I've spent the last three or so weeks finishing up my planning for "The Crystal Tree", and while I've been planning, I've also been thinking about what strikes me about some of the books that I've read recently and have really, really liked.
The book that struck me the most was The Help by Katherine Stockett. I read the whole book within a few days, and by the time I'd read the last page there was just one thing going through my mind. 'I wish I could write characters like hers. I wish I could write such deep, individual characters.'
I have found that the characters I like best are the ones that have depth. I like the ones that you can feel have a story away from the pages, a life that has been lived outside of the confines of the story. I like deep, well thought out characters who feel like they have a past.
And thinking about this made me think harder about all my characters, not just the main characters. I wanted to know, what were their stories? What had happened to them to make them the way they are now? Why does the noble girl bully the other students? What made the villain choose his course? What were they like as children?
Thinking about these kinds of questions has really helped me build a better picture of my characters. Before, my villain was just a bad guy who wanted revenge. Thinking about his past showed me that he never felt that he was good enough, and that he made bad choices to try and prove that he was good enough. He was a deeper character, and, I think, a better one for it.
Despite the time it took to work out the histories of my characters, I hope that my book will be all the better for it. Because if I love to read about deep characters then I should definitely write them. Because I'm sure that there are other people who like well thought out characters too.
Absolutely it will be better for it. The more we (writers) know about our characters--even the stuff that doesn't make it into the stories--the less we have to think about how they will react, speak, etc. when we're writing them. The more instinctive the writing becomes, the more authentic/real the characters become.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation and discovery, Imogen. Now go write them all. :-)
I'm working on writing them right now. And I love the way you put that. "The more instinctive the writing becomes, the more authentic/real the characters become." It's so true!
DeleteAwesome! Deep characters make for a deep world, and that makes for an epic! Your story sounds great. The title alone would make people pick it up.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of it in quite that light before, deep characters making a deep world. But it's quite true I think. The more I know about the characters, the more I know about the world in general.
DeleteThanks for the compliment on my story. I hope I can write a novel worth the effort of picking the book up.
I create backgrounds for my main characters but need to do that more with the minor characters. It does come through in a story.
ReplyDeleteI've done similar things to this for my major characters before, but I never thought about doing it for the minor characters. And I'm glad I did. it's so much easier to fill out the rest of the story and make it work now. I really do believe it comes through in the story, all the effort.
DeleteI've found that the hardest part of writing for me has been my charcters. Characters in general aren't the easiest thing in the world. But when you find a character that works. On that you can dive into and fall in love with... your story can only benefit.
ReplyDeleteCharacters can sometimes be so hard to work out, can't they? I often have trouble getting into their heads and working out exactly who they are if I just start writing them without working out who they are first. Learning about them make everything so much easier, especially the falling in love with them.
DeleteEvery character lived a story before the story you're writing. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSo true. And finding out that story that happened before the book seems to actually help with the story too. It's the finding out of how the characters came to be as they are that makes it easier to work out what the characters will become.
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