Building Composite Characters — Part II

You’ve taken bits and pieces of your life and others who might make good book or story characters, and you’ve created a composite character. Now, let’s give him or her a story in which to shine. 

Imagine five things your character does well. Write them down.

Now imagine the three most likely emotional states in which your character will be. Write them down. 

Finally, imagine three situations or circumstances that will cause your character conflict, either within themselves or in the world. Write them down.

Take some of the information you’ve just learned about your character, and develop a story around your character’s emotions, motives, thoughts, feelings and actions. Make it a short story—one situation, one conflict, one resolution (or lack of resolution). Populate your story with verbs that describe your character’s inner world, feelings, attitudes. Give us a physical description of your character, which includes not only facial or bodily appearance—and clothing—but also facial and bodily expressions, the way your character moves.

Just write the story, of about 500 to 1,000 words. Bring your composite character to live. See if it is a character you can use in more stories—or books.

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Building Composite Characters — Part One

Fiction and creative non-fiction writers are always dabbling with the creation of new characters. We study hundreds or thousands of faces, expressions and movements, either know or imagine their histories, and form our characters. Seldom is a character derived from a single person, unless we’re writing biography, autobiography or creating a minor character.

Many characters and settings in movies, books and stories combine several people or places that the author/screenwriter either knows, knows of, or researches. These are called “composites.” Think of Louis L’Amour’s Jubal Sackett, Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat, Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe or any of the serial novelists’ countless characters. The creator stitches together enough elements to build the character or place to match his/her vision for the story, then adds from his or her imagination, often seasoned with personal experience and personal traits. For example, in The Voice, my forthcoming novel, I drew from the traits, actions and styles of twenty great rock musicians of the past forty years—plus plenty of idosyncracies from my own life and my imagination—to create Tom Timoreaux, the protagonist.

Let’s create a composite character today. Imagine a character about which you’d like to write. It could even be a younger or older version of yourself. Now, think of the coolest or most infuriating traits of six people you know—traits that evoke emotional responses. Consider their words, expressions, movements. Bring them together in your mind, and write a 500-word sketch of that character. Just let it flow, as either a description or a monologue in the character’s voice.

When you’re finished, see how many of those six people are represented, in whole or part, in your composite. Then create a story wrapped around this new character. Let us know what you wrote!

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Writing From Within History

One of the most prolific authors of the 20th century, Louis L’Amour, never changed the historical facts when he wrote stories and novels. That is an amazing statement, considering he wrote nearly 100 books plus many hundreds of short stories during his magnificent 40-year career as an author. It is also amazing when you consider he wrote primarily about the Wild West and Westward Expansion, areas in which the actual history seems to be re-written, revised, invented, distorted and changed on a monthly basis.

But L’Amour never bit on the tempting apple of rewriting history. He simply populated recorded western history with his characters and magnificent stories. As he wrote in his wonderful memoir, Education Of A Wandering Man, “Everywhere I look, there are people. With every person comes countless stories. That should be enough.” While it presented a greater challenge, it also enabled him to focus his prodigious storytelling skills on the people who explored, settled and battled for the west. Hundreds of millions of book sales later, it’s safe to say that L’Amour blazed a path for all writers who use history in their works.

Today, let’s try writing from within history. Take an historical event about which you want to write. Try to focus on a specific time, or moment, for which you have well-detailed research or knowledge. While changing none of those historical details, write a story. Have your character(s) move in and out of the setting, create conflict and resolution, and show us how they relate to their surroundings and the event in which you’ve placed them. Be sure that your identifying characteristics of the time — language, dress, transportation, means of communication, hairstyles, architecture —

are accurate. Do not deviate, not even on a single detail. When you write, see if you can feel the period in which you’re writing. If you can, be sure your characters do as well. 

This is a tremendously valuable exercise for historical writing. Keep practicing until you can write seamless historical fiction without changing or embellishing the known facts. And share with us a part of your story; post it!

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