All queries welcome. To start things off, when writing, is it acceptable to simply give the character a few starting traits before you write, and then flesh them out more as you go along? Or should you know a lot about them before you start?

I flesh them out a bit, but the rest comes out in the writing. Planning never works for me; I always end up changing things. ;)

I usually start with a couple of of traits, usually the most important ones (for example, he has a bad temper and she is timid), then put them in a situation that would bring out the rest. I’m not too keen on planning things out before jumping right in. =/

To start things off, when writing, is it acceptable to simply give the character a few starting traits before you write, and then flesh them out more as you go along? Or should you know a lot about them before you start?

I know it’s a cop out but for me the answer is always: depends on your own style. Figure out what works best for you and run with it.

I can’t even say one is better than the other because each has their pitfalls. (respectively)
Method A) The character takes on the role of plot hole Spackle. EVERYTHING they do becomes “in character” whenever you need the plot moved along, even if a lot of these things start making no sense. This is worst with “insane” or “evil” characters. The answer to every “why is he/she ____?” becomes then “He/she is insane/evil.” Which makes for a flat character, not a rounded one.
Method B) The character becomes less “real” and more about their “stats”. Then you end up having flat characters because they’re either mechanically rigid (not wavering from their “stats”) or their “stats” do not impact the story at all.

I personally try to utilize a bit of both. I come up with some basics about the character (particularly anything important to the story) and use those as “boundaries” or “guard rails”. Then when they react to a situation, I can have that reaction be organic without it going against their established character.

For short stories, I found it easier to just start with a pretty basic idea for the character and build on it as you go with whatever strikes you.

I’ve only got one non-short story experience, and in that case I spent a few years thinking about the characters beforehand. I thought I had a pretty good grip on them, but once you put them on the page and start letting them run around, more detailed aspects that you may not expect start emerging. Having a fairly thorough bio would help, but I don’t think it’s enough to really understand the character in totality.

I guess you just have to write them to see which traits hold up and which fall by the wayside.

I just like being prepared.

Developing fully fleshed characters has never been a strength of mine. The hardest part is making your sympathetic characters flawed without making them unlikeable.

I try to make someone’s important flaws extensions their virtues, or virtues that are situationally misapplied with some degree of frequency. Whether it works or not in practice, I have no idea, but in theory if they like your character’s positive traits when they are helpful, they won’t turn on your guys when those traits become liabilities.

Of course, having abject flaws are important too, but I guess you have to try and offset them with abject virtues.

@ Juniper:

My writing style- yeah, I do minimal planning. Mostly I write down a few ideas of what could happen and then go for it. But that’s coming apart at the seams for me. I’m trying to find a happy medium, because otherwise I get involved in vacuming cats.

@RandomX2: that’s really helpful!

RTT: I know, it’s hard to make them have mood swings and still not be OOC. Perhaps have it that they get mood swings after eating something or when someone brings up a touchy subject. And that they do certain things when they’re moody.

How smart to make a young character is hard, too, isn’t it? Because you don’t want them being Sue-smart.

How smart to make a young character is hard, too, isn’t it? Because you don’t want them being Sue-smart.

Sues are at, least IMO, much more nebulous and relative than people often think.

I’ll take this as a flimsy pretext to reference my project again. My male lead is a genius, in both the intellectual sense and the rate at which he absorbs things(fighting techniques, in this case). However, besides two or three weird secondary powers, that’s his only real gift, and this is in a world where all the upper tier characters have super strength, super speed, telekinesis, and other nonsense. In that context, his brain should only barely allow him to eke out victories, whereas, with a Sue, they tend to have gratuitous powers they don’t even need to win, and just humiliate any opposition they face.

I also think, if you show the negative aspects of various positive traits, it mitigates them in regards to their overall Sueyness. Again, using my guy as an example, there are plenty of ways hyperintelligence is not always a good thing to have.

—That sort of intellectual gap results in some amount of societal withdrawal, since most people can’t relate to him intellectually.
—Since he relies almost entirely on his mind over his instincts or his emotion and it works, he overrates intelligence as a trait and it leads to arrogance, and looking down on others, which is not an especially good idea in a fight.
—His mind becomes efficiently compartmentalized to the point where he never “opens” the parts that he doesn’t want to(emotions and such). That doesn’t mean they cease to exist, so when they reach the breaking point and overflow, he is worse at dealing with it than a normal person would.
—In order to use his intellect effectively, he needs to know most or all of the pertinent information in a given situation. About a third of the way through, he’s betrayed by somebody he thought of as an ally. He didn’t trust the guy, but given the info he had access to, his “trust” wasn’t unreasonable. However, he didn’t know the entirety of the situation, so he ends up being wrong.

Damn, that was longer than I intended to ramble. Hopefully something in that mess is of use to somebody.

I meant Sue-ish-ness smart, as in having sudden flashes of brilliance or remembering a throw-away mark that suddenly makes sense, when a kid that age would NEVER make the connection.

I didn’t really use the right word when I chose ‘Sue’. I take it back

D’oh DX I feel like a bonehead now for pontificating at such length.

I think that what you’ve described could work, if it’s written as a consistent trait of the character in question, and not something done as a plot contrivance. If they rely upon that kind of insight showing up regularly to help them out of jams, it could make for an interesting situation if the character in question became dependent on it and here it doesn’t kick in at a key moment, forcing them to work through the solution the old fashioned way.

Even for a kid it could be believable, so long as you write it in a believable way :x

Permission to possibly use it sometime in the future?

It’s your character concept we’re discussing, so of course you can use it!

I use a combination of both.

Kyllorac, I can tell you’re going to be a productive lurker, unlike me, the site bimbo. If you haven’t already, go and introduce yourself :)

I think you should regurgitate them then.

/horrifically malapropistic joke.

Gamy? Monopoly ftw.

I think you may have it backwards.. I dunno, for me characters are of the utmost importance.

Funnily enough, I have no memory of how I arrived and the characters and plots that I have. Selective amnesia? No idea. I have a feeling that it was a mix of character and plot driven.

I find that if I do plan, I hammer out a background and everything, down to their favorite piece of music, sexual experience, all that jazz. But eventually, it’ll change, so I think that, logically, I would let the character make itself, in a way.

I think most of us have, at one point, daydreamed about a film version of our works and assembled a dream cast. I typically do that in all of my stories, usually for no other reason than to get a face and voice for these guys/girls. The interesting thing is that some prominent traits from characters these actors have played managed to infiltrate my characters in unexpected and really satisfying ways.

I’ve never done that personally. I guess it’s partly because I have trouble distinguishing people based on appearance (being faceblind sucks sometimes) and partly because each of my characters already has a unique voice and personality of their own.

Yeah, i don’t really know what any of my characters look like, except that one girl has wild dark curly hair and a round, flushed face. I’m too afraid of making them look cool and Sue-ish.

I only just thought about this.

Nah…. I just create them as I meet them, then go back and tweak, such as “ok, she doesn’t need the judo background and it’s too much”