Illumination: A Writing Guide

Creating 3D Characters

One of the most important aspects of any story is the characters. You need to understand them inside and out so that you can create characters that your readers will care about and want to read about. It's all well and good knowing what colour their hair is but you need to know everything about them. There are plenty of sources online which have lists and tables full of stuff to fill in about your characters.

Nickname – not all characters have nicknames but when they do it can say a lot about that person. Think about what their nickname might be, who gave them that nickname and why. If their best mate gave them the nickname then it will probably be jokey and won't be used by their parents. Vice versa, if their family gave them the nickname then it's probably going to be kind of endearing or something.

Family – who is included in their close family, who they live with etc. Does the character get along with them?

Relationships – what is their orientation? Are they single? Married? Do they believe in marriage? Do they want to stay single? If so, why? Have they been hurt in the past?

Health – do they have any health problems e.g. asthma or something more serious and will it effect them during the story?

Habits – if someone has a lot of habits/routines then that can say something about their personality. If a character has a habit then you can slip it in.

Skills/Talents/Hobbies – are they super good at maths? Swimming? Art?

Likes/Dislikes – everyone has things they like and don't like. You might not necessarily use these in your story unless it comes up but it's good to have in mind.

Strengths – are they a good leader? Have they got good observational skills? Are they good at cheering people up? Etc. etc.

Weaknesses/faults – this one is very important. A character who is perfect is not realistic. Everyone has a weakness/fault/fear so make sure you think about this carefully and include it in the story.

Ideals/Morals/Personal Beliefs – this is a really important one because this can be important to a character's arc. What is happening in the story might challenge your characters morals/beliefs. Also important because their beliefs won't just change overnight, you have to keep their morals consistent throughout the story (unless something happens to change their morals/personal beliefs in which case it would be a slow change where at first they are doubtful but eventually alter their viewpoint. It takes time to change a belief/moral that is really rooted in you)

Goals – goals are important in terms of plot. Generally your character will have some kind of goal, whether that be passing their exams or saving the world, and there are bound to be things that get in the way of that goal. You need to think about what they want to do/achieve.

Backstory:

Backstory gets a whole section of this chapter to itself because it is very important. Depending on your story and genre your characters will have different amount of backstory and different kinds of backstory. It is important that every character, even minor ones, have a backstory. Basically, backstory is what has happened in your character's past that has made them the person they are. It can influence their goals/motivations/ideals/morals etc. Your character's life doesn't start when the book starts. They have a past. Stuff has happened to them in the past. And that might have lasting influences on them. Backstory can be stuff to do with particular people, or things the character has done.

Examples:

In The Hunger Games the death of Katniss's father is part of her backstory and influences her in the book. She has basically become the breadwinner for the family and has to take care of Prim as her mother is kind of depressed and stuff. Basically it has an impact on who she is as a person.

In Just Listen by Sarah Dessen we are aware that something has happened in Annabel's recent past that has basically ruined her life and influences the person she is in the book. Since it isn't revealed until later on in the book I don't want to say too much about it but this is a really good example of backstory.

This is important for antagonists/villains too but I'll touch on that more when I do a chapter on villains.

The Personality Test: Myers Briggs

Doing the Myers Briggs personality test as your characters is a great way to get to know them. It makes you think about how they would answer the questions. And then when you get your personality type the website will tell you what sort of person that personality type is. It's a very useful thing to do and is really interesting. There are 16 personality types (e.g. ISFJ (me), ENFP etc.). If you just search for Myers Briggs personality test then it comes up with lots of websites which you can do the test on.

For example I did the test for one of my characters in The Day It Rained, Reeve, and she came out as ESFJ. I read through the description and picked out the bits that just fit her so perfectly such as: "you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit in with your personal value system", "they want to like people and have a special skill at bringing out the best in others", "value security and stability", "warm and energetic", "they are hurt by indifference and don't understand unkindness". These things are just 100% Reeve.

*Remember: when it gives you a description of the personality type it gives you a lot of information but don't think that you're character is/has to be correct for all the things it talks about. Not everyone fits perfectly into a category so as you read the description there might be some bits where you think 'yeah, that's totally my character' and some bits that don't quite fit.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the best way to get to know your characters is to write them. Sometimes you don't really get to know your character until you start writing the story and put them in actual situations and see how they react to those situations. I'm now writing the third book in a trilogy and am at the point now where I really know my characters inside out. But when I look back at the first book their personalities don't really shine through as much as the second and third ones where I have got to know them more, so I'll go back and edit the first one now knowing my characters inside out.