I spend far too much time thinking about my characters. What they would say, what they would think, how they would act. What are their motivations? What are their dreams? What are their fears? What are their expectations of the other characters? I imagine their tone of voice, their facial expressions, their quirks. What do they do in their spare time? What are their favorite foods? How do they act in private vs in public? What are their core values? If they play instruments (most of them do, shocker) what do they play? What are their habits (good, bad, or otherwise)?
I don't know if my characters are relatable to other people. The inner critic in me says the characters aren't unique enough. It says they all sound the same. They act irrationally. Their power levels are too high. Their secrets are obvious. They are predictable. They lean too heavily on overused tropes. They aren't realistic.
Then I have to remind my inner critic that this is a piece of fiction, that art can be interpreted in a million unexpected ways, and that the only one here setting unrealistic expectations is myself.
Of course every character sounds the same in my head, that's where they live. Bringing them to life is giving a piece of myself to each one of them to hold on to. Yes, they were initially created by my co-authors. Yes, some of them are based on characteristics of real people I know. But if I'm writing them, they're going to sound like me in some form or fashion anyway. I can't help that. (Is that what editors are for?)
I do my best to mitigate it. They are unique individuals in their own right. Each with different backgrounds, motives, and speech patterns. I try to put myself in their shoes. If a, b,c happened to me, how would I react to d, e, f? If I grew up in an environment of 1, 2, 3, how would that shape my beliefs and perception of the world? Why does x have a beef with z? Why does z get along so well with y?
Some characters I don't know the full backstories of so I've had to make assumptions based on the parts I do know. With some characters, I go: if this happened to my friend George, how would George react? (: Yeah. It's a lot of assumptions. Turns out I don't really know people that well. Even the best of friends will surprise me. I will never fully know what another person is thinking or going through. All I can do is guess and empathize (or ask, I suppose (OO) ). The only person I really know is me. I don't achieve 50% of my own expectations, how would I meet anyone else's?
This is getting off track. After writing two entire (more or less) stories, the characters are pretty well set in their ways. There is room for variance, but their personalities are consistent now. I thought it'd be cool to give you a look at how I keep them separate.
For starters, they each have their own music playlist. If I want a quick way to get into a specific headspace, to the playlists I go. When I see other fictional characters (movies, tv shows, books, etc.), I like to compare them to mine. "Oh, this character reminds me of mine when they do, say, wear..." fill in blank.
Because I'm a visual person, sometimes it's easier to pull up someone else's existing character for reference on something I have not personally experienced. For instance, if I'm writing two brothers, I pull up fictional brothers and watch how they act. Granted, I've watched how brothers act in real life too, but the additional references help. Some stuff I don't need references for. Like Hanna. I have plenty of references for how she looks. But as far as how she acts and thinks? I don’t need anyone's help with that.
The following is a list of references I go to when I'm trying to pin down a specific personality. This list is not exhaustive by any means. I could only use 6 pics at a time. (I also left out some super obvious ones.) See how many characters you recognize! Enjoy!
Hanna
Non-quote (a phrase the character has never officially said, but sums them up pretty well):
"I don't know what I'm looking for, but I have to keep looking. Like homesickness for a place I've never been to or a place I can't return to. I can't explain why... but being around him always felt like being home."
Misty
Healer. Leader. Helper.
"How do you know it won't work if you never try? No use moping over a situation if you aren't going to do anything to change it."
DJ
Determination. Defender. Damage per second.
"What you do matters. You have to keep believing that. Even if you're the last one still fighting, don't give up. It matters. Even if you're the only one it matters to."
EDJ
20% evil. 80% charisma. 100% chaos.
"If you have the chance to be truly happy, take it before someone else takes it from you."
Lui
Red mage. Green flag. Pocketful of sunshine.
"Humans should be treated like humans, no matter whatever else they may be."
Brady
The solution to user error.
"The potential you humans have is immeasurable, if only you would live up to it."
Shard
Actually evil.
"The only value a life has is determined by how much you can extract from it before it is extinguished."
It would be funny to see whether or not you agree with my list or if you think I'm totally off base in comparing these personalities to the original ISC characters. This is the best way I've found to help me keep my characters IN character. It's been 15 years. The characters are not who they started out as. They aren't being written by their Original authors. Just me. And me is doing the best she can. They make sense to me. With any luck, they'll make sense to the readers too. Here's hoping. At the end of the day, books are always flammable.
~ Always Hope ~
