Where do your characters come from?

[JamesSavik]

A worthy question for any author...

[Graeme]

And the simple answer is ... many places.

 

Many of my characters have at least a partial base in someone I know. None of them equate directly to a person, but I'll often use one or more attributes of a person to form the basis for a character in a story.

 

For the rest, I'll often start with a simple "sketch" of a person, and watch as they evolve into a complex character as the story progresses. I couldn't really say that they come from anywhere in particular.

[C James]

A worthy question for any author...

 

I have basically been creating the storyline first, and then molding the characters to fit it. Mine are composites, I never really base them on anything. I'm not sure if this is the "right" way, but it's what I've been comfortable with so far.

[Dio]

My imagination! With maybe a dash of someone I know, and a cup of creative liscence.

[NickolasJames8]

Mainly Virginia, but sometimes California

[DarkShadow]

My characters are usually a combination of people I have known, or would like to know. I take pieces from many people, and then mold them into a single character. It seems to me that bringing in the flaws of a person is what makes a character feel realistic.

[Krista]

Well I construct characters from many different things. One character could have different mannerisms from two or three different people that I know. It really depends on the story and what I want the characters to do in the end.

 

Then in stories like, "Are You Christian," which has a Religious theme I let the story create the characters. Their reactions to things that happen and their conflicts and fears.

 

For their names I've named some after friends and others after family.

 

Krista

[Graeme]

For their names I've named some after friends and others after family.

Naming... one of the things I don't like doing. I have an aversion to using too many usual names, so I tend to stick to fairly well known names with only a handful of 'odd'names per story, and they are usually named after someone I've met. It's not always the case, but if I need a new name, I'll pick a letter of the alphabet that I haven't used for a name yet, and then try to think of a name that starts with that letter. It helps reduce the risk of confusion of using similar names. I know people in real life can have the same name (I've got a friend who knows three Jeff's and when he talks about them he always has to qualify which one he's talking about), but generally that doesn't add anything to a story so I try to avoid it.

 

I noticed once that all the female characters in one of my stories had names ending with 'a', so I quickly picked one and changed it before I started posting the story. It's little things like that that can be annoying longer term.

[adblue]

Although you haven't seen stories from me yet, online (or offline) -- my ideas usually come as a scene with a few characters, and grow from there. The characters, I hope, have something memorable and unique in their personalities, not just in the problems within the story.

 

I will say it's tough when my inner editor yammers about one thing or another. -- Apparently, he doesn't yammer at me about wordiness or setting a deadline for myself to get a story done, even with other things to do.

 

I have set one goal, but I haven't started yet, so I'm not tellin' yet.

[jalaki]

Like most others have said, mine can come from a variety of places. Usually I'll start with some kind of basis on someone I know in real life or occasionally online, pick a trait or two or a few and then flesh them out with other things I just think of...or they'll be a composite of several people. Quite a few tend to have at least a little bit of my own personality in them, but that also could be because I tend to pick up a lot of others' traits if I spend enough time with them

 

Sometimes though, I'll just make someone up from scratch if the need arises, and in that case, it's just pure imagination.

[Empathy]

My characters come from all over; my imagination, real life and sometimes a mix of the two.

 

The characters in my new story Bad Seed for example, Kyle Wellmen the main character, his first name is the name of the first guy I was ever with. His last name the last name of my first crush. And all the other character names and personalities are mixes of different people I know or knew along with my own personal outlook on things mixed in.

[Krista]

If you're having trouble coming up with names to characters visit Baby Naming websites.

 

I have a terrible time naming characters that aren't important in the story so just to get some names in thought I go to them. It at least gives me a variety to look at.

 

 

Krista

[jalaki]

If you're having trouble coming up with names to characters visit Baby Naming websites.

 

I have a terrible time naming characters that aren't important in the story so just to get some names in thought I go to them. It at least gives me a variety to look at.

Krista

 

 

Exactly what I had meant to mention and forgot *laugh* Those things can be INVALUABLE for finding a quick name for a character here or there....occasionally even for a more major character if you take some time to really check things out.

[dkstories]

Hehe, I've used the baby naming sites as well...or I use the first name of one person I know, and the last name of another (for minor recurring characters usually). Other times, especially if I'm feeling lazy, I'll do this:

 

"Robert, I need a name! Young female of Japanese ancestry, kind of a bitch at times but nice and fuzzy on the inside."

 

"Uh, Masako." (That's how in Dreams my main character's wife was named...of course the name is Robert's aunt, but that's neither here nor there...)

 

last night I did that and ended up with two minor characters named "Roget" and "Barret" (as in Roget's Thesarus and Barrett's Guide).

 

Other times I just pick the first name that pops into my head (which is how I ended up with a Garret and a Gary as a main character and a supporting character. Now I'm going to be stuck with a Garret and a Barrett. *sigh*)

[Razor]

Ummm... my characters themselves come from people I know, or ideas I've had... then you mix in my expertise in drug culture, a dash of teen angst, and a little bit of shock just for fun, and that's how I make 'em up.

 

They just... make themselves. If I have to force a character, then the story's dead.

[TheZot]

If you're having trouble coming up with names to characters visit Baby Naming websites

Or, oddly, the phone book. You don't want to name a character after someone in there, but it can be a good source of first and last names, especially if you're in an area that's relatively ethnically diverse. Maybe won't do you much good in chunks of, say, North Dakota, but if you live somewhere along the east coast of the US... And worst case you can always hit the online white pages for, say, Newark.

[JamesSavik]

My characters come from several places.

 

People I know or have known of course but I'm not so rude as to xerox a personality. As someone else up the thread said, I use a lot of composites: a little bit of a, a dash of b and a whole lot of c.

 

Building a character out of thin air is a difficult challenge for me. Sometimes what I do is think of an actor that would be right for "the role". The face may be irrelevant to your story but it helps the imagination. For instance: in a story I'm working on, the lead is a doctor. For some reason, I envisioned him as Peter Weller.

Here he is as the pre-borged Robocop. Why Peter Weller? My character needs to be idealistic, earnest, smart but not pretentious and Mr. Weller "does" that fairly well in some of his dramatic roles (Not Robocop or Buckaroo Banzai). This gives me a visual frame of reference to start thinking about the character and then it is up to me to add depth and detail to the "sketch".

 

Another method that I have tried is starting with a character idea and looking for a face that would match that personality. This is reverse of the first process and more difficult. It is not necessary to use an actor, actress or pop star for this process. Go to the mall and look at real people. Study how they move, mannerisms and body language. Get to know their slang, their hobbies, pets and so forth.

 

The more you know about a character, the easier s/he will be to write and be accepted by the reader as a real person.

 

 

Names: were mentioned earlier in this thread. Coming up with a name is one of the hardest parts of creating a character. In some of the long haired and long winded literature about writing literature suggest that names be symbolic: Luke Skywalker. That works for Lucus but if any of us tried it we would be accused of rolling out cheese by the hoop.

 

Names are names. Very few people chose their own name and sometimes people give you a nickname. Would it be any mystery why a kid would rather be called by his nick name "Redd" than his given name "Eugene"?

 

Names imply background. A person named "McLeod" is marked by Scottish heritage and so on. It is useful to know where Sir names come from but in the US where we are generations removed from the "mother country and culture", it doesn't mean as much.

 

Misha Rochenko, a new immigrant from the Ukraine however would be indelibly marked by his culture. Misha's son "Rocky" Andre Rochenko is Americanized and will have very different speech patterns, attitudes and so on. Writing a character from a different culture is tricky but it can be done. Integrating it into a character and getting it right requires some research.

 

Don't use cultural stereotypes. It's boring and clich

[Brayon]

*Casts Thread Resurrection*

 

My characters come from several different places. Like James, a lot are based on people I knew/know and are most likely mixed together. Some are old RPG characters I played. I suck at naming things and use baby lists and name generators now.

[KD_stories]

On 7/29/2018 at 10:44 AM, BHopper2 said:

 I suck at naming things and use baby lists and name generators now.

I am so glad I am not the only one who uses this! 

 

As to where my charaxters come from. I take bits of pieces from people I knew/know and take what I like or dislike about them and kind of mold the character to what I think would work. Their personalities are sometimes based on people I know as well. Most aren’t, I think I try to base them as if it was someone I’d like to talk to. I guess trying to make them seem more human I guess 

[Jdonley75]

On 7/29/2018 at 9:44 AM, BHopper2 said:

*Casts Thread Resurrection*

 

My characters come from several different places. Like James, a lot are based on people I knew/know and are most likely mixed together. Some are old RPG characters I played. I suck at naming things and use baby lists and name generators now.

First off; awesome spell.

 

As far as names go that used to be the biggest sticking point as far as creating a character is concerned so I just stopped putting effort into it let them name themselves.  Where the characters come from for me is usually just asking a question to myself and see where it leads.  "What makes a person suddenly change from an outgoing, caring person to a curmudgeon?"

 

Poof, there's Kyle. Ready to tell his story.  And from him came Jacob, Troy, Andy and Brian who themselves had their own stories to tell which just gets threaded into the narrative.  I go with scenes that play out in my mind and then ask how it happened, what lead up to it and what happened later.  That's usually where my characters and stories evolve.

 

But, then again, people who know me think I'm crazy.

[Thirdly]

*slams hands down dramatically* People I know in real life. Just...a lot of different combinations of people I know...and a dash of my own personal flair. If @Rambling Robin knew just how many times I used parts of her personality for my characters...