Character Traits and Revisiting Favourite Places

I’ve just come back from a visit to Sydney sandwiched with a short road trip along some of the coast north of the city. If you’re a regular visitor to this blog you’ll know that Sydney is my favourite city to visit. It has the spectacular Opera House and Harbour Bridge, and is built on a beautiful harbour. A ferry trip anywhere from Circular Quay gives you stunning views. The city has some beautiful architecture in its older government and cultural buildings, as well as fabulous parks and gardens. I absolutely love visiting Sydney. One of my favourite pastimes is taking a ferry trip to Manly, not least because you have the best views of the harbour bridge and Opera House. 

We spent the last evening of the trip in Manly. It was a lovely warm evening and so we were outside on deck on the ferry trip back to the city. As we reached the promontory with the Opera House, everyone pulled out their cameras and phones to take photos. It doesn’t seem to matter how many photos you have of this amazing building, there’s always a reason to add a few more. Just as we were snapping away, there was a blaze of fireworks for about two minutes, what brilliant timing! 

When I was younger, I used to wonder why people would visit the same place year after year, I couldn’t imagine anything more boring. To be honest, I still wouldn’t want exactly the same holiday every year. I guess one of the delights of visiting Sydney is that it’s usually a long weekend visit and so doesn’t really count as a holiday!  However, there are pleasures in revisiting a favourite restaurant or café and in seeing sights and views that continue to inspire and amaze you. 

On a different note, although there is a connection, I have just about finished the first draft of my latest novel. I still have a few scenes to write, but the main story is finished. 

Editing is an interesting process, and very different from writing the first draft. Before I start to write a novel, the characters have lived in my head for several months, sometimes a year, so I already know them pretty well.

Once the first draft is finished, I know them even better. I’ve been with them during an event or two that sends their life into a crisis they never imagined, and through mounting problems and challenges that bring them to despair. 

The editing process is a little like going to a destination you’ve visited before. There are places you love and want to see again, but also new things to discover. With the main characters in a novel, there are personality traits and characteristics you already know and show in the writing, but there are also deeper qualities and attributes you need to explore or even discover to make sense of the things they do.

For a character to be well-rounded and real, there has to be understandable reasons for the things they do, otherwise they appear two-dimensional. This is especially true of the villain or nasty character. Very few people wake up in the morning and think, today I’m going to be horrible and make everyone miserable. There is a reason they act like that, or at least in a book there needs to be a reason so the character is realistic.  Think about the most memorable evil or unlikeable characters in novels you've read. Something has happened to shape them, and sometimes even make us feel sympathy for them even if we don't like them.

Currently, I'm looking at the early life of one of my less-likeable characters to figure out what made him like this. As authors, we put our characters through hell, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Character Motivations

The last few posts have been about characters, and their positive and negative traits. Negative traits are equally as important as positive ones, because no one likes a perfect protagonist, and even a positive trait can become negative if taken to an extreme.

One thing I haven't mentioned is physical description. When I'm reading I'm quite happy with my own visualisation of the character, and I've often got that firmly in my mind before reading a description, but there are some books where a description of a character is vital to the plot. Look through some magazines if you are having difficulties with picturing your character, or take the elements you like most in your favourite actors and make a composite of them - though thinking of police photo-fit pictures that might not be such a great idea!

Whatever our characters look like, their personality and temperament is far more important in making them believable. 

Once we have rounded our their character, using whatever tools we feel best, we must make sure they are true to those traits. One of the most annoying things when reading a book, or watching a film, is a person doing something totally out of character. Plot should not drive our characters. They need to act in character, or we should signal the reasons for change.

In Lives Interrupted, Kate has a happy, outgoing personality and thinks that life is a breeze. After she is nearly killed in a bomb explosion these traits change dramatically, but given the circumstances that is believable.

In my current work in progress (Lies of the Dead), Tom begins as someone who isn't keen on change and prefers to take his time making decisions. When his brother commits suicide, Tom needs to know why. As he discovers things about his brother, events and other characters don't allow him the luxury of time. This initiates changes in him, and so by the end of the book Tom makes choices he wouldn't have considered at the beginning, but they aren't irrational. We've moved with him and understand the changes.

Our characters need to have hopes and fears, as opposed to perfect skin and make-up. Okay maybe they can have perfect skin, but they also need the hopes and fears that make them believable.

They must make choices that are realistic for them, not because the plot demands it. Remember, they drive the plot and not the other way round. When they come up against a challenge, we have to consider their traits and motivations to know what they will choose to do.

What motivates your character? What has happened in their past that makes them act the way they do? This doesn't have to appear in your story, but you and the reader need to know enough about them to understand their motivations.

Character Trait Tools

I talked here and here about positive and negative character traits, and why our characters need both to be well-rounded and believable, as opposed to a protagonist who is perfect, or an antagonist who is totally evil.

Many of the personality tools break characteristics down into four main character types. These are given a variety of names depending on the book or tools you are looking at, but the four basic character types can be described as:

• Analytical
• Agreeable
• Communicator
• Determined

A character can have some, or all of those traits depending on the situation and who they are with, but usually they will be strongest in one, with some backup traits from another, while characteristics from the other two groups are much less apparent.

The interesting thing is that any trait taken to extreme can become negative.

The analytical character will be precise and methodical. They like systems and procedures, and are slow to make decisions, but their decisions will usually be sound. However, taken to extreme this could mean they are overly cautious and need a huge amount of information before making a decision. Can you see how this trait could irritate other characters and affect your plot?

The agreeable character is very people focused. They are dependable and friendly, but they may not like confrontation, or may not want to tell the protagonist the truth if it's going to hurt them.

The communicator has great ideas, but not necessarily the staying power to see them through to completion. They are outgoing and social with high energy levels. A quiet character could find this emotionally draining if we put them together in a conflict situation. 

The final of the four character types is the determined or strong-minded character. They are results oriented, intense and focused. These are good qualities in a leader, but if taken to an extreme could mean they are aggressive, or very rigid in their thinking - they are always right. Lots of potential there for conflict, which is what we want in our writing.

When I started my current work in progress I knew the basic personalities of the three main characters, but I wanted to round them out so they weren't just generic cardboard cut-outs.

The character types I've just mentioned are a good place to start, but there are other sources of inspiration.

One of the best known personality assessment tools is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This uses 4 preference types giving 16 possible type combinations. There are plenty of books and information on the internet on the combinations, and what the main preference types mean.

Natal or birth charts are another way of looking at the positive and negative sides of personality traits for our characters. If using this I've started with the basic birth sign I thought fitted their character, and then given them a birth date and time to see their personality makeup. 

The Enneagram Personality System works with nine personality types. Your protagonist or antagonist will be one of those types, and there is information on how these traits can be positive and negative.

I've found all these tools amazingly helpful in rounding out my characters, and I've also thought of other possible conflicts while looking at how a positive trait can be a negative, or at least perceived as negative.

I tend to be more of a planner, and prefer using these tools while I'm getting to know my characters, but they can be used at any time.

I'd love to hear from you, and find out if any of these helped with your planning or writing.

Working on Positive and Negative Character Traits

In job interviews the question I hate most is - tell us about your weaknesses.

Do you really want to know them? Can't I just tell you about my strengths?

The trick - according to me at least - is to describe a weakness that you're working on and can show progress, or (and this is my favourite) a weakness that could be considered a strength from a different perspective, and how you use it to best advantage.

I mentioned in an earlier post about putting off readers with super-hero characters who don't have any flaws. Most people can't relate to perfect characters, and therefore don't like or care about them. If we don't care about a character then we're not going to continue reading the book.

Very few people are all good or totally bad, and any characteristic taken to an extreme can turn into a negative. It depends on how we want to play it. 

For example, we might have an assertive character who is very vocal about everything, and who thinks the quiet character who doesn't like conflict is weak.  But we can turn this around if the non-conflict character quietly negotiates the terms they want. Quiet doesn't necessarily equate to weak.

A character trait isn't black or white, but can be any shade of grey (though that's a different book!). The trick is getting to know your characters, and understand what makes them act as they do.

In the book I'm working on at present, Tom, the main character, doesn't like making quick decisions.  This is a trait that annoys several of the other characters, and because he is also quiet rather than pushy, they come to the conclusion he is stupid.  Silly conclusion for them. 

Tom is the oldest son in the family, and though he is an adult he still feels this responsibility. This has shaped his character, and therefore his beliefs and actions. 

However, these traits and beliefs are also things that work against him, and form some of the change that occurs in his character.

A believable character makes decisions in keeping with what we know of them, or if they make an uncharacteristic decision we will see the reasons why they've acted in that way.  They move the plot forward because of their actions.

We need to know our characters better than we know ourselves - we often have blind spots about our own character traits!

Ask yourself questions such as:

* What events shaped your protagonist?

* What do they want?

* What drives them?

* How do they feel about themselves?

* How does this impact your story?

* What would surprise your protagonist? Not just the large events, but the smaller things that round them out as a person and add depth.

Ask yourself the same questions for your antagonist.

Next post I'll talk about some of the tools I've found useful in developing both the positive and negative sides of character traits.