Guest Blogger: Theresa Chaze, “Knowing What Your Character Looks Like Is Not Enough”

Knowing What Your Character Looks Like Is Not Enough
 
by
Theresa Chaze
 
Knowing you characters is one of the most important aspects of any fiction project. If the author doesn’t know the character completely, she or he can’t possible introduce him or her to the reader. In class, Jim Cash–one of the writers of the movie Top Gun–said you need to know how they were born, what their birthdays were like, who they love and who they hate; even if you don’t use the information, simply knowing it makes the character more real to you and to you audience.
 
A complete character sketch gives you a complete picture of who they are, but this doesn’t mean that the character is static or written in stone. It is the starting point from which you character grows from. More than the physical appearance, it contains the general family tree, education, hopes, fears, and goals. It also includes the high points of her or his life up to the point the story starts. When you know where a character has come from, you can more realistically predict or create a future for it that is believable. By the end of the story, if it is written correctly, the character will have grown and changed. This is added to the sketch and saved for future use.

Character sketches serve two other purposes: helping to get a story back on track and breaking writers block. Frequently stories get off track and end up in a place other than when the writer wishes it to go. I call it writing oneself into a corner. It usually happens when one character has taken over and gone off on a tangent. More often than not, it means that either the character is wrong for the story or I?m not clear on the story myself. By reexamining the character sketch, I am more likely find error and be able to correct it. In addition, when I am stuck for an idea, I pull out old sketches recombine them in different settings or perspectives. Since I already know them, it is easier to imagine them in unusual situations and know how they will react with each other. It is the combination of characters and the new plot that makes the new story.

Even formula books that have an expected sequence of events, like romance or horror, need to have characters that are distinctive. Writing the same character and plot while changing only the names is a recipe for a boring book not only for the author but the reader as well. The best novels follow the format while making each page a surprise. When the reader is kept guessing, she or he will keep turning pages all the way into your next book.
 
In my ebook, From Blank Page to Book Shelves–How to Successfully Write and Market Your Book, I give more detailed information about how to write effective characters sketches. It is available though the Amazon Kindle program and my site at www.theresachaze.com. Those who buy through my site will also receive a 345-page listing of over 2,000 independent bookstores.

Filed under: writing , Amazon.com, character, character sketch, From Blank Page to Book Shelves, Jen Nipps, jennipps, Kindle, Theresa Chaze, Top Gun, write, writing