ATWELL ANDREWS: DISCOVERING MY CHARACTERS
Part of our Interview with an Author series with Atwell Andrews.
Well, I can share my experience and hope it encourages you. And I would love to hear what you have to share with me!
EACH CHARACTER HAS A JOURNEY. Remember that interesting characters have an internal journey as well as an external. That means that they have a beginning, middle, and end to who they are. You will want each main character (and some supporting characters) to grow over the course of your book for better or worse. Stagnant characters are just less interesting.
I CREATED CHARACTERS I WANTED TO KNOW. On that note, as I imagined my characters, I realized I was drawn to complexity: flawed people, usually with a desire to be good, who live this out in confused, conflicted ways that bring them to different destinies. My main character is embroiled in confusion and conflict, with fear and failure and triumph and beauty all going hand in hand, all built on what came before. These are the kind of characters that I can relate with and thus find their struggles relatable too.
START WITH SOME CHARACTER PROFILES. Before I started, I outlined some rather detailed character profiles for each main character. This included strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, driving motivation, personality type, fears, backstory, etc. It isn’t that you have to have it all figured out, but the more thought out your characters are the more real they will feel. These things might change (as you will see in the next bullet point) but going in with some strong ideas will help your characters guide you.
USE YOUR FIRST DRAFT TO HELP DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS. No matter how much I prepared, I found there were things about my characters that I had to consider/change during the writing process. And that actually turned out to be a good thing. The more I delved into my story, the more my characters came to life. The first draft was really a process of discovery when it came to the nuances and complexities of my characters. Like a good plot, I attempted to complicate my characters with conflicting goals, emotions, and beliefs throughout.
Now on my second draft, I read certain scenes and realize that a specific character would never act that way. After spending a whole draft getting to know each character, I can now work their true personalities throughout the earlier parts of the book. Therefore hold your plan loosely and allow your characters to grow naturally with your first draft. You will be surprised where they lead you.
MY PROTAGONISTS AREN’T ALL GOOD. Even my “guiding light” characters have internal conflict. They are just further along in their journey towards the light, more mature. Just as Gandalf refused the ring, aware that he could not be trusted with it, I wanted my guiding lights to be sage BECAUSE they know and respect their flaws. Good and evil thoughts battle within them, and they are tempted by evil, but they consistently resist. Guiding lights are rarely main characters, but they can help shape your protagonist in meaningful ways. Make them interesting and real.
MY ANTAGONISTS AREN’T ALL BAD. I REALLY don’t want my antagonists to be flat, unrelatable villains. Take Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Arthur Fleck, in the movie The Joker. His is a journey of the tragic consequence of a person drowning in the evil he’d experienced. I want the havoc of my antagonists to be the inexcusable but understandable conclusion of their experience. I realized that not all my characters would resolve their conflicts well. All of them were sojourners, but not everyone was saved. Some surrender to the evil all around them, convinced that fear is greater than hope, control more powerful than love, death stronger than life. And that’s what made them dangerous.
Obviously there is more to writing characters than this, but hopefully this helps some in getting you on some good paths towards more interesting and fulfilling characters.
