What can I do to make my flat characters less... Flat? +BQ's?

Question

Hey guys,
So I'm having some character problems. I have some characters of mine that shouldn't be flat, but they are. What is a good way to fix this?
Also, I'm feeling very out of touch with my characters, as if they were just a stick figure drawn on the corner of a notebook. It's pretty frustrating...
Any advice?

Thanks :)

BQ1: what do you want for christmas?
BQ2: What are two things you do to keep in touch with your characters?
BQ3: Do you pick your title before or after you finish the novel?
BQ4: Have you ever started your novel at the end and worked your way up to the beginning?
BQ5: If you answered yes to the question above, did it make writing the novel easier? Was the novel better because of it?

Answer 1

Do a character questionnaire :)



http://www.writingclasses.com/InformationPages/index.php/PageID/106



http://www.scripsit.com/questionnaire.html



http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?t=316674



They should make you think about your character, and you'll find yourself developing their traits as you go along. It's what I do to help flat characters... Rise?



And then once you've done that, you should double check that he/she isn't a Mary-Sue :)

This is my tried and tested questionnaire:



http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html



Another thing I like to do is sketch my characters. I'm not the most artistically gifted person in the world, but it definitely helps to have a hard-copy of their appearance lying around. That way I don't always have to rely on the projection I have of them in my mind.



BQ1: what do you want for christmas?

The Pretty Reckless CD.



BQ2: What are two things you do to keep in touch with your characters?

Sketch them and I... Somtimes talk to them.



BQ3: Do you pick your title before or after you finish the novel?

Usually before, but this time I'm going to do it after.



BQ4: Have you ever started your novel at the end and worked your way up to the beginning?

Never, ever.

Answer 2

* What can I do to make my flat characters less... flat?

As others have said, the best way to fix this is thinking of your characters as real people living in the real world -even if your story is fantasy or sci-fi, just picture them living their lives in their 'natural' environment. Do a personality test pretending to be your character (character questionnaries work pretty much the same way). Come up with backstories for them. Try writing a diary from their perspectives. Picture an entire day in their lives, full with all the details, boring and interesting. Walk a mile on their shoes, and they will turn real and full of life in no time. ;-) That's half of the writer's job. The other half is translating the way you view your characters onto paper.



* BQ1: what do you want for christmas?

World peace.

...

Alright, alright: a kindle.



* BQ2: What are two things you do to keep in touch with your characters?

I keep writing side stories about them that I know won't make it into the main story. It gives me this feeling of knowing them intimately.



* BQ3: Do you pick your title before or after you finish the novel?

I don't pick titles. I just call them by the MC's name: Lena's story, Miguelangel's story, Phaedra's story... I wonder what would happen if I ever wrote a story with more than one MC. :-s



* BQ4: Have you ever started your novel at the end and worked your way up to the beginning?

Nope, but that sounds like an interesting method. Might try it some day.



Hey! Where are *your* answers? ;-)

Answer 3

Because you are feeling detached from the characters, you are unable to make them convincing. spend some time getting to know them a little.



Ask yourself, what do they look like? How do they speak? What is different about how they speak and act? Do they have any mannerisms? How do they dress and think?



Try to imagine yourself in their world. Try to think of how they might live. Some of my best characters are in fact amalgams of people i know or have met at some time or anther. Not complete copies. Just a little here and a little there. But those that really come to life are the ones where I have spent some time getting to know them so I can hear and feel them in my head.



They are the ones I care about. The ones I want to write about. Both good and bad. The ones that really reach out and grab me. Those are the ones that come to life for me.



So when I am creating a new character, I spend a little time getting to know them. Either during the research phase, or during the writing phase as I learn about them. Some authors will actually write a small piece about their character that has nothing to do with their story just so they can get to know their character a little outside of the confines of the story. It's a bit like taking your character down to the pub for a pint.



But ask them, what their background is. What kind of upbringing did they have? What was their childhood like and where? What education? Things like that. Even if its how they feel about global warming. Anything that can help you get to know them better.



I was sharing with someone the other day about how I write some of my characters and I was explaining that when I am writing about them then I become the character. I become like an actor that is palying the part of that character. A good actor becomes the character. They would even adopt a back story for the character and everything.

Answer 4

I've had this problem too. I find writing long backstories about them helps a lot. How does their past affect the way they feel now? For example, maybe your character has a fear of water. How did this happen? Was it because their younger sibling drowned years ago? How will you character break through this fear in order to achieve their goals?



Characters are people just like we are (well, usually). Real people are hugely impacted by their past. Anything drastic that the character does or decides to do or even avoids, is all because they've been affected by something in their past that has shaped their personal perception. Do your characters have their own personal opinions on everything? Even if most of their opinions won't show up in the book, it is important for you to know them, because even little things like hating cheese or being a compulsive hand-washer can hugely affect your plot, like the butterfly effect per se.



I hope this helps you!



BQ1: An external hard drive, and for my best friend not to move away again :(

BQ2: I have conversations with my characters in my head. I imagine going places with them. Sometimes I imagine they are right beside me and I constantly chat with them. That probably sounds a little weird but apparently it's normal for an author.

BQ3: Not necessarily. I tend to write the most important scenes and the climax first, and then fill in all the bits in-between.

Answer 5

It might just be that you haven't got enough "practice" writing these particular characters yet. This happens to me a lot in the beginning of a story or when I've just started writing it. Usually by the time I finish and go back and revise, I look at the cardboard characters I've written through the first several chapers and think, "ugh...that's not who that character is at all." once you've written a lot of material with them and worked with them some more, they should take on a more colorful, 3-d shape on their own. Its like meeting a new friend for the first time. You don't know anything about them except the potential, but you keep working on it and eventually they're your best friend and you know everything about them. Just keep writing. Write other things besides your story with your characters. I find that dialogue can reveal a lot about a character, so I'll often just sit down and write a few different conversations between my characters, or my character and a doctor or a teacher or her mother or whatever. I try to think about what character I'm writing and really get their personality into their dialogue. For example, if I have a character who's really shy and reserved, he's probably not going to say a whole lot, give one word answers, not start the conversation, etc. If he's talking to his best friend hell probably be more open. If I have a character who's always the first one to act or jump on an opportunity, shell probably speak before she thinks about what comes out of her mouth or she might be two steps ahead of the conversation. A well educated character is probably going to use bigger words and more thought-out dialogue than a fourteen year old kid, and an egotist is going to try and draw every piece of the conversation back to himself. You can find out a lot about a character just by the way they talk. And character creation sheets are helpful too, but don't stress over the questions like "what's suzannes favorite food?" unless its really important to the story. Try to find a good character sheet that asks mor important questions like, "how does this person react in a crisis?" and "how do other characters view this person?" and "what motivates this person?" and always ask yourself "why" for every question on that sheet. There doesn't have to be a reason for everything but there might be, and even if that information never makes it into the story, you'll know it, and your characters will feel more real to you because of it. You'll be able to write stronger, more believable characters.



BQ1: I just want christmas period. Last year my husband was in jail for some BS he didn't do and let me tell you, that was NOT a fun Christmas at all!



BQ2: I just write them a lot, even if its for completely irrelevant things. I take my fantasy characters and stick them in the waiting room at the dentists office, I take my villain and put him as a 3 year old talking to his mother. Its good for when I have writers block and it helps me get a better feel for the characters. And sometimes, just for fun, I pick a favorite song and see if it relates to any of my characters and how. Then when I'm writing later, I make a playlist of those songs and listen to them while I write. Just for fun.



BQ3: I'm lucky if I even find a title at all, but for the story I'm currently working on, I actually came up with a good title about 2 chapters into it. I was thrilled.



BQ4: yes, I have. Ussually I come up with the beginning, then the end, then plan out everything in between. I try to start writing at the beginning but I ussually end up writing the climax scene early on because I can't contain my own excitement.



BQ5: yeah, I think the writing was easier because of it. It gives me a really good idea of where I'm going or how I want the story to end so every step I take I know if I'm headed in the right direction or horribly off track. And its never set in stone. I always allow myself room for adjustments and changes if necessary. But I think its always a good idea to at least have the end planned, even if its not written.

Answer 6

I just talk to them and ask them what they want to be. I find my characters very responsive. Often when I'm feeling that they're flat, I find out it's because I'm trying to force them into situations or reactions that aren't really them. I have a scene with A and B at the beach and it seems flat. I just start a conversation with one of them like we're not in the story.



"So, why are you at the beach."

"I don't really know."

"How do you not know? I mean I set it up. She told you she liked walks on the beach and you took her to the beach."

"I know man, but I don't really feel the walks on the beach thing you know. It's so cliche. I'd much rather grab a few buckets of sand and pile it up around my bed, cover it with a big beach blanket, and get an ocean sounds CD and make the beach in my bedroom."

"Sand? In your bedroom? That sounds like a big mess and a pain to clean up."

"Yeah it does. I tend to take an idea and run with though. I mean I think she'd totally respect that beach in the bedroom thing. Seems pretty romantic to me. But, I do need to think of a way to get around that sand thing...it'd probably ruin my vacuum."



My flat scene was flat partially because my character felt it was as cliche as it was. However, instead of embracing cliche as traditional, he likes to be more creative. I also learned that he's a bit more of a doer than a thinker. I expect more cool ideas, but poorly conceptualized out of him. I also like doing it that way because by writing my conversations, I get an idea of how he thinks and communicates. I can hear his voice in my head, and I see him using words like man, and totally, in that way that makes him seem a little suferish.



BQS!!



1) A nook color.

2) I talk to them, and I listen.

3) Somewhere in between. I develop characters first. Plot second. Once I have a strong working outline for a plot, I'll start thinking about a title. It changes a lot though.

4) Yes. I often start with just a character or a scene. Sometimes that scene is the beginning, sometimes the end, more often it's in the middle. If the end comes first though, it comes first and I work back.

5) It depends. I don't try to reverse engineer. Like I said, I see a scene and start from there. I don't think it makes it better or worse, it's just a matter of comfort and where teh story starts speaking to me.

Answer 7

I usually think of it like;



The characters make the plot, and the plot makes the characters. If your character's aren't flat before you've written the plot down, the you're doing it wrong.



BQ1: surprises

BQ2: Like I say, write the story around them, and write them around the story.

BQ3: Definitely After, of at least during.

BQ4: I start my novel by writing the story in half a page, then fleshing it out drastically.

Answer 8

When I want to fix my characters, I go to google and type in "character creation sheet". This is my favorite though.

http://community.livejournal.com/lets_write/1555.html



BQ1: A new laptop. Mine's so slow.

BQ2: Online roleplay them and use a ton of character sheets to round them out. I roleplay on a ton fo websites so using my characters in the rps does help learn more about them. Then character sheets always help, but can get annoying since alot of the questions are asked in others.

BQ3: When I want too. Sometimes it's before, sometimes after.

BQ4: Nope. I think i'd get to confused on what's going on.

BQ5: Can't say, never done it.

Answer 9

sometimes i feel that way too,. when your chaacters don't feel like people, real, living people. the term 'flat' is a very good way to describe it.



BQI: A Vaio Laptop with external hardrive and my dad to do the fence in the January holidays

BQ2: To keep in touch with my characters i usually draw them, get all the details i think of them and sketch them on paper. i imagine my characters traits, their likes, dislikes, moods, appearence, everything. then i imagine them in real life, i try to relate to them, see if i would do what they do, see if i can relate them to anyone i know, and imagine myself doing a task they have to do; would i approach it differently then how i think they would?

BQ3: Uusally after but sometimes you think of a title and base the story around the title instead.

BQ4: no, i haven't. it doesn't work for me but it depends on your style. unusual but...unusual rocks!



P.S Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (HO HO HO!)