Big Question, Part 8

 FLESHING OUT THE CHARACTERS

Once you have a general idea of the characters and the plot, you will need to start fleshing them out.  The major characters have to be more than just elements of the question.  You have to make them real people.

Part of this process of making them real people is adding to their emotional complexity.  First, look at the various givens in the characters' personalities you created so far. Why are they like this?  What in the past shaped them?

For example, Cadaran d'Hasta represents the evils of Arden's society, but as I considered her and why she is what she is, she became more of a person.  I decided that her own motivation stems from a need to dominate others, a refusal to be defeated, and a genuine contempt for women weak enough to love a man.  

She hates men, and she refuses to accept defeat by a man because she was raped when she was a young soldier, and she can't accept that a man ever defeated her.  Every man in her bed, since then, has been dominated and abused to prove this to herself, and she likes men who are sexually rough because it proves she can take it.  

I gave her good qualities to make her fully rounded.  She's loyal to her troops and fair, and she repays loyalty.  Her sarcastic wit in her scenes with Kellen makes her more than a snarling rapist, and in their verbal give and take, the reader can get a glimmer of the possibility that these two people could be friends under very different circumstances.  

MOTIVATION

One very important aspect of creating great characters is proper motivation for what they do in the novel.

If Mara decided to save Tristan from the harem because he's great in bed and she wants to keep him, the totally selfish motivation wouldn't be strong enough for the plot or for the reader.  

The motivation must be understandable, strong, and for the main viewpoint character or characters, the motive must be one the reader will approve of.  For Mara's original motive, I chose a desire to save a brilliant fellow scientist on the verge of a scientific discovery that will benefit all humans.  Later, her motivation includes her love for him.  

Even with Cadaran, I created a motive greater than a need for money or political power.  I gave her an obsessive need to dominate.

Don't try to be totally inclusive in this creation of characters.  Sketch out the major personality points, decide what the characters look like, and maybe decide on a mannerism or two that fits their personality. 

Mannerisms are especially useful for secondary characters.  Novia, for example, tends to grind, throttle, and maul things with her hands as if she's fighting her need to do that to Tristan whom she hates and fears. 

As you write the novel, characters will often surprise you with insights into them that will add even more depth.  Accept these gifts from your Muse as such and don't toss them out because they don't fit that original character sketch.

In STAR-CROSSED, Floppy, the alien version of a cat, was only supposed to be a cute, fuzzy reminder that Mara lives on a different planet, but in his first scene, he hopped onto Mara's lap and pointed at the data cube to let me know that he was human smart, not a pet, and he wasn't about to let me or any other character take care of Mara when he could do it himself.

He proved to be a great addition to the novel and a reader favorite so I'm glad I listened to my Muse and this opinionated cat.

My insight into Cadaran being raped as a young soldier came when I was writing an early scene between Cadaran and Kellen, and Kellen remarks, “Did some big bad man mangle you?”  My mouth flopped open as I realized that's exactly what happened to Cadaran.  My Muse through Kellen had given me the final piece of Cadaran's emotional puzzle.

In one of my first stories, I had the main character in a surly mood in the opening scene without telling the reader why he was acting the way he was. A friend who critiqued the story wrote in the margin, "Who pissed in his oatmeal this morning?" It's a comment I hear in my head every time I discover I need to rewrite an under-motivated character.

Characters should have very good reasons to act as they do. We must give them motivations that the reader can understand. The most common mistake most new writers make is having a character act in a certain way because the writer needs her to act in a certain way.

This is as true for the villain as it is for the main viewpoint character. If your bad guy doesn't act without proper motivation, the whole story falls apart.