Character Creation
"It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and a pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does." - William Faulkner
July 29, 2021
I feel like the quote above describes perfectly how a book is created. A character comes to mind and suddenly an entire world begins to form around that character - at least, that's what happens to me as a writer. I dream up a character and as their backstory unfolds, I'm given some substantial ideas to write their story down or part of their story - the significant parts.
But how is this character formed?
There's no right or wrong answer. All I can write about is how a character is formed in my mind.
I have created many characters over the years. I can remember loving writing as far back as 14 years old and if I created one character a year since then I would have 15 characters. I have more than 15 characters floating around in my head. Some of them were worthwhile enough to get short stories and periods of existence in my writing life while others were not and were simply created on a whim to fill one purpose. They were all created the same way that it's now like a mathematical formula I run through whenever I am creating a character. Oftentimes, the character who turns up in my writing is originally created for online RPG writing and have been revised to suit the needs to the story.
Step 1: I am usually inspired by a celebrity and think to myself "boy, I really like the look of that celebrity and wouldn't mind basing a character off their appearance." Ex: Sebastien Lefebvre.
Step 2: I'll watch a movie or read a book that inspires me and sets the tone for the character's origin story. Ex: Simple Plan.
Step 3: I'll stumble across a name that I like the sounds of. Ex: I stuck with the name Sebastien because I sounded great with the middle name Alexander and opted to change his last name.
Step 4: I'll spend hours researching Surnames to find one that sounds right with the first name I've chosen. I will often do this by going through the last names of residents at my place of work (past and present). Ex: I spent time searching through surname registries (this was before I worked in the nursing home) and discovered the name Reid.
Step 5: I'll need to decide the purpose of this character. Ex: a book, an RPG site, background character, etc. and write their character history and profile based on their purpose. Ex: Sebastien was created for a site called Camp Salem in which the plot was witches and wizards around America attended a summer camp to learn how to use their abilities. Sebastien was a magical kid who loved music (based on his celebrity inspiration) and one night at a coffee shop concert he lost control of his powers and accidentally killed his girlfriend. He then ran away from home and avoided people to keep everyone safe from his uncontrolled powers until the camp director found him and brought him to camp.
Step 6: The character is born.
Not all my characters are created this way. One, in particular, had a very absurd creation. That was Isaac Belanger (uncle Izzie) from my book Primrose.
Uncle Izzie's birth started with a C.H.A.I.R. not a chair. And there was alcohol involved. During my college days, a friend's husband was sitting on a chair drunk and admitted that he thought the chair was talking to him and hitting on him. The chair was eventually named: Charles Henry Aaron Isaac Reynolds (C.H.A.I.R.) nicknamed Chair by his closest friends, Charles was raised by a single mother and loved fashion. He also gay and hiding it. Charles briefly made an appearance in the Harry Potter RPG world before being brought back to the drawing board where he turned into Isaac Belanger, the beloved homosexual uncle of Lux Belanger whom his parents disowned due to his sexuality and their prejudice against the LGBT community.
There's no right or wrong way to create a character. These are just two ways in which I create my characters.
After this, I'm going to go into more depth on the creation of various other characters from my book; Primrose.