In my last posts, I talked about the first steps in my brainstorming process: writing down my Magical Cookies and the most important aspects of my story world. As a next step, I’m going to make notes about my characters. 

I’ve learned that I need to figure out my characters before I can really start plotting my story – my plot is driven by my characters, what they want to accomplish, their fears, and needs. I need to know who they are at the beginning and end of the book, and what their emotional journey will be (and which events must happen to force them to change). 

If I don’t sufficiently understand my characters, I have a hard time outlining my story. I lean heavily on John Truby’s Anatomy of Story and Alexandra Bracken’s Writing Diaries to get to the core of who my characters are. 

Ghost

For each character, I start with the ghost. I’m a sucker for tragic backstory, which is essentially what a ghost is. Truby explains that the ghost is a moment or an event (sometimes a series of events) that made the character into who they are. It’s an event that broke something inside the character. It’s an open wound that still haunts them today. It’s also what’s holding them back. 

I like to use the ghost to create a character’s moral and psychological need and follow Alexandra Bracken’s approach to feeding the ghost into the character’s stated fear and the lies they believe about themselves and the world they live in.

Desire

Desire is what a character wants to accomplish in the story. It’s the driving force of your novel and what your reader will THINK the story is about (on the surface). 

Moral and Psychological Need

Need, on the other hand, is what the story is truly about (under the surface). 

Need has to do with overcoming a weakness that comes from inside the character. The character must fulfill their need to be able to have a better life. To fulfill their need, the character must face their fear and overcome their weaknesses. 

Truby states that every character should have two kinds of needs: a moral need and a psychological need. The moral need refers to something a character does that is hurting the people around them (often without realizing it) and the psychological need is how the character is hurting themselves. 

By the end of the story, the character should become aware of their needs (after having gone through a sh*tload of terrible stuff™) and deliberately undertake an action that will fulfill their needs.

Stated Fear

Stated fear comes from the character’s ghost and is mentioned by the character early in the book: it’s the one thing their fear above all else Next, the character is forced to face that fear (MUHAHAHA). Facing their fear will help a character change in such a way that they will be able to fulfill their needs.

The Lie

From the ghost also comes the Lie: I give each character a lie they believe about themselves and about the world they live in. These lies are what keep the character from reaching their goals. For example, they believe they are powerless, not worthy of love, or incapable of winning a contest. A lie can be great or small, as long as it drives the plot.

Weaknesses

All of the above are weaknesses that the character must eventually overcome. To make things more interesting, I assign several “general weaknesses” to my characters, as well (like cynicism or a lethal pineapple allergy). A requirement is that each of the weaknesses I list here must contribute to the story.

Quirks

To complete my character brainstorm, I add a list of quirks for each character. These quirks include looks, mannerisms, specific words they like to use, likes and dislikes, etc. Perhaps they have a mole on their nose or a preference for Nutella pancakes (*chef’s kiss).

I hope you found this helpful! Of course, writing remains a highly subjective thing: what works for me doesn’t necessarily have to work for you (and that’s perfectly okay). Next time, I’ll be connecting the characters to my story world.