Expert: Susan Rand - 9/8/2004

Question
Dear Ms. Rand,
  I need your thoughts on developing characters. I have an exhaustive list
of questions to ask a fictional character
so that the character becomes real to
the reader. The problem I have with this
list is that it seems to take the fun out
of writing. How do you approach develop-
ing character personalities?

Answer
Hi Lee:

I am of two minds about this. I agree, it can be fun to discover your characters' personalities as you go along, and the thought of making a list of questions like this for each character makes me want to barf. There must be a middle ground somewhere!

The good news is, there is. I don't know how many characters you have in all, but for your 1, 2 or 3 main characters, I would suggest you make the list. But don't be too uptight about it. You may have to provide a motivation or two somewhere along the line, but for the most part, if you show the character stealing money the reader will go along with you and accept that the character, under certain circumstances, will steal money. In most novels the characters are meeting situations they've never faced before, and who knows what they'll think or how they'll act?

However, characters ought to cling to their basic beliefs. In one of my books I have a 15 year-old heroine whose beloved mother has abandoned her. In the fifth chapter she goes into her mother's closet and buries her face in her dresses, crying and sobbing and getting snot all over them. It was when I was typing that bit about the snot that the character came alive for me, for the first time.

It's not so much what all you know about the character as it is whether or not you can make the reader cheer for her, or be angry, sad or jealous with her. Often it only takes one line to make a character come alive for the reader. Consider this: "He was the kind of man who would spend a pleasant half-hour in the bathroom, plucking the hair from his nose." Do you see that the operative word is "pleasant?" From that one line you know everything you need to know (or maybe want to know) about that man.

In that same book of mine there is an aunt who in all circumstances and in every situation will try to wrest control from whomever has it. She may not win, but she tries, EVERY TIME.

Rather than make long lists about your characters, I would suggest trying to catch them at an unguarded moment. What people do when they think they are alone is endlessly fascinating, and will go a long way toward making them live.

Lesser characters can be dealt with more brusquely. For incidental characters who only appear once or twice in the story, a bit about their appearance, a few mannerisms and the way they feel about the situation they are in or whatever action they're involved with should be enough.

I hope this has helped. If it has, a nice rating would be greatly appreciated. I am proud of my "best of the best" score over 250+ questions.

And good luck with your writing!