By Kyrstin
Oke.
Quick! Take our character questionnaire to discover everything
about your character today! It’s as simple as answering 100 questions that will
only take around 20 minutes to 2 hours to complete, (depending upon your decisiveness),
and you’ll know everything you’ll ever need to about your character and writing
will be so much easier! Remember, if you don’t know a character’s favourite
sandwich, favourite colour, their shoe size or social security number, you
don’t know the character at all!
Pfft.
Perhaps I’m just a cynic, but I abhor character questionnaires
with every fibre of my being.
Always have, probably always will.
Now I know you’re probably bouncing up and down in your chair at
this point, ready to stab me with the nearest sharp object at hand to valiantly
defend those character questionnaires but kindly remain seated, lower the
torches and pitchforks, and hear me out.
Why should you know everything about your characters to begin with
anyway? Who told you that you needed to in the first place? (Hell, I do not
entirely know all my characters in the beginning, but you can bet your
best shirt that I know them well by the end of the book.)
Characters are the focal point of writing – this should be nothing
new to you. After all, you’re reading this post so chances are you’re a writer
to some extent. This is covered in the first day of initiation into the Cult of
Writers. ( I think we reviewed characters right after we signed our names in
blood to sell our souls and broke for lunch, but before we got the care package
instructing us on how to solely exist on caffeine, alcohol, and the crumbs
found in between the keys of our keyboard - if my memory serves me correctly. I might be
wrong though, after all, it’s been nearly a decade since my initiation. But
hey, at least I got a free pen! * clicky – clicky*)
Anyway . . .
I’m sure your fancy prose
are nice, and the whole “genetically-modified laser dragon destined to devour
everyone in that epic love triangle who all will save the world from time-travelling,
IRS-evading, medieval ninjas” plot you’ve got there sounds grand, but those
things will not take the reader by the hand and carry them (or drag them
forcefully, kicking and screaming) through the book. Character development will.
Characters are the driving force that get you through writing and get the
reader through the book.
I understand that character questionnaires are supposed to inspire
you to create a character, but I think they go about it the wrong way. Granted,
I’ve only ever gotten through 10 questions on any given character questionnaire
before giving up with a long, drawn-out exasperated exclamation of
“Uuuugghhhhhh”, accompanied with an eye roll. (Believe me, I tried. I really
did.)
No. Stop it you. Stop leaping out of your chair, shouting at the
top of your lungs that I’m a hypocrite.
“But you’ve never gotten through a character questionnaire, who are you to say that they are useless? It’s not all about the character’s physical description or the sort of sandwiches they like!”
“But you’ve never gotten through a character questionnaire, who are you to say that they are useless? It’s not all about the character’s physical description or the sort of sandwiches they like!”
I told you, sit down. Take a breath and relax. To quote Doc
Holiday, “my hypocrisy goes only so far”. One
of the fundamental points of writing is to craft a character’s nature and have
the reader discover that nature.
It is alright to not know every aspect about your character
and the choices they make, but you at least have to know a fundamental part of
their identity – whether they are honourable, stubborn, generous, greedy, weak,
ambitious, unmotivated. . .
Without knowing at least one core value that your character
possesses, you will essentially have a flat character; I don’t give a damn if
you know their exact height, whatever gemstone eye-colour you’ve given them, how
many childhood friends they had, and what they ate for breakfast– none of this
is going to give the character an essence. You might as well be playing with
paper dolls at this point. They need depth and dimension!
I still think character questionnaires are frivolous, superficial,
and excessive. Creating and developing characters shouldn’t come with boring
homework consisting of a billion questions. Writing is much simpler than
that. Creating character development does not have to be torture.
In essence, I’ve only ever found that you really need to contemplate
6 questions about a character to really know the essence of their
identity.
- What does
the character want at any given time?
- How far
are they willing to go to get what they want or to achieve something?
- Depending
on the situation, how mature are they?
- Are the
majority of their decisions based on rational thought or emotions?
- What moral
lines are they not willing to cross?
- How does
pain change them?
The rest – their past, their hopes and dreams, their favourite
sandwich, and their dog’s name are all details – important details they may
prove to be, but they’re still second to a character’s essence. They’re the
garnish you put on the meal, not the entire meal.
It’s the choices the character makes that defines them. It’s their
identity—yes, a part of their identity can be rooted in their physical
appearance—but it’s how they treat their superiors and inferiors, it’s what
they choose to do in dire situations and in the face of fear or temptation, how
they change over time, how they adapt to hardships, what they’re willing to do
or not do for others that defines them.
In my opinion, character
development is the evolution of identity. This evolution doesn’t have to be
a dramatic, life-altering thing—it can be simplistic and still be just as
significant.
And so, I still stand by my 6-question approach. Take my advice or
leave it.
It’s fine if you still want to take a billion character questionnaires,
make a paper cootie catcher foldie-thingy and choose their favourite colour and
number, or shake a magic 8 ball and trust in the sacred piece of plastic
suspended in blue Windex or whatever that reveals the secrets of the universe to
help you decide who a character is. Just make sure it works for you, I suppose.
*shakes magic 8 ball *
Will I meet a tall, dark and handsome strang - . . . I uh . . . I mean, will my character meet a tall, dark, handsome,
stranger soon?
*peers into magic 8 ball*
“Not a chance.”
. . . Damn it.
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Kyrstin Oke, 24 years of age. Very sarcastic, witty, with a hint of devilish charm. What professional experience do I have in writing, you may ask? None what so ever. I never took a class on fiction writing. I wasn’t instructed in the art by a grand master on a secluded hill top. In all honesty, I was bored. I had an idea for a book in middle school and it stuck, like gum to a shoe…. perhaps that’s an inelegant way to put it, but nevertheless it’s true. It bothered me with every step until I began to write. My skills sucked but that was expected. You’re writing is going to suck in the beginning, but it doesn’t mean it has to suck forever. Nearly twelve years later, both the book idea, and my writing skills have improved greatly. So, keep writing. Or not... I’m not your mum.
