Character Developement Process

I am not really a conventional writer, but I am working on a project/obsession that has characters. The question is: Do writers actually write out explicitly a sketch or mini-biography of say the main characters in a work. This would be for a large project like a novel. I know that authors speak as though their characters have a life of their own. And a character would probably evolve and develop over time in a major work(s). For example, say in the Sherlock Holmes books or Kurt Wallander series, there are characters that exist over a whole series of books. How do writers keep track of their characters in order to be consistent and true to their characters nature. So do authors actually write out details about a character or do the just know... I guess I am interested in the PROCESS writers use for character development...and I am sure it varies greatly, but would like feedback about this process.

I wrote the story first. Then if I was going to re-use the character, I'd make a file of facts we know about the character so I didn't have to reread the old story every time I wanted to remember their height and weight, or hair and eye-color.

I tried a couple of times to write the characters main traits ahead of time, but it didn't work for me.

Some writers do extensive character sheets, listing everything from physical characteristics to likes/dislikes and beyond...others will "interview" their characters, asking them questions about their life before the action covered in the book and so on. Writers will also keep a book "bible" which can list everything from character details to location detail to calendars. Others do none of that. It's entirely an individual choice.

The process of character development....

I think to myself, "It's silly that I haven't learned to recognize the trees around here yet. I've lived in Ohio for how long? But somehow I just never get around to it. BUT if I had a pov character that knew about these trees, and spent time in the woods, then suddenly I would get around to learning them. I know myself."

And my back brain says: "He's a half-breed -- the son of an indian trader and his native wife. Only his father has died, and his mother went back to her own people, so now he's on his own. He works as a guide for white expeditions into Indian Territory. His current mission in life is to end the whiskey trade, because backstory about his mother and uncle and etc. Oh, and he's a wood-carver mage."

And I go,"....Um. I guess I'd better go find a library book about identifying trees."

The triggering events are all different of course, but the process is the same. For me, characters just happen.

Not all at once, though. It takes a while for all the information about a character to pop into my head. But I'm rarely consciously trying to develop anything. Usually I'm going "I don't need another story, I don't need another story, I don't need another story..." But conscious or not, over time I "learn" more and more about the character. Soon other characters appear, and frequently scenes start showing up in my head of interactions between them.

I don't ever feel that I have much control at all over who a character is or what a character does. I don't feel that I am choosing to make my character a half-breed, for example, and that I could change my mind at some point, and have him be all white or all native. Nor do I feel that I am free to decide he doesn't have anything much against the whiskey trade after all. I can "learn" things about him at any point before, during or after writing the story, but they will not contradict the things I already "learned".

I do find that I often need to track non-significant details such as exact height, eye-color, and birthdates. For very minor characters, especially if they're members of a group, in addition to the vital statistics, it helps me to have some kind of note to remind me which personality goes with which name, 'cause I'm bad with names. But it doesn't take much. I can have a note that says "hunter" and I can go, "Ah, yeah, him. Not the nicest tempered, and rather antisocial." I track these sorts of details using a database, typically filling in the entries as I revise my first drafts, which allows me to ensure that my story is self-consistent, and then gives me somewhere to look the stuff up again, if I end up using them in another book.

very interesting

To address the evolve/develop aspect: outlining what they're going to learn (or fail to learn) over the course of the story. Generally that's expected now, that the character evolves somehow - or else the fact that the character doesn't change is what the story is about.

I've been reading up on the Aristotle Incline. Your story is in three acts (start, middle, end.) At the end of Act One your character has been presented with a choice/event that leads to a dilemna, which carries through to the end of Act Two where they make another choice/hit another event that creates a crisis. Then Act Three takes you to the climax where the character does/does not learn. So your character development and plot outline become closely tied, which I think is helpful.

My characters are developed slowly in the beginning, but they eventually take on a life of their own. They become alive and real. When I write I actually become each character as I write, so I have little trouble keeping the facts straight. When you ARE the character it's easy to describe yourself or feel the emotion of that life.

Cecrow's advice is good if you are writing realistic modern novel with a single character pov, but there are other outlines that work for adventure stories, thrillers, multiple pov stories and mysteries. The bottom line is that story structure and character development are related.

Do any specific examples come to mind?

>9 clarkland: You mean of other story structures?

The mystery: The detective is presented with a problem. The detective finds clues that reveal layer by layer the true nature of the people involved with the crime and the crime itself. Generally the detective doesn't "develop". If the detective does develop it's over a long story arc encompassing multiple novels.

Adventure stories: Are generally about a group of people with a problem. They set off to solve their problem. The group splits up. Each part of the group encounters problems of their own and solves them, sometimes by character development, sometimes by group development. The characters reunite and based on what each learned while separated they are able to solve the big problem.

Multiple viewpoints: Character A develops and learns X. Character B develops and learns Y. Knowing X and Y is needed to resolve the plot problem. (This is the general romance plot, where X and Y are, contrary to what they first thought, that the love the other person.)

I think every reader knows these structures implicity after a lot of reading; that's where the vague "this ending was great" or "this ending was terrible" feeling usually comes from. Stories that slip out of the template without doing an excellent job of excusing themselves leave readers feeling uneasy. It sure would make the writing job easier if readers could be more objective, and maybe some really good writers can manipulate them into being so (the 'excellent job of excusing' scenario.)

>11 Cecrow: Personally I don't think it's the readers job to be objective. Humans have been telling stories for millions of years. Certain kinds of stories work because they can transport their hearers/readers into a different world. While critics, who have to read way too many books that don't transport them anywhere, tend to be enamored of tricky kinds of manipulation and the praise them highly, the ordinary reader is not going to plow through anything that's not giving them something of the kind of reward they are seeking.

Fortunately for writers, different readers are transported in different ways. One of my good friends found Sarah Waters Night Watch absolutely transporting, where I found it one of the dullest books I've read in a long time (had to finish it for book group). So there's room for lots of kinds of authors. However, I would say that if you're going to make the reader's job tough, the reward better be extra-special, because they always have the choice of finding something else to read.

Edited to add msg link.