Who are they anyway??

So I had planned for this blog to be about character development, and the process of that. With my post about Nezbee Diggle, I feel like part of that subject has already been breached. At least to the extent of doing my own character development exercise. That project was a good start to the art of character development, covering the basics, a little family history, near future intent and little bit about how she got to where she is today. However, that is such a small amount of information compared to what a character, especially for a main character really needs to have to be identifiable and unforgettable. I've been reading a book that helps summarize the process of creating characters, and then what to do with them. It's called Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. I am not even halfway through this book and in just the first few pages I noticed that I have been overlooking seemingly obvious ways to develop my characters. I have been providing background information and personality traits for each of my adventurers, but I have not been giving them things like reputation beyond their racial attributes, or hidden agendas as of yet. While reading this book has been immensely helpful, it has also humbled my once very decent (or so I had thought) character creation skills. While I have been successfully descriptive in my writing of the main forces in my story, I have forgotten some very imperative information. One would think that a writer would automatically think of his or her book from the perspective of someone who understands that just because they know their characters does not mean that their readers do too and their readers need more of a past, or motive, or reputation on the people they are reading about to truly understand them. Not I. I have been writing blindly from the heart and forgetting that although I know these characters very well and I describe them so, I have neglected to give a more personal view into their world and into their minds. I also found another source on the web about creating unforgettable characters. Sophie Littlefield wrote about a fool proof formula that she devised to creating unforgettable characters. It is a very simple formula and one that I was ecstatic to see that I had already used on my main character of my book. It goes as thus: back story plus internal conflict plus aggravating circumstances equals unforgettable character. So my main character has all of this, at least I started her off right, however, her companions could still use some work. Of course my book isn't anywhere near being finished yet, so there is still plenty of room for them to grow and develop. I just might want to consider going back and adding to their history a little bit. I want everyone to love these guys as much as I do!

Now on to the characters that everyone forgets, the side character. I have been having trouble with developing these personalities. I want them to be unforgettable yet forgettable. I think that these minor roles should be quirky but never steal the story. they need to be there and play their role well, but then disappear when they are done. I have heard about a computer program that actually creates a character for you after you input minor information. I haven't found it yet, but I haven't looked very hard either. I am struggling with the option of using a program at all. I mean it might make for a good basis to build a person from, helping to save time, but it feels so impersonal to me. I understand the need to save time, I can barely find the time to write this blog, but I also feel like it would take away from my story if I put randomly generated characters into it. However, I also understand that making my own background story and history for each minor role could be very time consuming and possibly ruin deadlines in the future, but for now, my deadline is pretty far away and I feel that I am making some serious headway. I will do some research into this idea and let you all know what decision I make.

I have also decided to put up the book that I am reading (for entertainment) at the time of each blog. This way you can either try it on for yourself, or maybe give me suggestions. I am currently reading Monster by A.Lee Martinez and it is fantastic.

"I am learning all the time.  The tombstone will be my diploma."  ~Eartha Kitt