Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Character Creation

In this ultr-political season my cynicism is at an explosive level, so I have opted not to subject you to my thoughts on liars and the morally reprehensible running for office...

I have been plugging away at book two in the Drums of Rallinwar series.  The process is slow going, not because of the story, but because of the characters that must be created.  You see, I have an issue with just slapping a name and description into the text and moving on; every character in my books has a story.

Leandros Coth plays a larger role in Book Two and when it came to writing his first scene I had two new characters to introduce.  The first character is his right hand man, Enicks.  The second is his lover/girlfriend/housekeeper.  Before I could introduce these characters I had to write up a sketch for each of them.  All of my character sketches are of the same format and provide specific information for them.  As you have most likely guessed, the information includes: name, height, age, build (or weight), but there is other important information that helps me flesh out these characters.

I include their family, not always names, but what family members they have; mother, father, wife, children, etc.  This helps in how they interact with other characters.  Think about it.  If you have children, you look at friends that don't just a little differently.  If you are unmarried, your married friends treat you a little differently.  What family you have, and who they are (or were), has an impact on your personality.  Like it or not.

I include a brief history of the character, which often leads to a short story to write when time permits.  This also provides a little insight to the character's personality.  In the case of Tandy Aramel (a new character in book two), her family was murdered by soldiers.  It is only natural that she mistrusts military.

The last item on a character dossier, and possibly the most important, is there desires.  What does this character want?  What a character wants often drives their decisions.  In the case of Enicks, he wants nothing more than to please his boss, Leandros.  Why?  Because Leandros is a rich business man with no known heirs.  In Enicks mind, if he serves Leandros to perfection he just might get a cut of his wealth with the man kicks over.

As I mentioned before, a lot of times these sketches lead to a story outside of the book.  I have written several shorts that involved many of my characters.  It's a nice distraction, and it also helps me to understand who these characters are.

Of course, it is my hope that this creation process makes the characters real for you, the reader.

Shameless plug:
If you haven't picked it up yet, Blood of Two by C. Hollis Gunter is available in electronic format at most e-book retailers.  A paperback copy can also be found at Amazon.
The ebook is cheap, only $2.99.  Pick it up, read it, and let me know what you think.

No comments:

Post a Comment