Good morning everyone! Today I wanted to talk a little bit about characters, characterization and motivation as found through characters. Sounds so official, doesn’t it? It’s so not.

So for me, the most important thing I do before I write one word in my manuscript is to create my characters. It’s the thing I spend the most time on in the pre-writing process and the thing that leads to everything else. Every book starts differently. Sometimes a scene bounces into my head and I know it’s the start of something wonderful (like the opening terrace scene in Scandalous). Sometimes it’s a high concept kind of thing (like “Charlie’s Angels in Empire Waists for my upcoming Lady Spies series). Sometimes it’s a character (John Valentine, a disgraced Former Bow Street Runner hired to protect a notorious courtesan in “Fallen Angel”, part of PARLOR GAMES). It just depends on my mood and where I am and probably a whole lot of circumstances that I can’t even get into because I probably don’t fully understand them.

But once I have that and I know the concept that is haunting me is one I want to pursue into my next manuscript, I start on character. Personally, I use the same character worksheet every time. I developed it from a combination of several other worksheets I’d found, as well as just tweaks from my own needs. Here it is (the link will take you to a more printer friendly version):

Character Name and Title (if they have one): Obviously important. I use Teresa Norman’s NAMES THROUGH THE AGES for a reference.
Character Appearance — Gives you the basics in case you forget, which happens more than you’d probably like to admit.
Hair:
Eyes:
Skin:
Height:
Age:
Other: Including, but not limited to, scars, birthmarks, physical impression they give, posture, what hand they use to write… anything physical that may stand out about them.

Character Background: Just the facts
Birth: Like 28 years ago in 1792 in Dorset
Class:
Education:
Financial Status:
Marital Status:

Significant Factors (at least 5) — This is where you start to establish motivation and conflict. If you have a hero who lost his father at a young age, was forced to forgo the pleasures many of his contemporaries enjoyed, run a vast estate and help to raise several younger siblings … well, you’re going to start to understand who this man is. Either he’s absolutely wild to make up for his lost youth… or he’s incredibly calm, quiet, responsible and even a little proud (like Tristan is in the upcoming From London With Love). You will understand him much more as you develop and describe those significant events that shaped his life and brought him to the place where you start your story. Even if you don’t explore those events directly in the book (like… say your hero saved his younger brother’s life when he was 12… you might not EVER have him say that out loud, but you’ll know it and you will bring that knowledge into his character. He might be extremely protective of his brother… or of anyone who he considers weaker than himself. That character trait will certainly come out in your story and you’ll have learned about it by exploring his past).

Significant Relationships — Again this is an important part for me to explore before I write. Again, the relationships your hero and heroine have or had in the past, just like in real life, can affect their choices, their faith in other people, even their current state of existance. So even if your heroine’s mother is dead, knowing in even the barest terms whether her relationship with the woman was strong or strained will change who your heroine is and how she reacts to the plot twists you have her encounter in your book.

Positive/ Negative Traits — Some of these will be the same. Headstrong can be good, but it can also mean stubborn.
Goals — If you can add how they directly conflict with your hero’s goals, you’ll be even better!
Internal/External Conflicts — Within the story, within her relationship with the hero and within herself.

So as you can see, I do go into detail in some aspects, but I don’t do what many authors do. They interview their characters, they find out what their favorite food is… if that works for you, go for it. But for me, I really want to know who they are and WHY, rather than that they like a good pot roast from time to time. I figure if a pot roast comes into play in the story, they’ll let me know it’s their favorite.

Now some of you asked about hero and heroine pictures. Who I think about as I write a particular person. I do have someone in mind generally when I create these character sheets. For example, Viggo Mortenson was my Dominic vision when I created him. Ashley Judd was Katherine. But once I started the actual writing, they took on their own appearance. Somewhat similar, but not completely alike anymore. It’s nice to have that actor or model or whoever in mind when you’re creating a character to mold them. I actually have a file of Lady Spy hero and heroines (Ashley Judd again, Reese Witherspoon and honestly… Ana, the second of the books’ heroines didn’t have an actress, she just was. For the men, a Colin Firth/Hugh Jackman hybird, Hugh Jackman and Sean Bean).

Once I have all these past issues explored and understood for my hero and heroine, then as I plot and write my synopsis, I understand better what they are motivated by. Which also helps me to understand what actions they would take under a specific circumstance. For example, from what I know of Grant, the hero from the third Lady Spy book, which I’m writing now… he’s the kind of man who will fight rather than run, even when it makes more sense to run. Versus Emily, the heroine of the book, will fight when she has to and run when it is more prudent. So in a dangerous situation, the knowledge of their characters helps me:

1. Create conflict — She wants to run, he is picking up chairs getting ready to fight
2. Create emotion — The swinging of the chairs, the intense focus on fighting… those things scare Emily on several levels.
3. Drive plot — I know exactly how these characters will react in this particular scene, so I know how the scene will have to go, hence making the plotting go easier. And I also know how they’ll react in the scene immediately following, so that drives my plot even further.

Will this work the same way for you? Who knows! I didn’t know it would develop into something that worked for me until I tried it. (We’ll talk more about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways to write on Saturday). But that’s my take on creating characters and how characterization leads to everything else in my stories.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about my version of juggling!