Sunday, I did some observational research into characters.
I ran the 99th running of the Bay to Breakers run. There were about 100,000 participants along 7 miles of the streets of San Francisco, and many of them were in costume. And some of them forgot their costumes...or their running clothes... or any clothes for that matter! (Seriously. I saw more naked men in one hour than I've seen in my entire life. And trust me, most of them were not a pretty site!)
But a character is made up of more than his costume. Let's take, for example, the Roman soldier who was running the race (and yes, he was running!) When I took a moment to stop and talk to him, I found out that suit of armor actually weighed 40 pounds. I was amazed but kept on running. If I'd stayed longer, I might have discovered more from him. Like, perhaps he was not running the race at all, but a solider delivering a message. The rest of his battalion has has been ambushed by the encroaching hordes of Ghengis Khan, and he is the sole survivor. He rushes back to the city to warn the Emperor of the invading barbarians. He has a wife and a young son there. He loves the color green but never gets to wear it and obtained a fondness for mead while in Britain. He would rather be a painter than a soldier, but painting can't pay the bills so here he is, running 7 miles with a bunch of crazy people trying to deliver a message...
Anyway, I'm getting a little carried away, but I think you get my point. The next time you see a character, practice doing some development. Ask yourself who this person is. Not just how they look on the surface but what else they are. Do it with your characters. Ask them what they're doing. What they want for dinner. And
why.
What are your favorite tools for developing characters? Share!
Happy writing!
(Photo courtesy KGO)
2 comments:
A good point about digging deeper into your characters. I wonder what you could say about the character of the naked guys since people are often judged by their clothing. For certain, they clearly they didn't care if they offended the other runners.
I love Bay to Breakers. Although, I have to admit it's been quite a few years and I didn't see one desnudo. I guess I wasn't missing much. But as for characters, I am a big advocate of just what you described, people watching. Wherever you are, getting groceries is one of my favs.
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