Creating Characters in Springtime

Creating Characters in Springtime

by Rachel Dacus

It’s the end of the rainy season here in northern California, and walking through hills newly covered in green, the air tasting of abundance, lends me creative energy. I call it my springtime writing effect. It’s a good time to start a new book and conjure new characters. Isabel Allende says she always starts a new book on a precise date. I usually start one in springtime. 

For me, an interesting character needs a misunderstanding of herself or of life. And we readers need to know where she came by that—her backstory. I want to open a book to page one and get a sense of her dilemma and the history that brought her here. The conflict or danger can be external or internal. I like characters who are their own worst enemies. I want to see a character chewing on the problem that will ruin her, or force her to change. 

I want to be curious about her from the opening page. Where did she grow up, and is she in a hostile climate or surroundings? Is she stuck in her comfort zone, and will that keep her stuck in life? 

Questions are good. They’re my touchstone for character creation.

So what is a character? It’s the accumulated impressions that make a semblance of a person. To build a character, I collect bits and pieces from the world around me. Interesting quirks, faces, places, events, misconceptions, and obsessions. I don’t reject anything that intrigues me. A change in the character I planned can make the plot I had envisioned more interesting. 

The book I’m working on is a road trip romance that requires a dual POV, so close views inside two main characters, with backstory that brings in their families. Part of the supporting cast appeared in my last book, Return to Lerici. This is a sequel, so the male character is fully developed, but the young woman, Lara, who came in at the end must be fully developed. Again, a question led my way—what makes her want to drag her new boyfriend, Daniel, to India in her search for enlightenment. Why does she want enlightenment, and why seek it there? How does she have the money to pay for them both on this adventure, and how does that affect their growing relationship? Is she controlling, has she had many other romances? Is she deep or shallow?

I recently got ideas for my character while reading a novel whose character had similarities to mine. A privileged girl emerging from a neglected childhood. A woman with low self-confidence using bravado as a cover. An impulsive girl needing to find her center. These qualities fit my character. 

Another touchstone for me in character development is the ability to hear my character speaking. Perhaps because I’ve written a number of plays, the person’s dialogue is the first thing that comes when a character starts to feel real. I might hear her arguing with someone—arguments are great for developing a plot—or I might hear her talking to herself when she’s really stuck in a problem and doesn’t know how to move forward. 

As you develop a character and learn her backstory, it’s easier to make deft use of it in scenes, bringing the reader to know her better. For example, I have Lara pausing before crossing a busy street in Mumbai. Cars, buses, cows, goats, and people are swirling in all directions, with no lanes or stoplights. The chaos reminds her of being on the beach at Playa Del Rey as a child, when she stood at the edge of the surf and a rogue wave snagged her ankles and pulled her out. Flashing on that memory, she wonders if setting a foot into this street will be like being pulled out to sea, lost forever.

As I answered questions about Lara, I began to really see her. She’s too good at sublimating her fears into impulsive adventures. She detaches from her feelings, cruising through the surface of life. She mistakes privilege and impulsiveness for happiness and freedom. Her driving problem is her misconception about what creates lasting happiness. 

Lisa Cron has a great essay on how a character’s misbelief drives the plot. Understanding this concept helped me dive into my characters and look for the psychological spring that winds their stories. How they fail to understand themselves and what they truly need. 

It’s a heady process, creating characters, in springtime or in any season. I asked questions, and my character surprised me with a monologue. To me, that’s a very good thing. I heard her asking herself some of the questions I asked in creating her:

• Why is she doing this, traveling to India and dragging her boyfriend along, with some idea that she’ll get wiser, get answers to the mess that is her life?
• Can she even find a place or a person to help her find the missing pieces in herself? 

When I get a character to find the right questions she’s been living through, I know the story will be on a good path for her to find the answers by the story’s end. 

—
Rachel Dacus is the author of six novels and four poetry collections. She writes women’s fiction with magical elements, the most recent being The Invisibles and Return
to Lerici. Her time-slip novels are The Renaissance Club, The Timegatherer, Undoing Time, and Jane Austen Time Traveler. Her poetry, stories, and essays have appeared in literary journals, including Boulevard, Gargoyle, Prairie Schooner, and Image: Art, Faith, and Mystery. She has poetry in the anthologies Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Radiant DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Connect with her at www.racheldacus.net.

Return to Lerici: A heartwarming story of lost siblings and second chances  

A suspenseful story of loss, family, and forgiveness set on the beautiful Italian coast.

Elinor Greene has been through a divorce, a stalled career, an explosion that nearly killed her. But after all that, life in her cottage in Italy has brought her gifts: a garden where she plants vegetables for the wonderful Tonio’s culinary delights. Seizing her second chance at love, they plan for a small wedding, but family drama decides to descend on them instead.

Elinor’s once-estranged sister, Saffron, is coming with her family to support their mother, Betsy, who is arriving to look for better medical resources in her battle with cancer. It looks like their garden nuptials will have to go on hold.

After a decade of estrangement, the sisters agree to support their ailing mother, and they also want to stop her from her current obsession: searching for their late father’s illegitimate son, adopted away at birth, a lost brother they only know from old adoption papers as “Baby Boy”.

Elinor insists they consider there could be serious risks. What if their half-brother is a thief or a murderer? While the family argues, “Baby Boy” finds them and comes into their midst in disguise as a handyman. Daniel has fled from his crew of scam artists, stealing their money to go to Italy seeking the lost family he knows to be rich.

But his shady past is catching up. His pursuers find him and might harm them all. How can he endanger the family he’s becoming desperate to join?

BUY HERE

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Category: On Writing