So where do you get your character ideas from? Sure, it's helpful to answer those character questionnaires I mentioned earlier, but how do you avoid coming up with a string of random answers that don’t gel together into a cohesive and comprehensible whole?
You might model your characters on real people you know. In fact, that probably always happens, even when it’s subconscious. Your ability to create believable characters is based on your past experience with and knowledge of real, living characters. Just be careful and try to make sure they can’t identify themselves in your work. You don't want your writing success to cost you your friends. Just ask Thomas Wolfe or Truman Capote or Pat Conroy. So be sneaky about it, for heaven’s sake! Nobody likes portraits of themselves unless the artist draws a highly idealized version of the truth.
Some other ideas for finding character types are the many and varied personality classifications out there. You may not believe in numerology, astrology, the Chinese zodiac, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Insights Discovery test, and all the rest, but they do offer detailed and mostly coherent personality sketches that might be helpful as models in the construction of your character. Read over the results pages and see if any of the types fit what you had in mind for your character.
You might model your characters on real people you know. In fact, that probably always happens, even when it’s subconscious. Your ability to create believable characters is based on your past experience with and knowledge of real, living characters. Just be careful and try to make sure they can’t identify themselves in your work. You don't want your writing success to cost you your friends. Just ask Thomas Wolfe or Truman Capote or Pat Conroy. So be sneaky about it, for heaven’s sake! Nobody likes portraits of themselves unless the artist draws a highly idealized version of the truth.
Some other ideas for finding character types are the many and varied personality classifications out there. You may not believe in numerology, astrology, the Chinese zodiac, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Insights Discovery test, and all the rest, but they do offer detailed and mostly coherent personality sketches that might be helpful as models in the construction of your character. Read over the results pages and see if any of the types fit what you had in mind for your character.
I don’t recommend going around telling your readers that your hero’s Lifepath Number is 4 or that she’s a Capricorn with Leo rising, born in the year of the Metal Dragon, is an ENFP, or that her dominant energy is earth green. But if you’ve chosen one of these types as a basic guide, it can provide you with a handy launching pad for when you’re getting started and a touchstone when you start to lose your bearings.
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