Oct 25, 2012

Creating a monster

Venice Biennale 2009, KR
I’m now getting to the point in my preparations where I am starting to create the characters for my story. This is always an interesting phase because if you don’t have strong well-drawn characters in your head, then it will be difficult for them to interact with each other on paper.

In the past, I have sometimes created my characters on the fly and their personality often changed dramatically as the story progressed. In my novella “Ekaterina” Sir Gilbert Villiers (a character loosely based on Sir Richard Branson) started life as a villain. I even gave him the name of somebody I didn’t like at school. Then for some reason he stopped being bad and became more of a victim. I have no idea how that happened, it just did.

This time I want to develop the character’s identity in more detail in advance so that this kind of transformation doesn't happen too much. I like to feel that a novel’s characters have a rich private life. The details may not be in the book itself, but I want to feel that the author has it in mind. I think that works very well in “The Lord of the Rings” for example. You can easily imagine the characters doing other things apart from killing dragons or chasing orcs. Gandalf would be extremely good at Sudoku, Arwen must be a Pilates freak while Legolas undoubtedly knits scarves for the other elves. On the other hand, when he isn’t saving the world, I find it very difficult to imagine James Bond doing anything more than stare at himself in the mirror while raising one eyebrow sardonically.

So to help me develop this depth, I have devised a character profile for my characters. I hope to be able to complete this profile for each central character before I start writing. I tried it out for the first time today. The character I wanted to develop should have been the elder brother of the main hero / heroine. But after I had finished I realized that I had developed somebody completely different: the description was just right for Timothy Arnold – somebody working as a part-time undercover agent for the British government and will be very nasty piece of work.  It’s a little bit spooky how this happens. Anyway, here is Timothy’s profile:

Age                          ->    55       
Reminds me of          ->   A Conservative MP             
Role in story             ->   Message bearer for British government.
Relationship status     ->  Married to Celia, daughter of the senior partner in his law firm. Celia has a drink problem. They have two children.
Drives                      ->    Range Rover.
Animal similarity        ->    Looks like overweight grey squirrel.
Personal secret        ->     Has a store of pornography in the garage.
Job                          ->    Solicitor
Strength                  ->     Shrewd
Weakness                ->     Snobbish
Friends description    ->     Clever
Enemies description   ->     Devious, pompous
Best feature              ->     Loves his children
Worst feature           ->      Dishonest
Best experience       ->       Becoming chairman of local golf club
Worst experience     ->       Nearly went bankrupt
Best action               ->       Hid Celia’s drink problem from the children
Worst action             ->       Stole money from a friend to cover a debt
Secret fear               ->       The theft will be uncovered
Loves                       ->       Golf
Hates                       ->       Unpredictibility
He/she admires        ->       Mrs Thatcher
He/she despises       ->       School teachers
Key values                ->      Money, home ownership, status quo


Let’s see how the rest of them develop.

2 comments:

  1. Hi James,
    I read Thimothy's profile after reading the short story (or hopefully the beginning of a novel?). In the story, Timothy seemed a bit different to me, younger and less conservative. But anyway, I hope the story will be continued soon.
    :-) Lotte

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I need to keep an eye on how they develop. This is what always happen. I start off saying one thing and then it leads in another direction. I think in the novel itself, Timothy will be older, about 63.

      But in the short story he is younger. That's when he started off!

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