Carey Blankenship·Do you have a set of questions you recommend we ask our characters to help us figure them out? What questions can we ask ourselves to give them the best character development?
- Lindsay·
- Cassy·
How much time do you spend on supporting character’s development? Do you know them as well as your main but don’t include all you know in the story?
- Christina·
What are mistakes you see lots of writers making that make for flat characters?
- Christina·
How far into our character’s personality, past, family, etc should we go into before even writing? Do you normally learn more about your characters as you write them?
- Lindsay·
For me, it depends on the genre. For fantasy, for example, I’ll do a lot more work beforehand, whereas for contemporary, I’ll run through the basics, and if something comes up during the draft, I’ll sit down and work it out. 🙂
- Ryn·
One of the most memorable characters I’ve read is Sandry, from Tamora Pierce’s The Circle of Magic series. As another character puts it, it’s amazing how strong and stubborn Sandry is, but the minute someone turns the light off, Sandry just shuts down from fear. Not to mention how her stubbornness is both good in that it enables her kindness, but also bad because it’s connected to her pride.
- Lindsay·
Yes! Love Tamora Pierce’s characters!
when two characters share similar traits, how do you recommend developing them into unique people that are still instantly recognizable?
- Cassy·
With your example of character being anxious and perceiving the airport – is it necessary to give reason why the character is anxious of flying? Or can it simply be a character trait?
- Lindsay·
I don’t think so, unless it’s integral to the plot. These details are often simply part of the characters, and including them gives the reader a deeper connection and relation with them. 🙂
How much do you need to worry about developing side characters (especially redshirts)?
- Lindsay·
I think this depends on how important the side characters are to the plot, but I definitely think doing a basic runover of their personalities and how they affect the MC can be helpful in making them feel authentic. 🙂
- Lisa·
When you write, do you think of plot and character arcs as distinct and if so, how would you say they work together?
- Lindsay·
I think they definitely work together in harmony, when done well. Because they both influence each other, having full and complete arcs will definitely show in the narrative. When a character choice spintails the plot, it’s magical 🙂
how would you suggest developing motivation for a character who is ultimately very unmotivated?
- Lindsay·
I think being unmotivated is a character quality in itself, and whether they choose to act on that quality can absolutely be a part of their motivation. 🙂
- Hannah·
If you have a MC with a secret that helps with character development but is definitely a sub plot and the main plot could exist without it, should you get rid of it?
- Lindsay·
I think, even if it isn’t present in the book, having it in your mind will influence the way the character acts, and will definitely affect the reader. I think, for the most part, everything that happens in a book should have purpose, but having a secret would definitely be a huge character motivation, and would probably make for a great sub-plot! 🙂
- Dave Wright·
“beware supporting characters that are more interesting than your main character”, but what if that interesting supporting character has no arc? What if they don’t change, but the current MC goes through a massive change? Doesn’t that make the current MC the better choice?
- Lindsay·
This is generally a specific situation that you would know when you see it. The example I gave was in YA, which is specifically where the best friend character is really interesting, but the main character comes off as flat. Supporting characters should absolutely be interesting, and if they’ve done a job in affecting the main character, then that is absolutely great characterization.
The warning is essentially for incidents where a reader might wonder what’s happening with another character and care more about that than what is happening with the main character, if that makes sense. 🙂
This has been my favorite session today! Lindsay presented a ton of information but in a way that was easy to understand. Fantastic job and I hope she will be back next year!! 🙂
- Lindsay·
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoyed 😀
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