-non-cardboard characters in your story which will make readers continue to turn the pages of your novel!


Appendix
I don't really know how to do an appendix, so I'm just going to say that I got some of this information from The Art of War for Writers and Plot and Structure, both by James Scott Bell.

-C.T. Connor