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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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Do you guys plan out your characters in excruciating detail or just wing it when you start a story? Does it depend on the format? (Such as short story vs. novella or novel.)
Just curious about people's processes. For me, my MC (if I'm writing a novel) has to be planned out pretty well. They can still surprise me with some traits I didn't anticipate but for the most part they're really planned out. My MC in my last novel had about 4 pages on him, front and back, in my project binder. I think the two female leads (both love interests for the MC) had about 3 pages for each of them. Minor characters don't usually get as much attention.
When I'm in short story format though, I don't plan the characters or anything really. I just let the story flow organically. I've never gone back through and edited any of the shorts I've written so I have no idea if this helps or hurts, but it's the process.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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I do both but at different points in the writing process. The first quarter of the book I'm winging it. I keep a character bible and note everything, no matter how small. After I get a good feel for the characters I take a break and do some detailed plotting.
WriteWayPro has a nice customizable character template that lets you add pictures and write notes. This is a lot easier to handle than my corkboard of shame that had all my notes pinned to it.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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I totally go with the flow. I pick a name (possibly research it depending on what I'm writing) and go along with a brief description: age, rough height & body type, hair and eye color. Personality traits come along as I write as does voice. My characters often reveal more of themselves to me as the story moves on.
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Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 38
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I'm in between. I outline my basic story; I refer to it as a flexible outline, because it is malleable.
I'm fairly rigid about giving my characters histories, especially my main characters. I'm a visual person, so I create storyboards, files and collages for my characters and settings.
However, as I write, a scene or character will often go in an unexpected direction that can be fun to explore. In my current work, a character that was intended to be a secondary character revealed that he was actually one of my main villains.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 49
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I do quite a bit of character planning prior to starting a new story, but a lot of it is in my head. One thing I absolutely have to do though is cast my characters. Generally, I pick actors, though sometimes I pick just random photos of people (one of the characters in a novel I've just started planning is based on a pic of a guy I found on Flickr when I was looking for something entirely unrelated. The pic, in fact, inspired the entire character, not the other way around, and helped bring a lot of depth to the story that had just been kind of percolating in the back of my mind for a week or two.). Actors are useful because I can picture them moving and speaking in my head, and have an easier time making characters come alive.
The other thing I've found useful at times is to do the Proust questionnaire for my main characters, to get an idea of their general motivations and outlook on life.
I used to do these huge questionnaires about my characters, with everything from their favorite color to what cereal they like to their family history. But I've found that just thinking about them and immersing myself with them for a couple weeks works better.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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Cameron, I love using actors to help envision a character. Helped me realize a bit of dialogue/reaction to a situation was completely off-character. Just picturing that actor in that scene made my laugh uproariously. Not the reaction you're supposed to have in that scene.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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I use actors as character models too! I'll watch interviews and stock footage of the actor in a natural setting and note how they move, speak and little mannerisms. Some are a lot more interesting out of character than they are in the roles they play.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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It's fun, isn't it? For me, though, it has to be an actor whose work I'm familiar with so that I know the actor and can picture them. That's why I pictured Chris Pine as my MC in my last novel. I've seen a couple of his films no shortage of times and so it was easier to put him in the role of my MC.
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Joined: 3/31/2011
Posts: 5
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I'm a full on plotter when it comes to novels. I find it particularly helpful when I'm feeling lazy or unmotivated -- I always know what's coming next and what I have to write.
With short stories and flash fiction, it's completely different. I might have a very vague idea and just start writing to see what comes out.
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Joined: 4/28/2011
Posts: 11
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When it comes to characters, I'm very much a pantser. I have a friend who loves to talk her characters through -- we spend hours discussing backgrounds, motivations, personalities, etc. She has them fully fleshed out long before she writes anything with them. I'm the complete opposite. I might know a rough outline of a character, but they only come to life when I start writing them. I've tried planning them out, but it just hasn't worked for me. I hate to say it, but I think character development -- in terms of getting a good, fleshed-out character and a unique voice -- is one of the weakest parts of my writing. I love my characters, but I think they could be better.
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Joined: 4/29/2011
Posts: 3
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For me, i introduce the main characters in mild detail in a flowing movement. From one to another in a transition that connects them all whether via Family relation or friendly. I like to give a description of what the characters look like, although broad (hair color, how they dress, and maybe specific traits like a scar or freckles but not too man) the character should be based for the readers own imagination, too descriptive and people loose interest. People don't read to find out every little detail about a person they're reading, that's for the book, the choices they make, and development of the character to do, not the narrative. Though description is good, too much is bad, you must find that middle ground.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 1
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For me it really depends on what started me writing in the first place. For example, if a location I happen to be in starts the wheels turning, I go with scenario and setting before characters. Then, when I have the world built, I populate it with whoever I think needs to be there. If I start with a personality in mind, I start writing characters and then basically ask them what they're up to. But either way, I kind of let them tell me who they are rather than try to put together a bunch of characteristics on a chart - although I do sometimes make those very same charts when I get stuck.
The other day, it turned out one of my characters had lost his father as a young boy (before the action of the novel), and it was one of those "Oooh that makes so much more sense now," moments. It wasn't a matter of me planning a behavior and then consciously trying to find a way to explain it; it was more that these people kind of live in my brain and I get to know them over time as I write them down. I know that probably sounds either pretentious or insane, but I'm hoping you get what I mean. 
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Not sure if this reply will bring the discussion back to life, but...
I started out as a pantser and have a 120,000 word Nanowrimo tome of a story to show for it. I keep it as reminder of what my lack of character development caused. It's a great story and it is of novel length, but it is certainly not a novel. It's a story, that's it, and in its own right a good one. Now, a few years later, I realize the story can become much more with better character development - and for me that means careful plotting and outlining. I use the snowflake method because it forces me to remain disciplined in thinking through each of my main characters. (http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/)
I have a two step process now: develop the overall story concept (terrorists steal missiles and threaten the world) and then use character development to drive the actual story (here are my characters - they are in this situation - how will they react? Why will they react that way? What will be their "change" by the end of the novel?)
I don't know, I haven't studied formally; it just seems to work for me. That, and a stiff cup of dark roast coffee.
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I say I'm a total panster, but that's not entirely true. 
I create what I call a 'working timeline', a guide for when the major events in the story have to happen. Then as I go along, I add in the minor things, so I know what's where/when. I also usually start out with a vague idea of where I'm going and no clue how I'm getting there - or vice versa.
As for the characters themselves, well, my stories are character-driven, not plot-driven. So I have to have a good idea who I'm working with before I get started. I have a ton of "character interview" sheets I go through before I end up with a final version - though sometimes, when I'm lucky, a character will come to me "almost fully formed". --edited by MariAdkins on 7/12/2013, 12:23 AM--
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Joined: 7/23/2013
Posts: 1
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The best characters are those that are allowed to reveal themselves.
The best plot unravels the characters.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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I usually have a solid idea of the core of a character before I begin writing. Self-descriptions, external descriptions, motivations, fears, and desires are all in place. There are some exceptions in the case of immature characters, but they by default have a subconscious motivator to find themselves, so that actually works out.
I plot from end-to-beginning, and plan major character changes the same way; how could a person wind up here? What would make them like that? What would make them a person who would get into *that* situation? And so on until I get to the starting point.
Of course, while writing the characters come to life, and often wind up different to what I'd intended to write, so it's not all preplanned, but still.
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Joined: 9/9/2013
Posts: 5
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In film school, I tried (and failed) to get into a writing class taught by Paul Schrader, who wrote TAXI DRIVER. He said a lot of interesting things that day, but the one that had the greatest influence on me was his strong recommendation that we read and internalize THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING by Lajos Egri. It was written in the 40s or 50s and was aimed at playwrights, but there are two incredibly helpful ideas in the book. One is creating a strong guiding theme before you ever start writing...and put it in active terms. For instance: Intolerance leads to a life of violence. The other thing in the book is a very thorough biography format to guide you through creating a character and fleshing him/her out so you know that person inside and out before you ever start writing. It doesn't mean your characters won't surprise you -- they always surprise us, don't they? -- but it saves a lot of mistakes and rewriting. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be a better writer.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 8
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Complete and utter pantser. My characters knock on the door, and if I let them in I find out about them as the reader does. Plotting would be far more sensible but far less fun for me. I love the fact that I can write a scene and have a line of dialogue and a look pass between two characters - suddenly an entire character's backstory is revealed and I understand why he's done the things he's done. And if I can get that moment of wow, then I hope the reader can get it too.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Complete and utter Pantser here, also. Whatever pops into my head, I find a way to get it in, if not on the spot, eventually. I leave no flimsy, even flaky, idea unexplored. I've banged many a square peg into a round hole and made it work. In my opinion, of course.
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I admit that it's often a struggle to carry off. This approach is both playful and painful. I can't write any other way.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 10/6/2013, 4:23 PM--
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