2D Characters > 3D Characters

I don't tend to agree with Hemingway -- especially as a writer, most especially as a person -- but he does have words for character development that toll like a bell:

"When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."

I think the moment that I knew that I was a writer was when I was twelve. I created characters in my head to run alongside the characters in books (what the kids these days call "fan fiction"), and the characters suddenly developed minds of their own. I drew them in sketchbooks and thought about their hobbies and decided their birthdates.

Actual photo of Cam's characters she created when twelve.

As I grew with these people in my head, they housed themselves in the corridors of my cranium, cozied up next to a failing hippocampus, walked beside me through my college campus, and voiced themselves in various ways. One boy told me that he liked Brand New when I listened to an album on a walk back to my dorm, nostalgic for an old hook-up who introduced me to the band. One girl told me that she would study to be an art therapist when she was old enough for college on my way out of the grocery store. Another boy came to me in a dream and, while I was walking to the cafeteria for breakfast, stopped me dead in my tracks just so I could know that his favorite food was ham and grilled cheese.

Creating characters is an oddly intimate, delusional relationship with people who do not exist. 

A month ago, I finished teaching my 7th graders how to create characters that are believable people. They had a series of fun (they better have found them fun, dammit) worksheets that helped with brainstorming their characters. One had them create Tweets that their protagonist would write in response to the stages of their Rising Actions. Another plastered a picture of the "What Do You Want?" scene from The Notebook and helped them develop their characters wants / goals. Another encouraged them to think of a flaw or error (a hamartia) to dissuade them from Mary Sue -like character. I've been trying to teach twelve-year-olds to create people in their heads, in their writing.

It's a strange request to expect of anyone: the ability to craft a human being out of thin air and arid imagination.

I remember the first time that I met non-writers who knew what I was talking about: actors. While I'd been involved in theatre in my high school, I solely appeared on stage for the sake of hanging lights and building platforms: the glamorous life of the techie. Such was the case in college, with barriers between techies and actors solidly cemented, until one day an actor friend explained that he carried around a notebook with him at all times in case a character spoke to him.

I couldn't believe it: someone else had characters in their heads that spoke to them at inopportune times? Someone else created music playlists to listen to, changed their interests / hobbies to fit their character, bought clothes that reminded them of their characters?

Here's the thing: if you want to create three-dimensional characters, you have to become a bit psychotic. More like a lot. You have to know the 90% oceanic icebergs of each of your people, even if your writing only reveals that 10% These people need to become your friends. Even your villains -- especially your villains. You need to be asking them those uncomfortable first Tinder date questions: where are you from? who's your celebrity crush? what do you do for work? what do you want? what do you need? who did you vote for? are you gluten free? what's your social security number? 

You need to know their speech patterns, their fidgets, their relationships with others, their deep dark secrets...

But why?

Because if you don’t, it shows. If you don’t push yourself to think of your characters beyond their interactions with their environment and interactions with others, you leave them hollow men. You have to know backstories, personalities, wants, and needs in order to know character motivation, in order to know why and how your characters interact with others and their environment. 

Let me close with one last example: currently, I’m working with an actress on a film project, and her character wears an excessive amount of bracelets that purchased while traveling. When I wrote this character in my film script, I thought that it would just be a weird quirk. Now, it’s so much more: my actress thinks that her character engaged briefly in self-harm and uses the bracelets to cover her arms, and my actress is coming up with a story for every single one of the bracelets. Will the audience ever know these details? No. But by knowing her character to this degree, my actress will personally feel the biting sting when a cute boy calling her bracelets “tacky”. She is bringing my flat depiction to life. She is making this character a living person.

How will you do the same for your own characters?

Read the more from Cam Best on Floodmark.