Tag: character

Character Profile Worksheets

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These character packets will help you organize your characters’ traits in one central location.

Have you ever written a character who had short, lustrous hair in chapter one and frizzy ankle-length hair in chapter fifteen? Okay, maybe not. But perhaps your character had gray eyes in one chapter and green ones in another. Or maybe his or her last name changes halfway through the book.

Collect all of your information together with these worksheets in lieu of scraps of paper and sticky-notes all over your office, kitchen, computer, and sister’s house. Continue reading →

Story Berg and Goal Boat: A Lesson in Backstory (and Goals)

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This is Part Two in the Write, Edit, Repeat Character Series.

Backstory. What’s backstory?

Backstory is whatever happened to the characters before the story starts. It’s the stuff that the writer knows (or discovers), but what doesn’t show up in the story that the reader is reading.

Backstory is the reason we have Pottermore. Rowling had so much backstory that she could make an entire interactive experience for her readers out of it. An obsessive fan base and millions of dollars to create it doesn’t hurt.

Anyway, the most logical visual for backstory is an iceberg. All the stuff under water might be interesting, in fact, it might be really really good. But if it isn’t absolutely necessary to drive the story forward, then it doesn’t need to appear above water, in the finished piece. Continue reading →

Characters: MBTI continued

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Last week I gave you a little “quiz” to use to figure out the Myers-Briggs of you or your characters.

This week I am giving you another little helpful chart about eight divisions of the MBTI types. As before, please see the official Myers-Briggs page here, or read more about typing on blogs dedicated to typing. Again, these are my favorites: Which MBTI Type… and  MBTI Types.

Below you will find a downloadable reference I created for the sixteen MBTI types divided into eight groups of two. I gave examples of fictional characters that, I think, embody those types. In real life, people are complex and may not fit neatly into one of the divisions. (I certainly don’t.) Fiction imitates life, so well-written characters are pretty complex, too. See my note about Hermione Granger following the images. Continue reading →

Naming Characters: Charactonym

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This week’s word is a fun one and corresponds with the new Character Series on writelarawrite, which “aired” on Friday and will continue for as many weeks as we deem appropriate.

Charactonym

a name of a fictional character that suggests a distinctive trait of that character. Examples of charactonyms include Mistress Quickly and Sir Toby Belch.

—Encyclopedia Britannica

Snow White is perhaps the most well-known (and obvious) charactonym, but in the fictional world, there are plenty. Take, for example, the characters in the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter isn’t a Charactonym. If it were, the boy wizard would look like this:

68999_Hairy_Potter-1

But there are others. Draco Malfoy, for instance. “Draco” means dragon. The prefix “mal-” means evil or bad. Like “malicious.” He’s a mean, fiery beast. Funny, I don’t think he particularly lived up to his name…

But Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are the epitomes of charactonyms.

Sirius is the name of the dog constellation. Remus is the name of one of the twin founders of Rome, said to be raised by a wolf. The Latin name for wolf is Canis lupus.  So there you have it: Black Dog and Wolf Wolf.

Fictional characters often have unusual names. Han Solo, Holden Caulfield, Atticus Finch, Katniss Everdeen, Hermione Granger, Maximus, Door. Sometimes writers can get a bit carried away, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Or the people who name Bond girls.

That’s why the protagonist of my first published short story was named “Helen James.” She’s not very eccentric, and she’s not very attractive. She’s very normal, so I gave her a normal name.

Consider what your character names mean and how they sound when spoken aloud. If you completely make them up from scratch, for the sake of your readers, make them pronounceable.

This goes for place names, too.

You can be witty without being obnoxious. A poet named “Justice” in a movie called Poetic Justice?  That makes even me groan. A cannibal named Hannibal? Remember, less is more.

Three last examples of doing this right—characterizing subtly:

Albus Dumbledore

“Albus” means “white” in Latin, “Dumbledore” is the Old English word for “bumblebee.” Dumbledore isn’t literally a white bumblebee, but the pairing of a Latin and Old English name work for him, the color white has connotations of wisdom and goodness, and bumblebees are perhaps one of the most unusual and out of place insects in all of bugdom. Also, Rowling mentioned she pictured Dumbledore often humming to himself.

Reubus Hagrid

From Jo Rowling herself:

“Hagrid is also another old English word meaning if you were Hagrid, it’s a dialect word meaning you’d had a bad night. Hagrid’s a big drinker. He has a lot of bad nights.”

—The Connection (WBUR Radio), 12 October, 1999

Minerva McGonagall

“Minerva” is the Roman goddess of wisdom. McGonagall comes from the last name of the worst poet in British History, William McGonagall. The name suggests that Professor McGonagall is brilliant, but that her silly relations might be humbling to her. This pairing shows a witty irony that isn’t obvious to anyone but the writer and those to whom she declares her inspiration.

What do you think are the best and worst examples of charactonyms?