After a run of bad days, I have finally written again today with 5.4k of my nano. I am so behind, oh god, but determined to catch up. As far as characters, the amount of planning I do varies a lot but the backbone of what does work for me is focusing on fleshing out their emotional relationship with my POV character first and foremost. Even if nothing else gels in the first draft and I have to return and basically (re-)write everything else in later, I find it's that emotional tie to my POV that makes them feel 'real' to me.
If my POV character is also original, it tends to take a lot longer for me to really feel like I've got them nailed down. Once I've got a few orbiting characters around them though, then the POV character's end of each of those connections sort of layers up into a more realistic whole of a person. It's the little details, like observed body language or unexpected behaviours that are most important to me over backstory. As long as I know why I have them in there at all and what their ultimate role/goal is, I'm good otherwise.
I still haven't found a character planning approach that really works for me though, to be honest. I get stuck on the inventing stuff and backstory side of things frequently, especially to start off with. But that's how I make them feel like unique individuals I can distinguish from each other while I wrestle with the other stuff.
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zvi
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Date: 2020-11-19 09:29 pm (UTC)After a run of bad days, I have finally written again today with 5.4k of my nano. I am so behind, oh god, but determined to catch up. As far as characters, the amount of planning I do varies a lot but the backbone of what does work for me is focusing on fleshing out their emotional relationship with my POV character first and foremost. Even if nothing else gels in the first draft and I have to return and basically (re-)write everything else in later, I find it's that emotional tie to my POV that makes them feel 'real' to me.
If my POV character is also original, it tends to take a lot longer for me to really feel like I've got them nailed down. Once I've got a few orbiting characters around them though, then the POV character's end of each of those connections sort of layers up into a more realistic whole of a person. It's the little details, like observed body language or unexpected behaviours that are most important to me over backstory. As long as I know why I have them in there at all and what their ultimate role/goal is, I'm good otherwise.
I still haven't found a character planning approach that really works for me though, to be honest. I get stuck on the inventing stuff and backstory side of things frequently, especially to start off with. But that's how I make them feel like unique individuals I can distinguish from each other while I wrestle with the other stuff.