 Noticing Newbies: May 23, 2018 Issue [#8920] |
  Noticing Newbies
This week: Character development. Edited by: ~ Santa Sisco ~  
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Hello, everyone. I am ~ Santa Sisco ~ . I'm one of the three permanent editors of the Noticing Newbies newsletter.
I aim to ensure you have a smooth transition into the site. I still remember my first day here. "Bitem?" Do I have to be a computer programmer to put my writing on here?  Forty-eight hours later, I realized it was a case of easy when you know how!. My biggest mistake when I joined was that I didn't take the time to read the "Writing.Com 101" . I was excited and wanted to do everything the same day. Sound familiar? 
You will see my contributions every four weeks, and I hope they help you with using this great site.
My fellow permanent editors are Tornado Dodger  and Sara♥Jean .
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Once I have a basic character profile with name, age, family background, education, and any other simple information, it is time to add to the medium and main character profiles.
Visualize your character.
I know all of my characters as well as I know people in real life as I try to make each one with the attributes I’ve encountered in real people. The first thing I do is get a mental picture of the character, then find a photo online that is similar to my mental image. A specific example is a cameraman, Allan, in my novel who is Forrest Whitaker in my character profile. I chose Forrest because he is 6’2” (1.88m), black, and could pass as a former weightlifting champion. Now I can visualize my cameraman whenever he is in a scene.
Give them a flaw/illness.
Everyone has at least one flaw/illness; my characters are no exception. Allan suffers from asthma, and his Ventolin inhaler can be used to treat people with smoke-inhalation if oxygen isn’t available. I also limit any mental/physical health problems to one per character and only mention them if they can add to the plot or provide a solution to a problem, as with the inhaler. I wouldn’t send someone with hay-fever into a wild garden to search for clues/evidence. However, it could add to the suspense if an agent was chasing someone through a field full of flowers and the agent gave away his location because of his uncontrollable sneezing. You can give a character an instant illness to alter their actions/reactions. A common cold, toothache, flu, and earache are some of the things you can throw at a character to change their performance.
Add a phobia.
I like to use phobias too, as they can be abundant with readers. I keep it real and use phobias such as a fear of; flying, heights, spiders, small spaces, thunder and lightning, and many more. I assign every character a phobia, but I only reveal their aversion if the character is confronted with a situation where it would affect them. (Just like in real life.)
Add some mannerisms.
I covered these in "Noticing Newbies Newsletter (February 1, 2017)"
Why they do what they do.
Protagonists and antagonists are the main characters, and I add in-depth descriptions of why they are who they are. I try to write a paragraph for each of the relevant information about what happened to make them what they are now, and what I want them to be by the end of the story. I also add one thing they do that is not consistent with their traits. Such as the antagonist donating money to a charity collector, or the protagonist walking past a charity collector and not giving.
Make additions.
Remember, the character profiles are for you to know and understand your characters. They also help with continuity as you can refer to them to check simple details like eye color. If I add a feature to a character in my novel, and it isn’t in the character profile, I will add it so I can avoid different (conflicting) descriptions in the novel.
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This week I have chosen a selection from read a newbie.
Community > Read a Newbie
Selections:
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It's a short, morbid story/poem about my life and relationship.
#2158552 by NullTurn  |
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From "Noticing Newbies Newsletter (April 25, 2018)"
D Carlson commented:
I liked this article, but I do wonder why you have three different templates. As a gamer, I create a character sheet for my main characters. I use one from Call of Cthulhu because that game creates believable people with jobs, hobbies, phobias, etc. I read your people watching article, and I agree that it is important to observe mannerisms. I hate reading good plots with cardboard characters.
Thank you for your comments. I use the same template with different degrees of information depending on what role the character is playing. I do this because sometimes a character can become bigger than I intended and I just have to add any further relevant information to their profile. People watching for mannerisms was indeed covered in "Noticing Newbies Newsletter (February 1, 2017)"  Thank you.
dogpack saving 4premium  commented:
Character this the challenge sometimes when we have several. Trying to keep them straight even with notes and forms for me is like running a circus. I've been using Scrapple to keep things better organized which works well for me. It allows notes and scraps of information to be moved around and rearranged as often as necessary while organizing parts of a story/novel. Storyist is also helpful in writing a story and I've also had success using Scrivener. Much thanks for the information about characters.
Safe travels and many blessings.
Thank you for your comments. Yes, it can get a little hectic trying to keep all the information in an organized state. The benefits are so great that it is worth every minute spent keeping your character profiles updated. After several written additions to a profile, I will update the electronic profile and print it again to put on my story wall. I have Scrivener but haven't used it much as I use Ywriter. I will have to look around to see if I am missing out on any character profile updates. Thanks again
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