Aloha everybody, I’ve been making a concerted effort in advancing the work I’ve been doing on my novel as of recent, and I thought I’d share a little bit about how I develop initial characters with you! (Partially because I’ve not got a huge amount of actual news to share, but also because it might be interesting to some of you!)

First, I identify the need for an agent in the story. Usually, I have a general event that takes place that affects the setting overall in some way. The best way of making a reader care about these events is to have them influence characters; That way, readers have someone to identify with and relate to, as it’s quite difficult to make someone care about (say) a mountain. You need an emotional core, a human face.

For instance, in my novel a corporation has covered up the failings of a product it manufactures, failings that cost people not only their lives but the quality of their lives. Rather than face public embarassment, incur the cost of recalling all the faulty implants and risk a fall in share prices, the company decides instead to pay out hush money to the victims and their families as this is cheaper than any of the previous options.

Now, somebody at some point will have had to make that decision. What kind of person would make that kind of decision, and why?

Obviously, the only kind of person who would do that sort of thing would be at least a little sociopathic; I mean, who could justify culpable homicide on the grounds that it would be TOO EXPENSIVE to save those lives? Thus, the cold, alien logic of the sociopath forms the core of the character.

But there’s something still not right here. It’s all very well to observe an act so horrifically indifferent to the value of human life and proclaim it ‘sociopathic’, but that does not make for a good character. It’s very flat, with none of the nuance of the real human psyche. What is it that motivates the character to ignore the rules of society? What is it that drives them to do what they do?

That’s when I hit on the next layer; The character HATES TO LOSE. Not in a petulant, childish way, but because of the narcissism brought on by their sociopathy, the character views themselves as so incredibly flawless that they cannot handle even the remotest concept of losing. Because this story revolves around a company trying to minimise losses, this translates to somebody trying their best to make as much money as possible, or to save the company as much money as possible. Nevermind the human cost, or the ethical cost; So long as the financial cost is within target, the character has won.

This allows me to refine the character further, flesh them out and give them a little background. Who would have that much control over a corporation’s finances? A Chief Financial Officer. How did they get to be CFO of this company? Maybe they did similar things at other companies; Maybe their competitive nature forces them to hop from job to job, ‘winning’ there and moving on to even greater challenges. Suddenly, this ties in with the rest of the novel; Because of this character’s history, there’s a means by which the main characters (detectives) can learn more about her. They have a paper trail to follow, and their investigations might show that she was in charge of several questionable decisions, or some other pattern indicating her true intentions in this instance.

How would she feel about the detectives poking around in her past? How would she deal with them? She’s not stupid; Murdering them would simply draw more attention. No, what she will do is murder her co-conspirators and frame them up to draw attention away from her. But with the ‘conspiracy’ dead, and the blame resting at the feet of those she views as being inferior to her, how soon will it be before her competitive urges get the best of her and she reveals herself to be the true mastermind…?

With the major aspects of her personality jotted down, we can start working on the fine details. How does she behave towards others? She views herself as being above everyone else, so is likely to be perceived as arrogant and dismissive, assertive but not necessarily aggressive (that would be showing a fear response). She will be cool to those she doesn’t need the services of, but potentially warmer to those she cannot do without (of course, all a front that’s dropped as soon as they’re out of earshot). She will always have a story to trump the one you just told. She will, above all, be frustrating to deal with, but always with the evidence of preparedness, competence and success to backĀ  her up. How does she look? Impeccably dressed for a start. She is not a seductress; she would never sully herself by dallying physically to influence anyone, and she views herself as being far too smart to require that; She finds other ways of manupulating people. Through threats of violence and blackmail if necessary, but most frequently (and successfully) through their own greed, which gives her even more of a sense of superiority and control over her prey.

As you can see, there’s still plenty of fleshing out that can still be done, but it’s a great process to go through! It’s kind of like a sculptor building up a lump of clay, refining the features of the character step by step, adapting to the organic nature of their personality. It’s quite true what many creators say; Sometimes, our characters tell US how they are to be. It’s a process, but one that can be learned and one that I encourage you to practice!

M.