The Science of Creating Authentic Characters
By Heather Webb | February 28, 2015 |
https://nfpatoday.blog.nfpa.org/
I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Meg Rosoff (one of our contributors here at Writer Unboxed) in Salem at the un-con. I was intrigued by her discussion about hot and cold spots in the brain, the emotional poignancy that resides in those zones, and how to access them. Throughness, she called it; an opening of pathways between the conscious and subconscious mind. As writers, we need to tap into these centers to channel authentic emotion into our characters on the page. An interesting concept. But while I think tapping into our own emotional wells and developing our emotional IQ is a good start, I’d like to take it a step further.
We must expand our understanding of human behavior to create authentic characters.
It’s what I like to call the “science of character writing.” Writers are scientists of human nature. We observe behavior patterns and body language, and often the nearly undetectable movements that reflect what happens just below the surface or deep within our minds and hearts. Without this understanding of human nature, our characters come off as stereotypical, flat, and unbelievable. Some of us are born with an innate ability to read others, to magically peel back the layers of defenses and quirks to see what is really brewing in someone’s mind. Some of us live more in our own heads and struggle with this ability. But we can all hone this inclination to create authentic characters.
How do we explore the science of character writing in a concrete way that translates to the page?
We use tools at our fingertips—psychology studies, personality inventories, and body typing to help us build upon our natural base of understanding and creative spring. People-typing, CHARACTER-TYPING, is as scientific as it is deeply creative and intuitive, emotional. Take a look at a few tools I’ve used.
- The Male Brain & also The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine: In these books, a neuropsychiatrist examines how gender affects the human brain, and therefore, our behaviors.
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell: In simplified form, this book discusses the way we make decisions in social and private situations, and how each of us has a different thought pattern associated with them. Anything by Gladwell is worth a read. The Tipping Point was fascinating as well.
- The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson: The enneagram is a personality inventory, which discusses nature and nurture, childhood vs. adulthood patterns, and all ranges of healthy to sociopathic tendencies. It’s literally one of my favorite books on the market. I’ve read it dozens and dozens of times and have it practically memorized. Not only can I assess where people fall on this spectrum within minutes of speaking to and observing them, but I use it to do all of my character mapping before I begin writing. Note: Don’t be fooled by the online quiz. It’s a very shallow interpretation of the enneagram. Check out the book instead. (11th edition, or the one with the blue and gray cover)
- Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment by Isabel Briggs Myers & Peter B. Myers: This book emphasizes different aspects of personality types than the Enneagram. Though not as thorough as the enneagram, I still highly recommend it.
- The Book of Ayurveda: A Holistic Approach to Health and Longevity by Judith Morrison: Ayuervedic Dosha (ancient Indian body typing and health patterns) highlights our body types and how they reflect our natural rhythms, health patterns, and instincts.
- Astrology—Yes, I said it. The very soft “science” that is often scoffed at. I look at this as just another method to understanding people and their habits, to see how environment in a larger, spatial sense affects us. Can’t hurt and might help?
I’ve noticed many people turn their noses up at personality inventories. They fiercely believe they’re an individual that is beyond classification. After all, how could a book place seven billion people into nine personality types? But I say this. We’re animals and our personality types are another means of classifying our species into subsets. I realize I’m oversimplifying, but if you combine this list of tools—Enneagram, Myers Briggs, Ayurvedic body typing, gender constructs (or the dissolution of them), among others, you get a fairly composite picture of someone—of a character.
Don’t underestimate the power of true study and all of that profiling. It’s the beginning of AWARENESS, SELF-EVOLUTION, and THROUGHNESS.
That being said, we ARE still individuals. Our characters will have their own pains, their own life experiences, ambitions, and neuroses. Nuance will color a character’s lens and, therefore your narrative. Yes, the tools are useful, but natural instinct and the all-mysterious inspiration that bubbles up from years of stewing will lend true authenticity to your characters as well, how you view their arcs, and ultimately how you portray them on the page.
Am I always so scientific in my approach? After years of reading books like these, and studying cultural geography (the way people interact with and shape their environment), much of it has become integrated into the way I view the people around me. Scientific? Maybe. Useful? Certainly. I never write a character without dissecting their psychological profile first; their fears and dreams, motivations and goals, that which haunts them and inspires them. Do my characters still surprise me? Always. The crystalline, magical moments when the muse shares her wisdom are incomparable. But with more understanding, I believe you leave the corridor open far more often for throughness to occur.
So I say this. Step into the shoes of a scientist. Gather information. Build your base of understanding. Map your characters before you begin (for you plotters), and for pantsers, when you hit a speed bump in drafting, step back and assess who you’re really creating as a character. Let all of this information saturate your psyche to mix with your sacred source of creativity, and watch your characters take on a life of their own.
What tools do you use to differentiate your characters? Would you call yourself a scientist of human behavior?
Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. As a freelance editor and an adjunct in a MFA in Creative Writing program, Heather has helped many writers sign with agents and go on to sell at market. When not writing, she feeds her cookbook addiction, geeks out on history and pop culture, and looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. To date, her books have been translated to seventeen languages.
Heather–
You are taking up what I think is the central challenge facing any writer: how to create characters that the reader comes to feel (key word) she must know.
The real essence for me is not science, but synthesis. Unless I have cared enough about real people to pay attention to them, to get to know them, I doubt all the various science-based tools can mean much.
As a character says in my forthcoming suspense novel, Deep North, until we are known in some detail, we are all “types” to other people, a collection of first-impression attributes. But the writer who moves beyond this to precise, individuating features stands the best chance of offering readers what they most admire: encounters with imaginary people that the writer has made real. It’s partly science, but mostly it’s the art of paying attention, of choosing the best, most telling and affecting details. In my view, sitting at the knee of very good novelists is the best way to improve my odds.
Thanks for making us all think about what’s crucial.
Well-said, Barry. This is precisely what I’m referring to–synthesis. Synthesis of information, both through observations and educational approaches to build a colorful and profound well from which our inspiration may spring. Thank you for your comments. :)
Thanks for the list of resources, Heather.
I would add almost any resource for learning how to negotiate with other people – the best negotiators learn how to interpret what the other person needs and wants.
Writing good characters is a responsibility: people read fiction to listen to characters think – it’s really hard to do that with actual humans!
I find the website changingminds.org very useful. It includes sections on body language, communication, speech… all meant for negotiators, all usable for character traits.
Alicia
Thank you for the link, Alicia. I’ll certainly check this out. I’m always open for new ways to go about crafting characters. Also, I really like this point you made:
“the best negotiators learn how to interpret what the other person needs and wants”
This is absolutely true. The best negotiators know how to read people and understand that “selling” an idea (or character in our case) is so much more about THE OTHER; perceiving their wishes, needs, and desires and mirroring that information back to them.
Thanks for stopping by today.
Good tools and ideas, Heather. I guess we all have a collection of sorts, even if we’re not as organized as you are! My favorite is Sally Hogshead’s How to Fascinate (Google it) because she’s a long-time copywriter and knows how to promote the best in a product and in a person. I got profiles for myself and for my daughters and they’ve been so helpful to us personally and professionally. Using them to develop my characters is a great idea, too!
Mia, I’m adding this source to my list! Thank you for sharing. I’ll definitely check this out.
Thanks for this, Heather. I’ve thought a lot about Meg’s “throughness” since the UnCon, too, and what’s stuck with me is her colander idea. Life rains down on you from birth, and some memories stay with you as if they’re caught in a mental colander. Meg suggested we may use these most important things–once we’ve analyzed them a bit to see what they reveal about us–in our writing in some way. I began to think of the colander and our characters. What has been our characters’ life experience, and what has stuck in their respective colanders? Why? How has that transformed them? How does it influence the way they see the world? How has it affected their dreams–their ability to dream, their goals for the future? And on and on… I’m glad you brought it up today.
Thanks, too, for this list of resources.
A brilliant analogy on her part, Therese. Meg had so many golden nuggets of wisdom to offer. I kept many of the quote cards from the con from her session until just recently to look back at from time to time.
The enneagram that I mentioned zeroes in on how to examine those emotional chunks caught in the colander and how to interpret the way they affect our behaviors. All good stuff. I love hearing how fellow writers process and plot and expand their characters and stories. I’m amazed by how often I continue to learn new perspectives and broaden my approach.
Thanks for your comment! :)
Interesting ideas. I don’t know that I would necessarily reference these books while creating characters, personally, but I love the idea of “front-loading” my brain with all these concepts. I think it’s good to give our muse a rich pool to draw from.
I read Blink years ago and found it fascinating. Tipping Point has been on my to-read list for some time.
Thanks for the great post!
Donna, Yes! That is precisely what I wanted to express– that we should “front-load our brains” to add to our creative cauldrons so it can all stew together.
Thank you for stopping by today!
Thanks, Heather, for this post. It goes way beyond just giving a character one mannerism that is repeated over and over to build familiarity.
I like the idea of mapping characters in this in-depth way. It’s like meeting for dinner every night for a week to really get to know someone. I am not familiar with The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types, so I will look it up. This might also be a useful tool for writing greeting cards for different personality types.
I am unfamiliar with your word: Throughness. In reading the comments, it seems like it’s a trademark word for you. If I play the Dictionary Game, I think it means seeing through the character as well as inside the character. Maybe a synonym is transparency. What’s your definition?
I appreciate your list of resources. Thanks for adding to my library!
Hi, Mary Lou. Throughness is actually a term I borrowed from Meg Rosoff’s craft session at the Writer Unboxed un-con last November. In the opening paragraph I make a reference to it. It means opening the passageways between our subconscious and conscious mines so we may access pockets of deeply emotional knots, remaining from impactful events in our pasts.
I hope you enjoy the enneagram. Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you, Heather, for these great resources. I find using Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, as well as astrology, useful when I design a character. As such, I am always on the look out for reliable sites that are accurate and accessible to a non-scientific person. I want to know what makes people tick. I also want my characters to act and think realistically. Knowing the science behind the behavior really helps. I find if I fashion a character as a specific type, it’s much easier to know how they will react in certain situations. Of course, there’s always room for creative license. Science is good but imagination is wonderful. Thanks for a terrific post.
Thank you, Vincent. It sounds like we have very similar approaches. I agree that understanding both “the science of why” and the history behind a character’s behaviors is incredibly helpful in differentiating their actions. Mix in other intuitive methods and I believe it gives us a more complete picture of someone. Thanks for your comments!
I love seeing people talk about this type of more holistic approach to character building. I’m not one of those people for whom writing character comes particularly naturally — I have a hard time getting out of my own head. And I’ve always found the sort of standard advice that floats around to “interview your characters” or whatever to be relatively unhelpful until you’ve successfully *created* at least the basic notion of the character.
A more holistic approach like you suggest helps me get to that first notion of who a character might be — sure, a character should be more complex than their personality type or astrological sign, but having that kind of foundation creates a scaffolding upon which to hang the details of a more nuanced personality. I love learning about human behavior and psychology and why people do the things they do and agree that this kind of research can be incredibly helpful in filling in the gaps when I’m thinking about how a character’s history interacts in the greater narrative of the story.
Jessica, it sounds like we’re on the same page. It never helps me to “interview” my characters either. When I’m struggling with their voice, it, does, however, help when I write a journal entry in their voice. You may want to try that some time. I find out all kinds of things about my characters when I do this.
Thank you for your comments!
I’m a fan of studying human behavior and personalities. The more you know about actual people, the more you can add depth to fictional characters and make them seem real.
Yeah, i don’t know about the “science” of astrology or even some of the aspects psychology, but astrology and psychology can give you good ideas about the different kinds of characters that you can put into your stories.
Thank you for the list you provided. I would add a book that, okay, I won’t say that it is an accurate description of actual people and “personology” because I don’t know about that, but I like it and it’s entertaining: The Secret Language of Birthdays (Goldschneider & Elffers)
Interesting, Tina. I would file that almost into an astrology category. I’ll be sure to check it out. Thank you for stopping by today!
HI, Heather:
Though I’m major advocate of anything that helps a writer make her characters come alive on the page, and I think some of these books provide really creative and productive ways to look at behavior, my apprehension concerning this sort of approach is the fact it often induces the writer to think about the characters rather than engage with them intuitively. (Just as many people think about their feelings rather than actually feeling them, so many writers think about their characters and scenes rather than engaging with them in the emotional way that makes them truly compelling).
Also, this sort of approach also seems more often to create types than characters. Types, no matter how seemingly novel or interesting, have absolutely determined and thus predictable behavior. What they do conforms to what they are. In that regard they more resemble machines (or plot puppets) than people.
But if the writer’s skill or intuition allows them to overcome these limitations, I say: carry on. If it woiks, it woiks.
Really stimulating post. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments, David. I think this is a well-founded point that you made:
“my apprehension concerning this sort of approach is the fact it often induces the writer to think about the characters rather than engage with them intuitively”
Interestingly, though, most writers I have worked with through my editing services or in my classes tend to do nothing BUT feel their way through their manuscripts both with their characters and story arcs. They haven’t built their foundations of understanding so they may channel their emotions in a real way–intuitive or otherwise. They lack nuance altogether. The emotions may or may not be particularly deep in the way they’re conveyed through their characters, but it’s obvious the writers have done little “thinking” about true differentiation.
I will say this: there’s no replacement for intuition and inspiration. I know, for myself, if something doesn’t “feel right”, I rip things apart and reconstruct. Still, the more knowledge we have about human nature, the more profound the well we have from which to draw.
Good discussion! I always enjoy your posts.
wonderful list of resources. I’ve used basic character charts – lists of questions to answer in my characters’ voices, before, but found that they don’t seem to cover everything I want them to, to go deep enough. So I’ll definitely check out the books you’ve mentioned.
I think we do need to understand human behaviour to a certain extent to write believable characters.
Thanks for your comments, Phoenix.
You do have a natural and unique gift for understanding “what makes people tick” and I’m so grateful you’re sharing some of your resources for understanding what makes a character tick.
I recently figured out what might be the MBTI personality types of my novel’s most important characters (the protagonist and two “supporting” characters). It was just out of curiosity; I had already decided on their personality and behaviors a while ago. But… holy cow, did their MBTI types match them perfectly! I was floored by what I found. It makes me feel as though I’ve created real people. *lol* And that’s what authors should be doing anyways, creating characters who seem so real that they leap off the page.
I’m definitely someone who studies human nature by mere observation and later analysis, even though I’m not a people person. The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog. But that’s another conversation. All of the characters in my stories are based on real people. I don’t create Harlequin Romance-like stories where the protagonists and antagonists are larger-than-life individuals who accomplish extraordinary tasks without getting their hair out of place. It’s still somewhat fascinating to watch people’s behavior and try to make sense of it all. I don’t know how well that translates into written words, but I try to make my characters as authentic to real life as possible.