Creating Characters

*Favorite Things Friday will return next week. I intended to get this post up earlier in the week but life butted in instead. I thought it would be too long with the favorites.

I'm currently developing the main characters for my new WIP and having a blast. One element of this novel is to create a strong, trio of friends. I've been reading some great posts and chapters about how to develop memorable characters, and thinking about some of my favorite literary characters, particularly in children's literature.I thought I'd share a little about how I'm approaching these characters and how I'm shaping their personalities.

As I searched around the net for tips on this topic, I knew I didn't want to fill in a huge character trait sheet. Some authors love this method when they're starting out.. And I say, "If that's what inspires you, go for it!" Instead, I thought about what was important to me, what do I like to know about someone, and tried to come up with my own brief profile for my main characters and some secondary ones.

At first I just brainstormed and took notes, particularly after listening to music which I felt represented something about that character. The floodgates of personality and backstory open up when I listen to these songs. Then I try to organize my thoughts in each character's profile. I'm also asking myself questions about how I want to portray relationships between characters and taking notes on that. Below, are a couple of links to recent posts about developing characters which I've found helpful. And I've included the brief profile and some of the questions I've been using. I hope you find them helpful.

Excellent posts on character development:

Crafting Multi-Layered Characters @ Adventures in YA and Children's Publishing
Developing Characters with multiple posts on different topics relating to character @ Janice Hardy's blog, The Other Side of the Story.

Name:

Song:

Age:

Place in family:

Physical Description:

Personality Traits:

Quirks:

Comforts:

Favorites:

Pet Peeves/Frustrations:

What is s/he good at:

Not so good at:

Fears/Insecurities:

Hopes/Dreams:

Beliefs:

Backstory Information:

Questions:

How did they meet each other?

What has sealed their friendship with each other?

How do these friends relate to their parents/family? How does affect who they are and how they relate to each other?

Do you create your characters before you start writing or develop them as you go along? Do you use a profile or character sheet? What do you like to ask yourself (or your characters) as you create them?

Plan B

My plan for the beginning of 2012 was to begin writing the first draft of a new YA novel. I'll call this Plan A. I had already written the first 1000 words or so and two friends read and critiqued it for me recently. They spotted some areas that needed improvement and I'm grateful for their keen eyes and brains. As I read their comments, I realized that instead of just writing without a direction I needed to step back and plan a bit. I don't need a detailed outline but I'm definitely NOT a pantser.

This leads me to Plan B. I want the strength of this story to be in two areas: the relationship between my MC, Jude, and her sister, and the relationship between Jude and her two best friends. To do this I want to really ponder the personalities of these five characters before diving into the plot. I believe that the story will come to life if my characters are well formed with their own distinct voices. To do that I need to spend time getting to know each character, and so for the first time I'm going to try some character exercises and go from there. Seems pretty obvious doesn't it?

I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to comment on my previous post. Your support, ideas, and encouragement have lifted my spirits and given me hope that I can work through this. Once I have a mini profile on each of these characters, I'm going to use Cloudpic's suggestion of using my senses to bring these characters to life.

And if this doesn't work. I'll try Plan C...once I figure out what Plan C actually is :P

How do you bring your characters to life?