In the midst of edits for book two of my Gulf Coast Rescue series, I’m revisiting
some of my secondary characters with a critical eye. Is that character trait
realistic? Is it the right trait?
With each book I write, my character development process is
as varied as my plots. What worked for the last book doesn’t resonate for this
one. I can’t decide if that is a good thing or not, but I have discovered a lot
of ways to explore personalities and traits until I find the right combination for
that particular character.
My villain, hero, and heroine receive the most attention
since they tend to have the most “page” time. They also tend to be created from
a combination of sources. I’ve melded traits from Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests,
archetypes (The Complete Writer’s Guide
to Heroes & Heroines by Cowden, LaFever, and Viders), personality types
(Writer’s Guide to Character Traits
by Edelstein), birth signs and numerology (The
Power of Birthdays, Stars, & Numbers by Crawford and Sullivan), and of
course psychological studies (50
Psychology Classics by Butler-Bowdon) to name a few of my most common go to
books. Another fun source is Enneagrams (from the Enneagram Institute). I
attended a workshop on Enneagrams and have these very handy cards and decoder
to help me pull together character traits. I especially like how they include
healthy, average, and unhealthy traits for each personality. Because we all
know, even our heroes have flaws, just as a villain can have a redeeming
quality.
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| Enneagram Decoder |
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| Enneagram Cards |
One of my concerns when creating a character is how
realistic those traits are. Some traits are simply incompatible. You can’t be a
true extrovert one moment and an introvert in another. You could only share
some traits in the middle (since they are a continuum), but if you are on one
end or the other, you won’t. I also don’t want to create a character that looks
and sounds like a dozen others. I may see similarities in the people I meet,
but they are always unique—and I want all of my characters to be unique too.
Even my secondary ones.
So, do you have any favorite characters? What
characteristics make them memorable to you?
6 comments:
Great resources, Sharon. I loved taking these tests in psychology and counseling classes. So much fun to discover things about oneself and others. I definitely use these things as I layer my characters' personalities.
Sharon, my favorite character--other than any in my own books, which is another story--are, hands down, Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. The heroine and the "villain." Now why that is so might make for an interesting blog post. Hmm.
Jean, that would be a great post. Knowing why something strikes a chord in us is always worth investigating--and can yield surprising results!
I have a long list of questions to ask the characters and myself. It ends up with me knowing everything about them so it's easier for me to know what they will do in a situation I put them in. I want to feel what the characters does.
Great resource suggestions Sharon!
I'm writing all those resources down. I have a box of archetype cards I get out once in while to aid in character building. I need all the help I can get.
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