Writing Characters: Backstory, Personality, Appearance (Elizabeth)

Today, we're going to take some time and explore the characters within your story by first asking questions to reveal backstory, before deciding on their personality and appearance.

Backstory
First of all, you have to find out who your character is and who she was. What does she most want? What is her opposite desire? Can your character want both at times? And why does she want it? Humans have conflicting desires all of the time, and so should your character. For example, last night I wanted a brownie, but I also wanted to be healthy and avoid sugar. What conflicting desires does your character have and why? Which desire wins in the end and why? What is driving this behavior?
Writing is often an exploration of finding the answers to the "whys" behind everything.

Concerning backstory, consider creating a Ghost or Black Moment somewhere in your protagonist's past. What's something tragic or dramatic that explains your character's flaw? How can you hint at this story to create mystery and make the reader ask questions about what happened?

Personality
By answering some of the above questions, you should know a bit about the character's personality. See if you can find their MBTI type. One of the easiest ways I've found is to go down into the personality functions. If you know of a character whose personality is similar to your character's, see if you can find their MBTI type on mbtifiction.com.
To get you started, here are a few questions: Is you character introvert or extroverted? Is she more focused on the physical or the abstract? Is she more present or past focused? Does she like to share her feelings or keep them to herself? Does she do her best thinking aloud or quietly and alone? Answering these questions will help guide you through the test as you discover her personality.

Appearance
Now that you've scooped the ice cream and topped it with whipped cream, you get to add sprinkles! There are a variety of sprinkles, but they have little impact on the taste of the sundae. Of course, they're still fun to add.
First of all, are there any certain aspects of appearance your character must have for this plot or story? Do the people of her race have a certain color of eyes? Does she have some unique feature that marks her as an outcast?
For the less significant things, try out whatever appeals to you.
Use Azalea's Dolls to figure out how your character would look. (Make sure to try the Lord of the Rings, Sci-Fi Warrior, and Snow Queen creators too)
Skim How to Write Descriptions of Hair and Skin and How to Write Descriptions of Eyes and Faces by Val Kovalin  for ideas and descriptions of types/colors of hair and eyes, along with other physical attributes.
If you want ideas for describing eyes and hair along with many other things, check out descriptionari.com. 

Now share the characters you've created! What's your character's Black Moment? Their personality? How would you describe their appearance?

Thanks for reading!
-Elizabeth Newsom

Shadowing Your Story (Elizabeth)

When I saw the blog schedule, I knew I was in trouble.

My name was on February 2^nd, when I was going to post, and underneath it were the words: On Writing. 

I’d been dreading this topic for a while. After all, I’m a fairly inexperienced writer with no publishing experience, and after reading my friend Hannah’s fantabulous post on fantasy world building, I knew the bar had been raised high. I could try to jump, but I was pretty sure I’d trip over the hurdle instead.

So, I prayed about it and wrote down a few topics. After murmuring a thanks heavenward, I asked, “Okay, God, now which one of these topics do I write about? Which of these topics has the information that someone needs?” The earth didn’t quake. No lighting split the sky. No ominous, booming voice revealed the answer. Just sitting makes me restless. As one of my stocking stuffers for Christmas, I’d gotten a big coloring poster. I started coloring it a bit at a time when I wanted to do something spontaneous or relax while listening for God.

I recently finished listening to the recording of the Continuing Education, The Wildness of Writing With God, which is from the 2015 ACFW conference, so this was part of my effort to create with God. As I finished shading a few pink bubbles, inspiration (or God) hit me. I’d also been listening to Kristen Heitzmann’s Continuing Education, Keys to Compelling Stories for the third time. (On a side note, the recordings of the ACFW conference are an awesome value. The Continuing Education sessions alone are over 27 hours worth of writing information. If you can buy one or save for a recording, it’s so worth it!) The last topic in the recording I’d listened to was Characters that Connect. Kristen Heitzmann was saying how everyone experiences temptation and attraction, how you want a faith struggle in your story, and how you should write in a way that can appeal to non-Christian readers. I wrote a little note that says: Shadows add depth. So, all these events (the Christmas stocking stuffer, the Continuing Education sessions) collided into one post :)

Sorry for the lengthy introduction, but I felt that it was necessary to include that. Here’s the before and after picture of a leaf on my poster:

At first, I drew the leaf with really light shades of green, but instead of making the leaf appear full of light, it looks washed out, flat, lifeless. It’s still a passable leaf, but it’s certainly not noteworthy.

Even though I have rather amateur shading skills, the shaded leaf is much more eye-catching. It has the same colors and only subtle changes, but the difference gives this leaf depth and vibrancy. So, what’s changed?

Of course, you already know the answer. One leaf is shaded, one is not. I think we can apply this same concept to our characters. No one wants to follow a perfect character on their journey. We can’t understand or relate to perfection, and who doesn’t love the nitty, gritty conflict found in good stories and, to a lesser extent, everyday life? Conflict doesn’t only draw the reader in; it gives them strength and answers. It gives them something they can take away from the story and carry with them for the rest of their lives. As silly as it sounds, I often find that I push myself physically using fictional characters as an example. If Parvin can face wolves and exile, I can finish this jog. In essence, the conflict within your characters is the message of your story.

Someone who’s 100% perfect has no need for God, and someone who’s 100% evil has no want for God. While it might be nice to have a character that’s a perfect Christian, it doesn’t really help us. Having a perfect character eliminates the need for a faith struggle. Look back at the leaves again. You can see where the source of light is coming from on the shaded leaf, but not on the un-shaded leaf. Shadowing allows you to see the source of the light. By having some darkness in our stories and characters, we’re giving God a chance to shine. You can’t really see where the light’s coming from at all unless you have a few shadows for contrast. We’re born imperfect, incomplete… and—I can’t believe I’m saying this—but I’m glad. Without some sort of hole inside of me, I wouldn’t have a place for God to fit. He’s my missing puzzle piece.

We should show that absence in our stories. We’re not spreading or encouraging darkness by doing so, we’re just leaving room for God.

Now, this is great and all, but it’s easier said than done. Even though shadowing is a subtle change, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy change. You have all of this information, but how can you apply it? 

First of all, start with the characters. Do all of them have realistic flaws? Do you show that struggle internally and externally? Do your villains have likable traits? Do they have soft spots? If you find a character lacking, you can either add flaws/likable traits as necessary, or you can check out The Negative Trait Thesaurus and The PositiveTrait Thesaurus. Both have great advice on adding depth and certain traits to your character. 

The Negative and Positive Trait Thesaurus
(The cover isn't actually like this, of course. I
 merged the covers to make the picture more fun :)

Aim to give your character more flaws than their lie requires, maybe even an extra lie. I’ve found that this is great if you’re going to do a series and need your character to have more than one arc. Aside from characters, you can also shadow descriptions and settings. Again, don’t make anything all good or all bad. If something appears beautiful, be realistic and point out a few flaws. If something is hideous, look for the pinpoints of light. Doing this will make the light brighter and the dark darker. We call this juxtaposition, which is something I’m still trying to master.

Now you guys know how shadowing makes characters realistic and relatable, how it leaves room for God to shine, and how to apply the technique. I hope you’ve gained something from this post—I know I have. From this point forward, I, Elizabeth Newsom, shall no longer fear blog posts On Writing. In fact, I’m looking forward to the next one. I can’t wait to see what God has to tell me and what creative methods he’ll use to reach me.

Are there any characters in your stories that could use some shadowing? Do you know of a character in a book/movie that could use shadowing? What are some of your favorite likable traits and flaws in a character? How are you going to use juxtaposition in your writing?

Hope this helps!

-Elizabeth

Attributions:

Hurdle photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70145217@N07/6940744046">2012 Jaguar Invitational</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>

Puzzle Piece photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58020577@N06/5542920908">Piece of a jigsaw</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>

The Positive Trait Thesaurus Photo: http://www.amazon.com/The-Positive-Trait-Thesaurus-Attributes-ebook/dp/B00FVZDVS2

The Negative Trait Thesaurus Photo: http://www.amazon.com/The-Negative-Trait-Thesaurus-Character-ebook/dp/B00FVZDZ6K/ref=pd_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51U6e%2BUIcEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR112%2C160_&refRID=0QEVXWY2W39RG3XC9S1G