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Characters, who, what and where in the hell did you come from?

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Published: 19Nov2007
Word count: 695
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Who are these people we are writing about? Fred, Bill, Joe, what to call my hero? What does he look like? I suppose tall, dark and handsome. No, more the bad boy, no perhaps a romantic... STOP!!!! Jeepers, what a pain. My parents named me before they had any idea what I was going to look like. How many people say they hate their names or when told a name, you think it doesn't suit them? Okay, lets start from the beginning, make it fun and easier to give the character a name befitting his or her role. Your playing God here, not mum or dad, but God. You are creating this person; you have all the say. Do you think God just said, 'I am going to create Adam'? The angels asked 'what's an Adam?' God replied, 'I don't know, it just sounds good'. I don't think so.

First, get his or her image right in your head. Oh, what a cute baby, gorgeous blue eyes, nope, change my mind, zap, green eyes. Is this brown or reddish hair on this kids head? More reddish I think, yep, like the idea of a carrot top. Jeepers, big feet, yep, think he or she is going to be tall or a little above the norm. I think you get the idea, so keep building, you have the clay in your hands, mould the pot; add the dots, the stripes and the curves. Build this blob of clay into a mature pot. Make it fun playing God, not a chore, be creative, make each character unique as he, she or it, are going to be right throughout your pages. Characters drive stories; you don't want to forget what they look like and end up being inconsistent.

Okay, so we now have our mannequin. Your God, give it a personality. As a child, your character was exceptionally curious; is this trait going to stay or fade with maturity? Was it a tender kid or a little monster? Life experiences influence our personalities. You are playing God; you are going to give your creation a life and those influences. Consider how he, she or it has developed because of these influences.

Clothes, poorly dressed or trendy? This all depends on you, the one playing God. What family or social circle are you going to stick, he, she or it in? What time frame are we talking, historic, modern, futuristic? This may require research, if you truly want to bring realism to your story.

Once you feel you have your character fixed clearly in your mind, try naming he, she or it. What does he she or it really look like? There is nothing wrong with being creative. I have a book on names, which I sometimes resort to. I have been known to dissect names, take a bit from this one, added it to that one, creating a unique name. I also like to look up the origins of a name, what does it mean, does it suit my character. If you have children of your own, what made you pick a particular name and would you change it now they're older? If you don't have kids, ask your parents why they chose your name. Do you like your name, what would you have called yourself if you had a say at birth?

I did a little research on character names and other character related issues. Many writers said they just put in any name with the intentions of changing it later, however, this escaped them or they just got used to a name and it stuck. There are books, movies etc that so influence fans, they will name their dog, cat and even their kids on characters. Some die-hard fans want to know things, which aren't even in their favorite books or movies etc. If a fan came up to me and asked a question on one of my characters in any of my books, I could give them an answer. So have fun playing God, you will be surprised what your characters can teach you about yourself.

Australian author Christine Jones, multi genre from science fiction to humour. http://www.cjbooks.net

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