How to "find" a new character

Creating new characters is an arduous, scary process. It involves describing them, working out their social standing, developing their psyche and creating a background for them - not to mention the elusive name.

Now try this.


Take an empty chair and set it down in the middle of your room. Grap a pen, paper, tablet, phone, computer, Dictaphone - anything, and prepare to write. Imagine a person sitting in front of you in the chair. He or she fits perfectly into your novel, maybe they are the protagonist, maybe the evil overlord, how about a minor character? Someone who flits in and out of the protagonist's vision. This person sitting in front of you is the perfect person for the role you need to fill to progress your book and make it perfect.

How is the person sitting? Perched on the edge of the chair, ready for sudden danger? Asleep after the hard journey they have been on? Maybe lounging on your chair staring straight at you as if to say, "I own this chair. This chair is my chair now."

What does the person look like? Male? Female? Alien? Does the person look as if they look after themselves? Long hair? Short hair? No hair? Four hairs? Does the person have a bag or a purse? What's in the bag? What's in their pockets? Do they have pockets?

Set yourself a time limit for these questions. Grab your phone right now and set the timer to 5 minutes. It's all you'll need, trust me.

When your time is up and you have finished writing, look back at what you have written. Now answer yourself this: who the heck is this guy? Where have they come from? Why are they wearing muddy clothes? What's so special about them? The storyline of your character (and maybe your whole novel) will develop from answering these questions.

Just remember, the character doesn't come from the name, the name comes from the character.


This technique was inspired by lngwstksgk's helpful post on /r/shutupandwrite. Check it out.

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