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| Sources for Characters |
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| You can find characters anywhere you look. They live in your house, in your neighborhood, in newspapers, or anywhere else. The sources are limitless.
Sometimes we�re blessed with characters who intrude our minds and all we have to do is let our imagination take off�or let them. Or we might meet someone on the street or at a reunion who sparks an idea for a character or story. It might be someone we observe in a checkout line, in the park, in a classroom. We start asking �What if?� and a character is born. Listen to anecdotes or people willing to tell their life stories. Mark Twain�s story, �The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County� was inspired by an actual story he heard when he was covering gold miners in California. A lot of Hemingway�s stories were based on real life. Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O�Connor, and Anne Tyler said they found inspiration in newspaper clippings. Use your dreams. They may not always make sense, but dreams always have a basic conflict. For instance, I have a recurring dream about returning to school and getting lost. Sometimes I lose my schedule and can�t get another copy, or I get lost in the labyrinth of halls trying to get from chem. lab to English. The basic conflict is getting lost. It can also be a major or minor character trait. Expand the conflict and here are some possibilities I come up with: � My character is a housewife who�s been newly widowed and gets lost on her way to a first job interview. � My character decides to run away from home but ends up getting lost on her way to her destination. � My character is a new kid in school and has trouble finding her way around. These are just a few possibilities. If you�re inclined to do dream analysis or consult a dream symbol book, by all means, go ahead. You might discover more situations and conflicts. Read as much as you can. Read newspapers. There are characters lurking in feature articles, wedding announcements, obituaries, and classified ads. Scan the personals. Read the obituary section of any newspaper. Usually they list the decedent�s occupation and interests as well as their surviving relatives. Choose one or several that catch your eye and create a character sketch from one or a combination of several. (Be sure to change the name.) Whatever is not included in the obituary, use your imagination to fill in the details. What is the conflict? Did your character die by accident, illness, or his own hand? Did your character accomplish what he wanted before his death? What was his relationship like with his relatives? Describe the deathbed scene. You can do the same thing with wedding and engagement announcements. How did the couple meet? How old are they? Is it a first or other marriage? What are their occupations? How long did they know each other? Are their religious or ethnic backgrounds the same or different? How did the families react to their engagement? What do each picture as their ideal wedding? What are their plans for the future? Look at the classifieds. Sometimes people sell unusual items. But even the mundane items have possibilities. Ask why someone would be selling a diamond ring or giving away a dog or piano? What were the circumstances that led up to it? If they�re getting rid of items to clear out their houses, what is the reason? What happens when the seller and buyer meet? Does the buyer try to haggle? Where does the seller live? Is it a difficult drive? Don�t forget the personal ads. Imagine what type of person posted the ad and who responds. Why are they looking for love? What prompts them to post ads? What happens when they meet? Do they look exactly how they describe themselves? Use astrological charts to create characters. Find compatible and/or incompatible signs. Usually astrology guides list character traits for different signs. Borrow those for your character sketch. Use the horoscopes to spark ideas and situations. Interpret them any way you want. Randomly generate characters with a phone book. Open a page and randomly choose a name. Turn to the yellow pages and randomly choose an occupation. You can also use this method to name your character. (More on naming later) Look at photos. (Ideally use someone else�s or look in newspapers or the library for pictures of strangers.) Ask �What if?� What is happening in the photo? What were they doing before the picture was taken? What happened afterward? What do they talk about? What is their relationship to each other? What does their body language suggest about them? Mine your family history. Ask relatives about their lives. Find out about their childhoods, work, family, friends, their loves, hobbies, whatever else. Read letters, diaries, and appointment books. Write about what you remember. You don�t always have to be the main character if you use autobiographical events. Borrow personal situations for your fiction. And you don�t have to transcribe it exactly as it happened. Mix and match incidents. Change the outcome. Regularly people watch. Observe the people in the checkout line, in your neighborhood, in waiting rooms. Listen to conversations (discreetly of course). Note mannerisms, postures, and rhythms of speech. Use any combination of the above ideas. You could start off by basing your character�s physical description on your Uncle Hank, but the conflict can come from another source. Maybe your Uncle Hank never smoked or drank, but your character smokes cigars and whiskey. If you base your characters on people you know, change their traits enough so they don�t recognize themselves. On the other hand, some might be flattered that you�ve written about them. If while you�re writing, your character wants to go in a different direction or has different motivations, or other traits surface, don�t resist it. Let your character lead the way. Copyright 2002-2007 Rita Marie Keller |
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