6 First Steps to Setting the Foundations for Your Characters

Apr 1

When creating the characters for your story - short story, novel, or epic fantasy saga - your primary goal is to make them fully realized. The draw of a fictional world is that it seems extraordinary and beyond our own, but your readers will want to explore this world because of the people that inhabit it. They provide a grounding aspect to a world born out of the author's imagination, individuals with hopes and dreams, strengths and weaknesses, triumphs and failures – all of which speak to the reader. These are the parts of your characters that will ensure the audience connects with and remembers them - both while they're reading the story and after they've put the book down.

Today we’re going to look at six key questions from Philip Athans’ "The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction" to help you begin setting foundations for your characters. (Side note: if you have aspirations to be a fantasy and/or science fiction author, buy this book.) This is not a comprehensive or detailed guide to developing your characters – we’ll visit that down the road. Consider these to be broad strokes to get you started with the process and give general direction on key notes to start jotting down about your characters.

1. Who is the character?

A character's background feeds into their personality, the way they view the world, the actions they will choose to take, the reasons behind said actions, etc. To identify who your character is, keep it simple. At this early stage of your notetaking, this can be one sentence that introduces the character's central conflict.

2. Where did they come from?

Jot down some notes on demographics - where they were born (geographical) and what they were born into (family dynamics, cultural expectations, social class, etc.). Once you have these down, expand your original sentence - how does where your character comes from expand/further develop their central conflict?

3. What are they doing?

Here, you address the character's primary course of action. For example:

· She wants to escape an arranged marriage.

· He aspires to follow in his father's footsteps and be appointed commander over the royal army.

Feel free to expand on the actions, but don't focus on motivation, intention, or consequences (yet). You just need to get the what down on paper to set the foundation for the next step.

4. Why are they doing it?

This is where you address motivations and intentions. Remember, "Why a character does anything is critical" (Athans, p. 45). Athans offers an easy trick for this part: every time you think of an action for your character to take, ask "why?" and then ask "why?" again and again until you've gotten down the absolute core of their motivations. "Keep thinking, keep asking questions, until you can't think of anything else to ask." (p. 45).

5. How will they do it?

Developing the how behind your character's goals is like building a house: it sets the foundations with the understanding that nothing will go according to plan. Remember, having the foundation in place is key for your readers to understand when the plans go awry. If they don't have this established from the beginning, changes will just confuse them and fracture the chances of long-term interest in the story.

Pro Tip: The character's original plan will go off the rails in the story because the character(s) will go off the rails for the author. Accept this from the beginning. Your characters are your children and they rarely behave themselves.

6. What is at stake?

This is where you ask yourself the big questions that address the primary conflict:

· Is she prepared to risk potential political fallout, and the future of her country, by rejecting an arranged marriage and ruling without a husband - and how far is she willing to go to be free of her intended husband?

· Will he be able to overcome cultural and social prejudices to become appointed commander of the royal army without his status as a bastard shaming his father's reputation?

Potential consequences can be big or small (though higher stakes tend to make a more engaging, nail-biting experience for your readers), but they must be explicitly clear. Naming the stakes from the beginning will keep your readers on track even as the original plan changes. No matter how wild the ride, they know where the character ultimately wants their story to end.

Final Thoughts:

These questions are key to developing your characters - protagonist, antagonist, and side characters. You will likely choose to have a different level of detail for your protagonist than your side characters, but starting with notes on the Who, Where, What, Why, and How will set up that pivotal foundation for every player in your story.

Pro Tip: Be willing to allow your characters the flexibility to shift from their original labels. The one you initially labeled "HERO" could turn out to be the true villain of the story - and vice versa.