Creating Character by Jane Kirkpatrick

Most of my novels are character driven, only in part because they’re often based on the lives of actual people. The word Character comes from the Greek and it means “to chisel.” That suggests that it’s what’s left after we’ve been gouged out that is our enduring character. That’s true of our fictional characters as well. They need to be “gouged” out but in ways that are believable and congruent for the reader.

The book Structuring The Novel by Meredith and Fitzgerald, has been a huge help to me. Those authors ask three questions that I answer before beginning a work: What is my intention? What is my attitude (what do I feel deeply about)? What is my purpose or how do I hope a reader will be changed by reading this work? I spend hours writing answers to those questions and try to get the answer to each down to one sentence that I then type and put up on my computer, to help me remember why I began this project when I start to feel lost in that muddle in the middle. Almost always the answers involve a character who is trying to do something, accomplish something, act on their environment, want to make a change.

After I do that work, I begin with a motivational exploration of my character. What is her/his desire? What do they want in this story? Why are they here to share their lives with readers? A character has to want something badly and hopefully something important. I write down as much as I can about what I think that character might want hoping to come up with one main desire.

Characteristics are secondary to me. Most of us remember Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind. We remember her little 18 inch waist (characteristic) or the way she said “Fiddle dee de” flipping her hair with her hand (characteristic). But the reason she and that story is memorable is not because of her unique descriptors, but because the most important desire in her life was to save Tara. Everything that happened to her after that was a barrier to her desire. Along the way she had other desires, to marry someone, to help birth a baby, but always the driving force was her desire to save the land. If only Rhett Butler had paid the taxes when she asked…well, the rest is history. And fiction.

So I highly recommend spending pre-writing time considering what your character wants. Maybe he doesn’t even know for certain what he wants and that’s fine. But as the author, you need to know what he wants. Angie Hunt says to think of the desires as having one internal and one external desire. I like that. It’s also useful to think of something tangible that the character can hold or reach that is a symbol of that desire that will be accomplished at the end of the book. That way the reader can cheer along with the character when they’ve achieved their goal. Awakening the Heroes within By Carolyn Pearson and A Writer’s Guide to Fiction by Elizabeth Lyons are both great sources to explore mythic desires of characters with lists included of well-known novels and what those character’s desired.

Then I have to imagine various barriers that will get in the way of that character’s desire and in the process “gouge out or chisel” their character. Asking questions such as what would the character lie about in order to achieve their desire? What do they most fear? Who would be the most helpful to them? Why might they resist that help? How can the worst thing that just happened to my character be turned into the best thing that happened? The questions will help move the narrative but also deepen the characterization of your protagonist.

In my latest book, A Mending at the Edge, Emma wanted a house, a home of her own in which to raise her children inside a religious colony. She did get what she wanted but there were obstacles and along the way she discovered she really didn’t so much need or want that structure as much as she wanted her family to be reunited whether in her own house or in another. An internal desire was to feel as though she belonged to a family and the story is also about how she came to love the people of her community as she was able to contribute to them despite earlier disappointments with them. The challenges she faced helped (I hope) chisel out her desires. She had to change to achieve them, experience grief and trouble, but in the end, she triumphed.

Often as I’m writing, there’ll be a metaphor that arises that can also help the reader experience the trials and triumphs of the character. Those metaphors can’t be forced, they just seem to come out of the writing and the author’s comfort with the character and the storyline. But they’re very useful in deepening the emotional connection with readers and are very helpful during revisions. The word metaphor is also Greek and it means “To change, to transform.” They say in Greece that the moving vans are labeled with “Metaphor” on the side. Ultimately, that’s the purpose of fiction, I think, to move people, to get them to consider new ideas, to feel deeply about something, maybe even to take action at some later time. I love it when people tell me they’ve read one of my books and then they’ve planned a trip to go to the places of the story and “walk where Emma walked” or where “Marie once lived.” That tells me that the character became real for them and hopefully offered something to consider for the reader’s character as well.

Spending time considering our own desires is always a good use of an author’s time. And one of my favorite Proverbs says Desire realized is a sweetness to the soul. We all have desires and by naming them, we increase the likelihood we’ll achieve them. Madeline L’Engle once wrote that we are named by the choices we make so if we want stronger characters, we need to name their desires. Our readers will appreciate that we did. Jane Kirkpatrick, http://www.jkbooks.com/