Character Sketches

The theme of the month (if it isn't apparent) is characters.  This is an interesting topic because of my story.  For the first five revisions, the sidekick to my main character, was much more likable than the main character herself.  The more I re-read my book, the less I cared about the main character.  Does that somehow seem wrong?  YES!  My main character should be the driving force of my novel.  I should want her success and safety more than I want any other character.

So what was the problem?  Inconsistency.  The main character didn't have a real personality.  Instead of being able to understand her, she was all over the place.  She was volatile and unreliable and inconsistent.  She would react one way in a certain situation and if that same situation were to arise again, she would react completely different: not because she learned from her mistakes or past reaction, but because she didn't know who she was or what drove her.

Now, I wasn't looking for a character that was so predictable to the point of boredom because, let's be honest, no real human being is like that.  What I wanted was a real character.  For example, in a given situation, I can guess more or less how my husband is going to react because I understand his personality.  It won't be a mystery to me every time that same situation arises what his reaction is going to be.  Because he is who he is, his actions will be fairly consistent.  Once we understand a person's personality or we see, through their actions, what drives them, that will either draw us to that person or repel us.  That's what I needed for my protagonist.

I did some soul searching for the both of us and what I concluded was that I needed a character sketch.  I needed to know who my main character was, what drove her, what her faults were, what her personality was like.  From this character sketch, I was able to understand what it was that led her to act the way she did.

With my character sketch in hand, I had to make the story reflect that drive, that motive.  That meant I had to rewrite the entire book.  You think I'm joking, but I'm not.  The story was just as erratic as the main character had been.  But with the personality of the main character being definite and consistent, plot elements came out that I had never seen before because now I understood her.  Heck, even the entire climax and plan of the story, when she realizes what her flaw is and just how much trouble it's gotten her into and her plan to resolve her issues, have changed completely.  The best part is that I love the changes.  The plot now is character driven rather than just action driven.  The twists and deception and manipulation that occurs are more intense because now I'm rooting for the main character.  I love her more than any other character now.  I'm invested in her because I understand her personality to a certain degree and I am drawn to it.

The character sketch has been the most useful tool I've found in my writing.  I didn't only use it with my protagonist.  When I sketched the antagonist of the story, revelations of new scenes came to me.  Now the antagonist is more complex.  It makes everything that much more gut-wrenching because of the understanding I now have of the characters.

So if you're ever in a slump or you don't know where to take a scene, ask yourself how your character would react.  If you don't know the answer, try a character sketch.