Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Character and Some Setting Detail
One week from today will be NaNoWriMo and I completed my preparation last night. My plotcards are written and organized. My characters and settings are in decent shape. By decent I mean enough has been determined to crank out a first draft.
That’s the key with character and setting: you have to have enough to make it work.
Character Detail
For years, I subscribed to the character sheet* level of detail where I had to know everything about their schooling from preschool on up, their allergies, favorite pair of earrings, etc. Filling out these multi-page sheets would take up a lot of my time. My first idea for NaNo this year got derailed by these character sheets too.
The problem was that with the focus on creating all of this information about my character so they’d be more three dimensional, I was losing out on these things occurring organically through my writing. Talk about a light bulb moment.
When you pare your character development to the bare minimum, your inner pantser throws a party**. The creativity isn’t forced and you can focus more on figuring out your character for the story you’re going to tell. It’s also less time consuming.
So for the sake of NaNoWriMo, here’s an abbreviated list of character details you should know. Every project is different, but as I said before, this my blog so you get my opinions.
- Name (and, if applicable, nickname). If you did your plotcards first, you should already know your character’s name. I like to know their given and their surnames because it helps make them more life-like.
- Age. This doesn’t need to be exact and depending on your genre, the age is sort of implied. My current NaNo is YA, so my characters are all in their teens.
- Physical appearance and fashion style. You should know if your character is tall, hefty, or wears headgear. You should also know if they have an affinity for sweatpants. You shouldn’t have more than a couple of lines dedicated to this.
- Brief narrative involving their personality and quirks.
- Narrative explaining how they’re going to change through the story. This will also include explaining anything else that you think needs to be addressed during the story.
Last.fm hit of the day: Love at First Fright by Murderdolls
Good luck with the nano goal. You're gonna need it. This contest sounds grueling.
Love making maps 😀
I agree that so much of your characterization arises organically as you write the story. I like to have the char's appearance and personality, as well as back story and interests, all mapped out before I start writing. This can all change of course, if it feels right as I write, but it gives me somewhere to start.
Good questions! I ask one about my characters that's similar, and I think it helps — if I asked that character what the story was about, what would they say, in a line or two? That is, everybody's the protagonist of some story, so which story does the sidekick think is going on? Or the villain?