Thanks to all of you who helped me by voting on my poll. You all helped me confirm my MC’s name. Her name will be Miyuki. 🙂
Along with that name, I’ve narrowed down names for other characters too. Now comes the task of fleshing them out and making their little biographies. I always do this for my books as it helps me get a better picture of the character in my head. Of course it’s only preliminary since they often reveal hidden aspects of themselves as the story goes along. But it gives me a concrete idea to work from instead of picking through dozens of other characters from other stories in my head. It’s crowded up there and characters can get lost 😛 I suppose it also shows me that I’m one of those writers that tends to need outlines and guidelines in order for me to write. 🙂
When developing characters for your story, do you come up with individual bios for them or do you work best in the moment.? Perhaps your head isn’t as crowded as mine and you are able to summon your character easier than me. I always like to see how other writers work out their stories 🙂 And of course I have another poll.
Tales from the Writing Front 
Comments on: "Names Chosen & Fleshing Out Characters" (10)
I should say that while I voted no, I don’t always see them clearly. Many times it’s as I’m writing the story that I discover who my characters are, then in revisions I’ll go back and try to make things more clear in the beginnning.
I definitely learn more about them as I go along, but I don’t profile. The only way I learn more is to visualize them in their scenes. In terms of organization, I’m an outliner.
Not only do I have a character profile (somewhere), I also refer to cheat sheets as I go (relationships to other characters–ages, etc.)…otherwise, my mid-life brain would add all kinds of stuff to a character that he/she didn’t DO, or wouldn’t do. LOL. So here’s my confession: I do it to keep myself from having to backtrack and “fix” things. Learned from experience. ( :
I voted that it depends on the story, but usually, I don’t do character profiles. When I do, it’s generally for stories that I don’t plan on working with for a while, just as a precaution to make sure that I forget each character as little as possible. But otherwise…meh. Usually my characters are demanding enough to make sure that I don’t confuse them with anybody else. 😛
And yay for deciding on names!
Depends on the story – I tend to learn about the characters as I write, I often think I have them pegged and then as I write they develop in their own ways.
I have taken to making notes as I go though, because I tend to forget things along the way as well! It’s not the most efficient way to do things I know, but it works for me.
Mainly because I have a habit of pulling characters from novels into their own short stories, or from a background character in a short story over to one of their own- YES. Without a brief outline of what they have done, and who they have done it to, my stories would end up contradicting each other horribly.
The layout of the old Who’s Who series DC Comics put out in the late eighties, a single stat sheet for each character, is a perfect way of thumbnailing. I wouldn’t use this for every character, as I know I won’t be re-using some, but it is helpful.
I’m not saying my stories don’t contradict each other (they tend to do that anyway), but it helps me remember who I’ve killed and how I killed them. 😀
In my first draft, I had everything outlined and the book stank for a variety of reasons. The outline was one of them. The only part of that draft that made it – nearly verbatim – to future drafts was with the character I’d never known I would write until it dawned on me I had to. I ran with that in later drafts and everyone came alive.
Also, I wanted to let you know you inspired me to do a 2nd blog entry yesterday. (Thanks! LOL) It’s all about where to find funds specifically for travel to Asia in the pursuit of writing. 🙂
I’m with Jessica. I voted no but I often don’t see a character clearly until I’ve written about them for awhile. Sometimes I don’t want to know everything because I like the surprise of writing.
I’m sorry it took so long for me to figure this out, Dara! I’ve now got a button at the bottom of my blog. It will take you to the Historical Fiction Critique group’s page whenever you’re interested in joining up. I hope to see you there! We had someone sign up today who has a book set in Egypt. I’m looking forward to reading it, too. 🙂
Sister! I just got my commissioned piece of Riona in my email inbox — it’s AMAZING! I’m extremely happy with it. 😀