I don’t know, I guess I’m not done with character-creation mode yet, or something.
I go through phases when it comes to determining what I need to know about characters prior to their appearance in my stories. Right now, I start with their name, age and whatever role they play in the setting to which they belong. Then I move onto their appearance—I know that people are worth more than their looks, but I kind of need to know who I’m looking at in my mind’s eye when I’m making up their past, present and future. Forgive me if that’s shallow, but it’s true. Sometimes I will get as specific as height and weight, other times they get vague poetic descriptions of stature and body type. Hair color and eye color are important to me, most of the time. And lately, I’ve been aiming in one of two directions, either diversifying my character base with a variety of ethnicities and countries of origin (if it is important to the story and/or I feel I can do so without appropriating or misrepresenting), or being intentionally vague (in the hopes that readers of different backgrounds can insert their own preferred appearances onto the characters, allowing them to relate in ways overspecificity would not allow).
After I know who a person is and what they look like, more or less, I spend some time describing their personality. This can be a paragraph covering what the person is like, or it can literally be a list of likes and dislikes (“likes strawberries, english literature and electronic music, dislikes string beans, physics and country music”). Or it can be both.
Finally, I will give a bit of background. Who was this person originally, before the onset of the story? Where did they grow up, and with what kind of family? What happened to set them on a path towards becoming the person they are today? What are their relationships with other characters? How did they meet?
Lately, I’ve been starting with appearance, then personality, then background… only to find myself consistently going back and making changes to their personality based on what ends up being a part of their background. I guess the kind of person someone is comes from the life they have lived. Go figure.
That all being said, I think I am done with characters for a little while. I’ve got a few sets of folks itching to have their stories told, and I’m itching to do the telling. Maybe tomorrow I’ll actually start on some of that narrative prose I’m always talking about writing. 😊
Written while listening to Opeth’s Watershed (2008).
The Artist and the Engineer 