Character design is a way to understand who your characters are. The more you know about your character, the easier it will be to render them on the page. Good fiction (not just horror) is, after all, written in much the same way a mystery is solved: by looking at motive.
As horror writers, our characters often get a bad rap. Too many people judge horror based on B-rate movies filled with one-dimensional characters who exist only to be slaughtered around the next corner. Good horror fiction is SO much more than that.
You need to ask yourself, what are your characters’ motives? What do they want and how will they react in any given situation? When you know that, you can write fiction that rings true on the page.
That being said, you might find your characters are not doing what you want them to and that they have entirely derailed your meticulous plotting and outlining. However, a good writer knows when this is okay and when it’s not. If you’re like me, this is the exciting part, when true writing begins.
5 Methods for Better Character Design
The problem is when you start writing and you don’t know your characters, you’re likely to end up with a lot of prose you can’t use. No matter how much plotting you do (if any) beforehand, if you don’t know your characters, you will only be bullying them to do what you want them to do. Simply put, this kind of writing is not very good.
1. Visualize Your Character
One of the first things I like to do is visualize the character. You can often tell a lot about someone based on how they choose to dress and how they hold themselves. I’m not much of an artist, but I will sometimes sketch certain visual details, such as a hat or a unique item that a character may keep on them.
You don’t have to know everything. It often doesn’t matter what colored eyes a character has, and you certainly don’t want to describe every little detail to your readers. In fact, it’s often best to let your readers fill in the blanks from their own imaginations, which can help them to connect with your characters.
Nevertheless, a racial background can be useful. For instance, a Mexican-American is likely to have ties to a specific cultural background that influences how they see the world. It may also play a part in how others respond to them.
2. Write Until You Know Your Character
Personally, I used to do this a lot. When we’re just starting out, a lot of us writers are told: JUST WRITE. It’s not bad advice, by any means, because the only way to learn how to write is to write. However, when you write before you know who your characters are, you’re likely to end up with a lot of prose that you’ll need to cut from the final piece in editing.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be time-consuming. Stephen King sometimes uses this method, and if you’re having trouble getting started, then just do it. Start writing! As you put words to paper, things will begin to open up. The plot may reveal itself and, hopefully, characters will begin to take on their own voices. From there, you can start again, now writing with your characters’ POVs in mind.
3. Write a Short Story From Your Character’s Point of View (POV)
One good way to ‘write until you know your characters’ is to pen a short story from a character's POV. This story should be separate from your larger work and put a lot of its focus (if not all) on a single character. In this way, you’ll be able to flesh out your character before returning to your novel or whatever it is you’re writing.
If all goes well, you’ll then have a short story you can submit around to anthology publishers or use as a freebie for promotional purposes. If not, it doesn’t matter. The point of the exercise was to get to know the character.
4. Give Your Character a Personality Test
One way a lot of us try to get to know ourselves is by taking personality tests. It’s a fun exercise and can be useful if you know how to use the information. With that in mind, why not give your character one?
Yeah, I realize these types of tests are pseudoscience, but it doesn’t matter. All you’re trying to figure out is if your character is an introvert or an extrovert, and other things like that. A good test to use is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which recognizes 16 distinct personalities that will give you a better understanding of your character.
5. Figure Out Your Character’s Alignment
Another good way to summarize the basics of your characters is to figure out their alignments. For those who don’t know, alignment is a Dungeons and Dragons RPG term used to help establish a player character’s motives. It’s determined by establishing the character’s morality and ethical understandings.
The ethical axis is split into Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic, while the morality axis is Good, Neutral, and Evil. Therefore, characters range from Lawful/Good to Chaotic/Evil and everything between. Using alignment is a solid way to define the basics of even minor characters in your stories.
Creating Compelling Characters
Although this column is about horror fiction, the advice here is for everyone. Characters are, perhaps, the single most important factor in writing effective fiction. The plot is the plot, and it’s okay, but don’t rely on it. If you are able to use better character design, it will be your characters who carry the story forward.
Keith Deininger is the award-winning and #1 Amazon bestselling author of horror and fantasy, including titles such as WITHIN, THE FEVER TRILOGY, and THE GODGAME series. He has been called “one of the finest writers of imaginative fiction” and “Ray Bradbury on acid.” His latest novel, VIOLENT HEARTS, has been compared to Stephen King’s fantasy-based work. He lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and kids. Although he loves a good nightmare, in person he’s a really nice guy. Promise.
Keith’s personal site: www.KeithDeininger.com
Keith’s SEO content writing and editing company: www.MeridianPublications.com
