Pay Attention

The main characters of my book, Circus Mesmer, presented themselves one Christmas some years ago. Lennox, Max and Alex (although two of them weren’t called that in the first few weeks) were teenagers, siblings, and performers in the circus. It sounds strange to say they presented themselves, but it feels like they did! I knew they grew up in a family of circus artists, and that they each had some extraordinary powers that they had to keep secret. I jotted down some notes and continued on with some projects I was working on.

The characters kept nudging me. Lennox is like that. She’s tenacious and doesn’t take no for an answer. I started thinking about them all the time, their personalities, what they looked like, and so on. I was getting to know them, really. The characters started it all; the plot came in their wake. I thought about the broad strokes of the plot, of course, but from the start I was concerned with figuring out these three siblings who had popped up in my mind one late evening.

I know they live in my imagination, but to me, they are real. Mostly. Sometimes I struggle to figure them out, or an aspect of their personality causes me to fret and worry about getting it right. More often than not, though, I know how they’d act or what they’d say in a particular set of circumstances. A lot of what I know about them came from that first burst of ideas, which I wrote down immediately. Those notes have been invaluable. If I had been too busy to pay attention then, I might have missed something important about my characters. Good ideas do not always come back, I’ve noticed, grab on with both hands when they poke through the first time.

Take Notes

I had notes everywhere. Since I thought about these characters constantly, I grabbed my phone, scraps of paper, napkins, whatever I had handy, and scribbled my ideas. I kept files about Lennox, Max and Alex on my computer, filling in their personalities and looks as I thought of them. I like to be organized, but my notes were all over the place. It was getting ridiculous, really. I was constantly trying to sort my notes and I don’t know how many times I lost some of them. Then I stumbled across Scrivener, which revolutionized my world, more on that elsewhere.

I just looked at some old notes that I made—and the basics of the main characters’ personalities are there from the beginning. In Circus Mesmer, Lennox’ the oldest, and the one I got to know first. She has some very special powers, there as the result of her being the Firstborn girl in the family, and she feels burdened by the responsibilities that come with them. Lennox tries to take care of her siblings and sometimes feels cut off from other people her age. She loves performing, the athleticism, training and precision that goes into a number on stage, the audience’s reactions, and their energy. So, she loves performing, but she also needs to be alone sometimes. Lennox sneaks off into nature and spends some time to herself. She talks to herself sometimes and can sometimes be a little too worried about what people think of her.

Alex came second, and she’s always been Alex. I played around some with Lennox and Max’ names, but not Alex. She’s the youngest, quick-tempered (like her mother, which is probably why they clash sometimes), impulsive, on her cell all the time. She’s a fantastic performer, but doesn’t always feel connected to the act and the circus. She’s dyslexic, loves crosswords, and learning new things (mostly several things at once). Her powers were also clear to me from the beginning, as well as important parts of her character arc.

Max is the middle child. He’s a peacemaker and strong in mind and body. He has an expansive vocabulary, which irritates Alex (of course: temper, remember?). It sometimes frustrates Max that his powers differ from his sisters’, but he rarely lets himself worry about that too much. Max likes the circus and performing, but perhaps not as much as Lennox. He has dreams of performing in other branches of the Circus that he hasn’t told his family about yet.

All three of them are big readers, having been home-schooled and encouraged to use the library from an early age. Alex likes to listen to audio-books more than her siblings, probably because her dyslexia sometimes frustrates her too much when she reads. I’ve made notes of their favorite books.

Character Charts

I made character charts for all characters, not just the three main characters. In these charts, I tried to work out just what they were like, their personalities, likes and dislikes, patterns of speech, what they like to eat, what their interests are, and so on. I haven’t used all of this, but that was not the point. The point was to get to know the characters, and it worked. It helped me gain a much better understanding of them and their motivations and actions. In the chart, I also wrote out the main stages of the character’s arc, to be conscious of how their story ties in with the main plot. It helps me keep track of the plot and the character’s motivations throughout the story.

Body Language and Speech Patterns

How do you make the characters leap off the page? Pay attention to the little things. What makes a character interesting? What makes people interesting? I looked for Lennox, Max and Alex everywhere, in a gesture, a word, a silhouette, something I heard or saw that I knew fit them. I’ve kept doing that, especially for body language or patterns of speech or expressions, even long after they were fully fleshed out in my mind. I’m always noting what I see and hear. Just the other day I passed a girl with a particular way of moving her body that I knew was exactly how Alex would move—and I wrote down my impressions.

When I started to write in earnest, I noticed it was difficult to keep track of the minutiae of each character’s speech and body language, especially. I solved that by making a table where I included the details of how the central characters speak and act, how they move their body, and their reactions. I keep the table up on one of my screens while I write (I have two, besides my laptop screen), and it has helped immensely.

Characters’ Appearance

I’ve always been confident about the physical appearance of Lennox, Max and Alex. I looked for them all over the internet, found pictures that showed parts of them, and put them up on my cork wall in my office. I have made a collage of pictures that I printed out and pinned so that they overlap and the visible parts make up the character. Even though I see the characters in my mind, I still like the visual reminder on my wall. The cork wall, by the way, is one of the best things in my office. We bought untreated cork floor tiles and glued them to the wall, and I love my enormous cork board.

Lennox, Max, Alex, and the other characters are so real to me. When I am out and about, I wonder what they would think about this or that. I know they are a product of my imagination, but sometimes they behave as if they’re not. I write something, and one of them protests—and I realize that they’re right, they wouldn’t do that, and certainly not in the way I suggest. They have the final say, of course.

5 Tips To Get You Started Writing Fictional Characters

• Pay Attention: Try to notice details, quirks, peculiarities, patterns of speech, body language, ways of dressing, moving of the people you see around you. Perhaps you are walking down the street and notice a gesture or a word. Write it down, you might need it sometime! I often listen to the cadences and inflections of the way people talk and take notes.
• Take Notes: Note down all your ideas, thoughts and impressions, however small or trivial they might seem. Create a system for your notes that works for you. I use Scrivener, but you can use anything: notebooks, the note-taking app on your phone, documents on your computer and so on. As long as you have a system that works for you, you’re set. Just don’t imagine you’ll remember all your brilliant ideas if you don’t have a way of preserving them.
• Create Character Charts: Writing the details of your characters, their personalities, looks, thoughts, dreams and goals will help you when you write your book. Also, having a clear idea about the character’s story arc is invaluable for the development of the main plot.
• Quick Reference Table: If you’re anything like me, you might need a reminder sometimes to help you keep track of your characters and their idiosyncrasies. I’ve found that making a table with the characters’ names on top, and a short version of their patterns of speech, actions, and body language in the rows below, is just what I need when I’m deep into writing scenes and chapters. I also add to the table when I think of something, an additional detail, an expression, a quirk, or something that individualizes the character.
• Make a Visual Representation of Your Characters: Whether it is drawing, taking pictures, looking for pictures or art on the net, or creating any other imagery for your characters, I urge you to do so. Having a visual representation of your characters, however vague or detailed you want to make it, will help you on the way to creating your characters. I have my images on the wall. You might want them on your computer or in a notebook. Whatever works for you!

Do you have a favorite way of working when you start to write your characters? I would love to hear from you!