character flaws

Who’s still up for NaNoWriMo? Anyone? Anyone?

Well, I still am. That is because I am the plucky heroine of my own story. I am deeply flawed but convinced there is some kind of redemption in finishing a novel, so here I am thinking about it again and planning, about to be fueled by yet another cup of coffee.

Today, I’m thinking about characters. One area I need to work on in writing is developing believable characters. My characters have been seriously flawed in the past --and not in a good way. I wrote them wrong, because I wrote them without really having a clear idea of who they were. I’m ready to try again.

I’ve been reading up on stock characters and archetypes. What are those? Those are starting points that are frequently used to come up with characters. At their worst, they are flat and predictable (read boring) and occasionally stereotypical. At their best, they can provide a key service to the plot --perhaps you need a mentor, or a hero, or an everyman, or a space nazi, or a tortured artist to move your story along.

Here is a list of some these character types that you see throughout storytelling:

Hero

Antihero  

Superhero

Heroine

Villain

Ingenue/Innocent  

Mentor  

Mother Figure

Bad Boy  

Damsel In Distress  

Scapegoat

Lackey

Gentleman Thief

Mysterious Stranger  

Straight Man

Supersoldier

Tragic Hero

Star-Crossed Lovers  

Town Drunk

Village Idiot

Grand Dame

Femme Fatale  

Crone/Hag

Professor

Outlaw  

Hooker With Heart of Gold  

Shrew

Swashbuckler

Wise Fool

Girl Friday  

Noble Savage

Dark Lord

This list is not comprehensive, by any means, but it’s a start, just as these archetypes are. You can leave them the way they are, but you’ll still have to come up with their particular quirks and flaws and defining characteristics in order to make them more lifelike. Being that I like to mess with stuff, I might take this list and cross-pollinate --maybe an antiheroine, or a tragic lackey everyman who ends up a scapegoat (just like in real life)?

And the whole point of a story is that the characters go through conflict, often emerging changed on the other side. Maybe your character starts out as one archetype and ends as a different one as a result of what they go through. Perhaps they start as the villain and end up the hero, or start as the hero and end up the villain, or start as the bad boy and end up the femme fatale? Anything could happen --it’s fiction!

***Special note: try to avoid stereotypes. If nothing else, they’re boring. Don’t be afraid to write characters from a different culture or gender than you are or who may have a disability. Think of them as human beings and write them that way. Then, later, check to see if the character feels authentic by talking to people who know, engaging sensitivity readers, researching, etc., and ask for advice on what would make the characters feel more well-rounded. In my story, I have to write from the point of view of monkeys --I will not be speaking to monkeys, but if I could, I would!

Other things to consider, once you have a starting place:

• Character history -How did they end up in your story? What happened before the events of the story began?
• Physical -Does their appearance match their personality? Does it change? Are they fully mobile, or do they have physical limitations?
• Personality -Are they extroverts? Introverts? Organized? Disorganized? Optimists? Pessimists?
• Communication style -Are they expressive? Stoic and silent? Fluent? Do they speak clearly? Do they speak too much? (Hint: this will drive your dialogue.)
• Plot -What happens to them during the story and how do they react? Is it consistent with who they are, or do they change suddenly?
• Relationships -Why does he/she have to interact with other characters? What is the relationship? Does it change?
• Likes and dislikes
• Point of view
• Limited (describes internal states, as if from closer in) or omniscient (describes external actions, as if from further away)
• First person (“I wrote this”), third person (“Agnes wrote that”), or --god forbid --second person (“You wrote in the second person???”)
• Limited third person (combines looking in and looking out from a character’s point of view) or ‘deep third (person)’ (spends a lot of time inside the character’s head --like first person, but written in he/she)

So give it a try: write little biographies for your characters that you will be writing for NaNoWriMo? Or draw up a character arc to describe their journey through the story? Or perhaps think about them while you drink yet another cup of coffee? I will be doing this, as I am the plucky heroine of my own story and I know I need to do this to prepare to write that novel that represents redemption. I'd be happy for some company.