May
Characters
Recently I’ve been thinking about characters a lot because I’m about to start a new book. Over the years I’ve developed a way of fleshing out my characters that works for me. The first step is living with them inside my head for several weeks.
Now I can admit this to other writers because you’ll understand, but it’s not the sort of thing I tell my other friends and family. I can just imagine the way they’d look at me. 
Anyway, I invite my characters to come out and play, chat to me, tell me their fears. Tell me their names! Gradually I layer my characters inside my head until I’m ready to invite them out and start work on their story.
New Ellora’s Cave author Marilu Mann has a great blog post about adding layers to characters.
I’m not big on how-to books when it comes to writing, but I have a copy of Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon that I’ve used so much it’s starting to fall apart. Here are several hints for improving character descriptions in your writing, taken from this book.
1. Whenever possible combine a physical description with some form of action.
Inactive: The woman had a slim frame.
Active: The woman’s slim frame shook with laughter as she bent down and tossed an oilskin bag of tea over her shoulder. (Christina Skye, The Black Rose)
2. Be specific, not general to give the reader a sharply defined picture.
General: The old witch had an ugly nose.
Specific: The old witch had a bulbous nose.
3. Avoid weighing down descriptions with too many adjectives. Think noun and verb first, adjectives second.
Adjective overload: She had beautiful, sensual, ruby red, Cupid’s bow lips that men found irresistible.
Less is more: She ran her tongue over moist, Cupid’s bow lips.
4. When appropriate, try to reveal some form of emotion behind your description.
Emotionless: Both men were squat and muscular and carried long blowguns.
Emotional: Both men were squat and muscular, both carried long and lethal-looking blowguns, and both looked extremely glum–bored or homicidal or maybe both.
How do you bring your characters to life? From a spark to a character that leaps off the page? What are your favorite ways to design characters?
I think this is great advice Shelley! I always love the reference to ones lips as a cupid’s bow.
I’m still working on this and I will be putting your advice to work.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:56 amThanks, Haven. Actually, it was a good reminder for me as well to add characterization in this manner.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:02 amThese are great tips!
I haven’t found the balance yet.
I think I over discribe, because the picture is clear in my head and I REALLY WANT that reader to see what I see.
So I’ll get it out onto the page, then go back and remove most of it, so the reader can fill in with what they want.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:28 amI need to bookmark this post! Great tips. I’m always working on how to show a character descriptions without spelling them out. I’m sure I either over describe or I don’t do enough of it…
May 16th, 2008 at 2:42 pmDecember - it sounds like you have the opposite problem to me. After I’ve written my first draft I have to go back and “color it in” because it looks as if my characters reside inside a white box!
Stephanie - I guess we need to decide what the most important thing is in each scene and highlight that. That’s probably a good way of thinking when writing a scene.
May 16th, 2008 at 6:01 pm