In a post on Writer Unboxed, Dave King offers advice on creating authentic characters, which many writers say aren’t crafted, but discovered. “Each character is unique, and the techniques that writers use to bring them to life are so complex and layered that it’s nearly impossible to talk about them in general terms,” King says. “I suspect that the writers who are best at it aren’t even aware of how they do it.”
While you may find lots of helpful tips about character creation, there are no foolproof step-by-step instructions. However, King suggests we can learn to identify and study examples of well-rounded, authentic characters, so that we can understand what they have in common.
First, he suggests reading voraciously, including books from the past. “Meeting characters from the past gives you a better chance to create real individuals,” he writes. You also may be surprised at how modern some of the writing feels. “These passages can be anything from an offhand observation or a line of dialogue,” King explains. “But these moments represent true, authentic character – individuals with views on life that aren’t simply a rehash of whatever’s current in the culture at the moment.”
These passages tend to use specific imagery and close observation of character. In The Iliad, Homer includes a brief observation of boys building sand castles on a beach, and then knocking them down as soon as they are finished. It’s an odd diversion in an epic poem about war, but it’s behavior that we recognize three thousands years later. King shares some other examples of self-deprecating humor, intimate character revelation, wit, and counter-cultural arguments from writing several hundred years old, all of which stand up today.
Is that all it takes? Not quite. “The things that make these passages feel authentic are idiosyncratic,” King says. “In fact, they might not strike you in the same way they struck me. Because you can’t create authentic individuals by following the rules.”
However, if you read older books, watch for these kinds of passages. When you feel an emotional connection to something written one hundred or five hundred years ago, you’ve found an example of genuine, authentic characterization. Learn from it.
