Building characters- I need help. Any advice?

Question

I've heard authors talk about characters talking to them, like they're real people who just appeared in their heads fully formed.  I've never experienced it for myself until this year.  

Those characters are so much more rounded and real than any characters I build from the ground up.  It feels like I throw a bunch of traits at them and hope something sticks, or like making a tower of Jenga blocks and then pulling out the wrong traits one by one until I'm left with a fragile one-dimensional character.  

I've done the character building sheets, the interviews, the little index cards with things written on them to keep my characters straight...  Nothing is quite as good as when the characters just "appear".  I may have to learn more about them, but it seems as if I'm learning about them and their personalities are already solidly in place, like I'm cleaning my glasses off in order to see the person in front of me more clearly.

I know it sounds totally crazy and schizophrenic, but I have a theory that muses and talking characters are just the way the left and right brain communicate to each other during the writing process.  And most author interviews I've read talk about that kind of thing (muses and talking characters, not the theory) so it isn't just me.

? · Accepted Answer

I'm afraid I can't offer any advice on this mainly because I have the problem.  xD  
But I've had 2 characters(er um 3 including my *cough*fictional best friend*cough*) but these characters were the ones who just popped into my head.  I can talk to and have conversations with them like talking to a real person.  So no, that doesn't sound crazy and schizophrenic.  The 2 characters who are really lifelike to me are a demon and an alien.  Again, I apologize for responding with nothing helpful, but I just wanted to say that exactly sums up how I feel about characters.  I really wish more characters would create themselves that easily, but I'm not sure if there's a way to_make_it happen.  :/

snead · Answer

No, I do not agree in any respect. We will all make errors and we might be trained, however we might repeat the equal mistake additionally. Hopefully, we do be trained from our errors if that is what you can name them. We all want recommendation and it is as much as us as as to if or to not take it. A man or woman who has been by way of a identical main issue could also be extra information and feature well recommendation or no longer. Making errors and taking recommendation can or are not able to construct individual. Character comes from a lot more than making errors; residing, pain, suffering, morals, values, standards, upbringing, no upbringing, deficient, wealthy, black, white, an excessive amount of is going right into a individuals individual.

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Building characters- I need help. Any advice?

2 Answers