This is the second of three posts in a series on creating a character from
scratch. In this series, I cover one step per post, to give you a sense of why
I think it’s important, how I figure it out for my own characters, and various
tips and tricks to help you on your own way.
Last we met, I talked about how I go about
naming characters
and pointed you in the direction of some fun ways to find the right name for
your character. This time around, I'll cover the process I embark on to figure
out a character's physicality, and how that plays into the fabric of the
story.
“You are your mother's trueborn son of Lannister."
"Am I?" the dwarf replied, sardonic. "Do tell my lord father. My mother died
birthing me, and he's never been sure."
"I don't even know who my mother was," Jon said.
"Some woman, no doubt. Most of them are." He favored Jon with a rueful grin.
"Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need
be dwarfs."
And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune.
When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across
the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.
George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
There's some debate among writers and readers alike as to whether a character
should be described from head to toe; their description left completely to the
reader's imagination; or somewhere in the middle. While my younger self adored
a hefty descriptive paragraph or two for every character upon being
introduced, my tastes have mellowed over time, and these days I largely fall
into the camp of leaving it up to the reader's inclinations, with perhaps a
detail or two woven in.
That being said, I do have a visual in mind when I write about a character,
even if I don't convey that directly on the page, and it's often a very
specific one.
How do I visualize a character?
Once I have a name in mind for my character (sometimes even before), I venture
into the vast world of popular figures to find someone to represent them in my
mind's eye. You could do this with someone you know or a person who catches
your eye as you pass them on the street, too.
The reason I love to choose someone famous as an avatar for my character is
because I can browse YouTube videos and hunt through pictures on Pinterest to
find exactly the right one, one that captures the tone, the mood, the essence
of the character. I can't tell you how many times I've referred back to these
references when I lose sight of what a character would be saying or doing in a
scene.
It's not about the Real Person's personality "in real life," either, or the
person they happen to be playing in whatever video clip I've landed on. That's
too limiting for writing purposes. For me, it's about their inflections; the
timbre of their voice; the way they play with their hands when they talk.
Going through this process takes a lot of the pressure off for me, because,
while character development is my favourite part of writing, and I can come up
with solid plots and scene ideas, I'm not nearly as confident in my ability to
craft engaging descriptions, to make the character I imagine pop off the page.
Combining the personality, quirks, and inclinations I discover with the look
and sound of the Real Person I cast helps me get that much closer to the
character I've imagined in the first place. It's like getting glasses for the
first time and realizing that trees actually have LEAVES! They're not just
amorphous green blobs!
As an example ...
In my latest WIP, the main character's mum felt important, so I went on my
very own casting call on Pinterest and YouTube. I wasn't having much luck,
until I remembered Virginia Madsen.
I knew even before I (re)watched some of her interviews and movie scenes that
I'd found exactly the right representative for my character, because all the
exchanges I'd written so far involving her? I was reimagining them with
Virginia Madsen saying all the dialogue and doing all the things, and it felt.
So. Right.
The best part of this process for me is that, when I'm writing a scene, I can
visualize the characters so much more easily. I can figure out how to tweak a
line of dialogue to make it sound more like them. I can imagine how they'd
laugh, how they'd cough, how they'd trip. Something about having that concrete
visual makes them come alive.
This is not to say that I wouldn't "recast" a character along the way. I've
done that before, as my view of a character changes, or I stumble across an
actor that seems to fit even better than the first. The reason this works is
because it's a flexible, private process. Few, if any, people are going to
know about these casting choices other than myself, so there's nothing
dissauding me from switching gears.
Why a character's physicality is important
As with many things about writing, I don't think there are hard and fast rules
about how much or how little to describe a character. It depends on the story
you're writing and your own inclinations as a writer.
However, even if you don't describe a character in exacting detail to your
reader, their physicality can still play a descriptive role. Here are some
ways that could happen without being explicitly spelled out:
-
someone who's particularly short might keep a stool in the kitchen, to reach
the top shelves
-
someone who's sensitive to temperature changes might keep their hair short
in summer and grow it long over the winter
-
someone who's fairly well-toned might be at the gym or coming home from a
martial arts class during a few scenes
None of these are necessarily groundbreaking or plot-forwarding details.
They're the little things that make your story come alive, without a bright
neon sign flashing All the Information You Ever Had About the Character at
your reader.
A character's physical attributes, when portrayed more directly, can also be
an effective way to bring the story to life. Who can forget Anne (with an 'E')
Shirley, with her bright red hair and Gilbert's ill-advised nickname of
"Carrots"? How about weedy little Peter Parker?
Ways to discover a character's physicality
If you're not sure where to start when it comes to bringing your character
into focus, you could try:
-
hopping from music video to music video on YouTube (start with a favourite
of yours, then click on one of the suggested videos)
-
browsing character boards on Pinterest (start here
for inspiration!)
-
opening to a blank page in your sketchbook and starting to draw; try
different versions of what you have in mind, different hairstyles, different
expressions, different noses, until something feels right
-
creating a collage from old magazines; see if you can pick up some different
ones from garage sales and secondhand stores
-
creating a
detail cluster
with all the phrases and words you can think of that have to do with your
character's physicality (if a few personality traits sneak in there, too, no
harm done!)
One quick tip: set yourself a time limit! Activities like these can become so
entertaining that they suck away your writing time until nothing is left.
After all, we want to be able to actually write about these awesome
characters, now that we know their name and what they look like, right?
That's all for today! If you haven't already, make sure to check out the first
post in this series (How to Name a Character), and keep an eye out for the final installment:
who's most important to your character, and why your first guess might not be the right one.