What Can I Do to Familiarize Myself with my Characters?
I'm a plotter, meaning that I develop and plan my novels before I ever start writing them. In my case, this is almost something of an extreme, as I develop every part of the novel carefully and then create a very detailed outline scene by scene before writing a word.
I generally have very little trouble with characters. I develop them like everything else, creating them with all the aspects they need. As I develop them, I get a general sense of who they are, and when I sit down to write, I can visualize them acting out what I have them do. This is all I really need to 'get in my character's head.' It works fine.
With my most recent work, I have a bit of a problem. I had originally created the premise for this work several years back. A year or two after that, I partially developed it, including the character, and wrote something of a first draft. I then moved to something else, and didn't come back to it until now, several years later. During re-development, a lot of things changed, including several key aspects of the character and who he was.
The problem is that when I now sit down to write, the character is coming across as an emotionless cardboard stick figure. It is my theory that this is because I have two versions of him in my head, which are essentially complete opposites in some areas (and thus cancel each other out). I think I know the previous version better and might still see him that way as I write, while trying to write him as the new version.
I think I can fix this problem by getting to know my character better. What can I do to get to know my character better?
Important Note: Do not misunderstand this question as 'how can I discover my character?' I already know who my character is and how he acts. What I need is the ability to write him that way.
After-answer-notes: I've marked Lauren's reply as the answer, but if it doesn't work for future viewers, the answer from Mike C. Ford is the way to go. Especially that bit about renaming the character. That is pure genius.
2 answers
Write a bunch of short pieces with no particular plot to get used to writing him. Drabbles (100 words), double-drabbles (200), flash (1,000 to 2,000).
Your stories should just be little windows into him to practice writing what he'll do. Like:
- He's out of milk. He goes to the store to get milk, and the store is closed. (What are his reactions? What does he do next?)
- There's a leak in the bathroom faucet. (That can be an entire set piece depending on his reaction.)
- He decides to get a pet. (What animal? What gender? What breed? fixed? name? Does it need a cage, a tank, a litter box, a leash?)
- He has to sell his vehicle. (What kind of vehicle? Why? is he happy about it? Sentimental? Annoyed? Desperate for money? Does he enjoy negotiating to get the best of the buyer? Does the buyer get the best of him?)
The point of these pieces is to become accustomed to figuring out what Dude 2.0 does rather than your original Dude 1.0 did, so that when you go back to your novel, the 2.0 version is already in your fingertips and you don't have to work so hard to access him.
Writing a bunch of little bits will help you to slough off 1.0's bad habits. Making them unconnected, meaningless bits which are not part of your novel will help you get past the concern of screwing up your current work. You don't have to worry about leaving your outline because these are essentially pantsed (discovery) pieces, purely for exercise.
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I would suggest starting with three very basic questions:
What does he want.
Why does he want it?
Why can't he get it?
If you can't give clear and consistent answers to those questions, you don't have a character yet. In a plot-driven story, it is perhaps easy to lose the handle on these things, especially in revision. Character drives plot, so if you change plot, it is easy to end up with a character who no long performs the task of driving the plot. They may be left with inconsistent motivation.
In a character driven story, you might have to change the plot to accommodate the logical way in which the character would behave. But if you are writing plot first, then you may need to reshape your character to convincingly drive the plot in the direction you want it to go. So then you are asking, "what kind of character would have a desire and would follow that desire in a way that would move the plot in the direction I want it to go?"
Conceivably there is no such character -- no believable human motivation would create the plot twist you desire. In that case, plot may have to bend to the truth of human nature.
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