Some people find it very easy to get to know their characters. You can ask them just about any detail about any of their creations and they’ll just know the answers. I think for some people, that’s something that comes very naturally.
For me, though, I don’t always know everything about my characters. Part of me likes finding out who they are through the process of writing the story, but the side they show in the narrative isn’t all of who they are. We only get to see each character in the scenes to which they’re relevant, and when you’re a character in a story, you often get put through more extreme and unusual situations than most normal humans do in their normal lives.
So here are a few things you can try doing to dig a little deeper into who your characters are as people, especially when they’re not in the midst of excitement and action. While I don’t think every author needs to have encyclopaedic knowledge of every single detail of all their characters, having a bit more to go on than just what’s strictly plot-necessary can make characters feel richer and more interesting. Plus it can just make writing them easier, since it informs the kind of things they might do or say.
1: Write the same scene from someone else’s perspective.
I think this one’s an especially good tip for getting past that odd phenomenon of ‘the main character is the least interesting person’. Particularly (but not exclusively) in first-person narratives, we experience the world and the people in it from the perspective of the main point-of-view character, which tends to mean we get richer insight and more interesting details about everything but them. I know I’ve recently run into a bit of an issue where I’ve realised that my first-person point-of-view protagonist sees everything through her own eyes – I mean, duh, but what that means is that she’s almost never looking at herself, which means there’s much less on the page about what she looks like, how she talks or acts, and so on.
In an effort to combat this, I tried writing a scene I’d already written, but from a different character’s point of view. I’m probably not going to have multiple POVs in the story, so this isn’t going to be included in the actual text, but it was surprisingly useful. It got me thinking more about what my main character’s expressions and body language are like, how her tone is perceived by others, the kind of impression she leaves people with, and what others tend to notice about her.
The hope is that all of this is going to make its way into her own narration in some way so she feels just as interesting and worth talking about as the rest of the cast.
2: Take them shopping.
I’m pretty sure I first came across this one in a book called The Five-Minute Writer by Margret Geraghty, so credit to her (or wherever she got it from!).
This can be as simple or as complex as you wanna make it. At its most basic level, you just write a short scene in which your character goes to the shops. You can spin it out to whatever depth you like, though – a premise as simple as this might include:
- Their body language as they move through the shop
- What’s on their shopping list (and what this says about their lifestyle)
- How they react to inconveniences (someone’s in the way, they don’t have the brand they like)
- Their choice of transportation method to get there and back
- How they hold their basket or trolley
- The playlist or podcast they listen to as they walk around (see also exercise #5!)
- The way they talk to the staff
And, y’know, whatever else you can think of. The point is that something as basic as this can become a pretty rich look at what someone’s like in a normal situation that’s primarily practical but partly social.
You don’t have to turn this into an actual scene with conflict and interest – of course, you can if you want to, but you’re not obliged to. It can be very dull from a storytelling point of view and still be useful as a character study for your own benefit.
3: Spend some time in their hobbies.
What do you think they do in their spare time?
If they have creative hobbies, you could try describing (or making for yourself!) the kinds of things they make, what they do with them, what they enjoy about the process, and even things like their motivations for doing so and what they’re trying to communicate with their work.
If they’re sporty, maybe you could make some kind of schedule of their matches or training routine, then scribble on it in-character to immerse yourself in how they feel about it, what they’re thinking they need to do or practice, and why it’s important to them.
If they love being in nature, try heading out into nature yourself! Always a good idea anyway, but if you’ve got a character who loves being outside, it’s easy and rewarding to just sync yourself up with that part of their lifestyle and spend some time thinking about the kind of person they are, what they love about nature, and how they access it.
4: Make social media accounts for them.
You don’t have to actually set up accounts and post as your characters (although I know some people do!), but it can be fun to think about how your characters would use social media.
Which platforms are they on? Do they post regularly, or do they just scroll and like others’ posts? Do they reply to celebrities and get upset when they don’t reply back? Are they trying to sell something, build a following, or just share their thoughts?
And, maybe most interestingly, what are the differences between how they present themselves on social media and how they really are? Why do they choose to show some parts of themselves but not others?
5: Make a playlist for them.
There are two ways you can go about this: you can create a playlist of the music you think they would actually listen to themselves, or you can make one that reflects something about how you see them. There’ll probably be some overlaps, of course, but they’re not quite the same exercise.
Let’s take Anakin Skywalker as an example. A playlist that represents him as a character might include a lot of tracks about tragedy and falls from grace and that kind of thing, but that’s not how he sees himself (well, not until the very end, anyway). If I were to make a playlist I think Anakin might have blasting in his ears as he’s off doing Darth Vadery things, I might be more likely to include something aggressive or heavy, or perhaps I might go the other way and decide he’s the kind of guy who really likes listening to peaceful piano music while he massacres kids.
And there you have it: five simple exercises for getting to know your characters – not necessarily knowing them better than you do from writing them as part of their story, but in different ways.
For more tips and resources, visit my page of… well, you can probably guess, it’s a page of tips and resources.
Chris Durston 