Heroic Writing, part 2- Character Biographies I

In the first installment, I discussed the fundamental questions that every author should be able to answer before putting pen to paper.  I want to reiterate that this is by no means a hard-and-fast set of rules, and failure to comply will not, in fact, get you shot, execution-style, in the back of your head as you pound away at your keyboard.  That said, they are still good questions and answering them gives us a good jumping-off point to explore one of the more fundamental aspects of our shared world-building within .

The first of the questions is What are you writing?  In this case, the answer is simple: you are writing a biography- a piece of literature (defined in this case as a part of the writings that are concerned with Angel Falls and not necessarily a work of permanence or lasting significance) that will help to familiarize readers with your character.

The second question is Who are you writing it for?  This question is a little more complicated, because there are really three audiences to be aware of here.  The first is the general public- those people that happened upon your writing either because you gave it to them, it was recommended to them in some other way, or because they stumbled on it by blind chance.  The second are readers who are specifically looking for spoilers for your stories.  The final group, really a subset or the second group, are other writers.  It’s probably important to realize that, as the author of the stories some people may be trying to subvert, you will probably feel an urge to look down upon people who fall into the second group, often without realizing the reason.  The reason it is important is so that you can identify the symptoms and then, hopefully without fanfare, squash them out!  Passing judgment on your readers is tempting and, indeed, somewhat inevitable, but, ultimately counterproductive and likely to damage your final product.

The third question is What form will it take?  In the case of biographies, the form could be a story, but it’s probably better if it’s a guide or an essay.  The reason I recommend steering away from stories is simple: it is difficult to provide sufficient detail within the context of a story to allow another writer to grasp all of the necessary nuances of a character in order to use it in his or her own fiction without sacrificing authenticity.

Finally, the last question is What purpose will it serve?  This is a critical question.  If your purpose is simply to introduce a character, then it really isn’t a biography.  Biographies, by their nature, are informative.  For myself, I seek to provide other writers with the tools they need in order to use my characters with authenticity.  This goal overrides any other concerns, for me.  If a character harbors a deep, dark secret, that secret is laid bare in the biography.  If a character has a weakness to some rare, radioactive mineral, that too is included in the biography- even if the character in question does not know it.

With the answers to these questions firmly in mind, let’s take a look at what the character creation process is really like.  Before I go any further, I want to take a moment to point out a number of the very good character creation tips and guides that have informed this entry.  I strongly recommend perusing ’s How to Make a Character, ’s On Characters, and The Writer’s Digest’s How to Craft Compelling Characters.

I am not going to spend a great deal of time discussing points that my predecessors have already made and made well.  Assuming you are writing a character biography for , it is important to follow the groups rules- define the character according to what allegiance (Hero, Villain, Wild Card) he holds; decide if the character is open source or not; pay attention to the admittedly very few power restrictions.

What I will spend some time on is the idea of building a character for a story.  A good character is more than just a set of powers and skills with a gender stapled onto them in order to add a little flavor.  It is even more than the aforementioned abilities with a weakness or two mixed in to keep them from being entirely cardboard.  A good character is about history.

People start character building from a variety of different perspectives; I often start with a set of powers and a personality I want to write about.  Some people start by designing a costume, then trying to add details until they feel the costume is adequately filled.  A lot of writers within Angel Falls seem to be drawn from the ranks of role players, and the first step for many of them is to create an actual character sheet from whatever game they feel most comfortable with, be it one of the various White Wolf systems, Paizo’s Pathfinder, or Hero Games’ Champions.

As an example, Tyche started her existence as a character in a CyberGeneration campaign I ran; she was a streetfighter with the fairly unique ability that nanomachines had infected her and allowed her to see a few seconds into the future- basically just far enough to correct a single mistake, to paraphrase Galaxy Quest.  I won’t go into a great deal of detail about the RPG character- many of the character traits present in the Angel Falls incarnation were lifted directly from the game version- but I will say I would have been hard-pressed to simply write down any of the adventures she and her companions got involved with.  It would have been difficult not because there wasn’t sufficient dialogue, not because the action was unexciting, nor because she wasn’t well fleshed-out for her situation; it would have been difficult because she lacked a history that bound her firmly to the world.

When I took Tyche out of cold storage, I had to go back to the drawing board and I started by asking myself a number of questions.  I asked myself what personality I thought she should have.  I asked not only what her powers were, but how she had gotten them and how it had shaped her reactions to the world around her.  Finally, I asked myself what limitations she imposed upon herself.  Without further ado, let’s take a look at these questions to see how they can help you build a character.

What personality will your character have?  A good starting point for this question is to pick a few words to describe positive traits, negative traits, and quirks your character will display.  Don’t worry too much about making them all fit together- that’s an end goal, but not necessarily an initial goal.  Real people are contradictory; logically, it follows that fictional characters will sometimes be mercurial as well.  For each trait you choose, try to think of a few lines that describe how your character embodies that trait and, if it helps, write them down.  An excellent resource for this is Paul Jaquay’s Central Casting resource, specifically pages 34-35 and pages 67-73 of the pdf (Tables  318, 647, 648, and 649a-f).  Note that while the resource I’ve listed is for fantasy characters, the tables I’ve mentioned are perfectly suitable for any characters.  Additionally, Jaquays has printed Central Casting resources for a variety of genres which are available for purchase on Amazon.

How did your character acquire powers and how have those powers affected your character?  This question is a little different than asking what your characters powers are; the real question is how your character responded to suddenly being more than mortal.  I’ll note, here, that powers is a general catchall term that is not limited to metahuman abilities.  Despite the fact that Captain America, The Punisher, and Batman are not superhuman, they can be considered as such for our purposes because they have skills, training, and equipment that set them apart from regular people.  If your character’s only distinguishing feature is that she makes a killer espresso, it might be time to rethink the character.  Ask yourself if your character’s awakening to power was in any way traumatic- in superhero fiction, it often is, but it doesn’t have to be.  A character could, for instance, wake up one morning and discover he had the ability to fly without being traumatized as a result; such a character could be remarkably well-adjusted.  Of course, it’s also possible the character could develop into a dangerous megalomaniacal madman- it’s all in how the character responds.

What self-imposed limitations does your character have?  Limitations are, by their nature, psychological and sociological- they have nothing (or nearly nothing) to do with how a character’s powers function.  Some common limitations are a love of family, an unwillingness to be duped, or a need to be in control at all times.  The purpose of a limitation is to give the writer a way of manipulating the character’s actions.  If the limitation is unlikely to ever be used, then it’s not a limitation; it’s flavor text.  This can be a hard concept to really grasp.  Think of it this way: if a character loves and is concerned regarding the safety of their family, then that may be a limitation.  If the family is long dead, however, utterly immortal, or displaced in such a way that they are unlikely to ever be in any real danger, than it is not a limitation because bringing it into play is virtually impossible.

One of the key points, here, is that limitations are different from weaknesses.  I have a problem with the way many people think of weaknesses- Superman’s allergy to Kryptonite is not a weakness!  Instead of saying that Superman can be killed by Kryptonite (which is true), it would be far less misleading to say that very little can harm Superman except Kryptonite.  If you can rewrite your weakness as a power, then it is not a weakness; it is a power with specific flaws.

With all of these questions answered, it’s time to create a character history.  Try to include as many details as you can while writing your history- give examples, explain how different traits developed, and try to show readers how your character has acted and responded to the various challenges life has thrown at him.  Try to cement the character’s history within the history of Angel Falls and the Angel Falls Universe- although some characters may have popped into existence fully formed, it’s much easier to write about a character who has a history that other characters can connect with.

Next week, I’ll take these ideas and show you how I put them into practice using a couple of specific examples.  In the meantime, let me know what you think of this series so far- and let me know what else you’d like to see.  Until next time,

Excelsior!