Fiction Laboratory: The Creation of a Person Through Writing

By: Ana Costa

There are many ways to develop a character. Some more effective than others.

Although each technique is different, the most effective ways do no start by listing the character’s personality. When you start developing a character by simply listing off their personality traits, the created character becomes too shallow. Most of the time, not even ourselves can list off our own personality traits (when we do, they are either really negative or really positive traits).

THE PAST THAT MAKES THE FUTURE

What we want to develop is not just a character but a person. Everyone is defined by their past so a good place to start is the backstory.

First, in a simple phrase, give the character their role.

Then, based on their role, develop their backstory by asking questions. Imagine that your character is in an interview and just ask questions about its life mercilessly.

To know more about the character’s motive, ask why questions. To know about a process that the character went through, ask how questions.

Continue asking questions until you have a stable backstory. The backstory might change throughout the process of writing your story and that is okay.

THE BELIEFS AND INTERACTIONS THAT DEFINE THE CHARACTER

Now that we have a backstory, we need to know how the character interacts with other people with different backgrounds and traits.

Based on the backstory, find what type of people the character respects or hates. List specific traits that they dislike about others and specific traits that they like about others.

Another way to find out how your character interacts with the world is to write about them in different situations. You can even use writing prompts for that.

By writing about them, you will start developing your character’s voice.

Think about all the situations and interactions you wrote your character going through. How did it act? How did it speak? Write a list as a reminder about all your character’s mannerism and body language.

Continue this until you have a strong idea about how the character interacts and views the world.

GOING SIMPLE

Now, if you want, you can write about simple trivial things such as favorite food and favorite animal. For this part, it is also important to keep in mind the character’s backstory.

Tip: Sometimes, for the character’s personality, writers base it off of real people around them. This might help beginners but it is also important to ask for the person’s permission beforehand.