Welcome Bethany Griffin!
I’d
guess that all writers build characters in slightly different (or perhaps
vastly different) ways, and we sometimes build them differently from story to
story. I think that I generally come up with some of the plot first, and then
as the plot develops, the characters, particularly the main characters, take
form, and from that point character and plot develop organically together…
In the case of Madeline Usher, we have a character from a story by Edgar Allan Poe, whose only purpose (within her brother’s story) is to create horror and show us the suffering and madness of Roderick Usher. She is mute, and without her own sense of purpose (within Poe’s story) but she isn’t a completely blank slate.
In the case of Madeline Usher, we have a character from a story by Edgar Allan Poe, whose only purpose (within her brother’s story) is to create horror and show us the suffering and madness of Roderick Usher. She is mute, and without her own sense of purpose (within Poe’s story) but she isn’t a completely blank slate.
There
are three things I knew about Madeline from the beginning.
1. She is a twin/has a twin
2. She lives in a creepy mansion
3. She has catatonic fits
But who is Madeline? What does she want and dream of? As I develop a character, I always ask myself questions about her, and the most important question is always: What makes this character get up in the morning? This is what separates characters from real people in my mind. Many people don’t have a reason for getting up in the morning (real people can be annoyingly random), but characters must have a reason. They should be driven, particularly my female characters (who are always trapped in some way). But they can’t just be trying to escape from whatever is trapping them, they must also have a personality of their own.
So, in order to begin The Fall, I figured out what makes Madeline get up in the morning. (The hope that Roderick will return at first, the drive to bring down the house, later.) I determined what makes her happy (her garden). I determined what lengths she is willing to go to for her goals and to protect the people she loves. And more than anything, I determined how the person she might have been, the person she was meant to be, was warped by the three facts above, as well as by her isolation and the genetic predispositions of the Usher family.
What I ended up with was a determined, loving, impossibly brave young woman, who is terribly naïve, borderline insane, and in every possible way, a hero. She isn’t strong physically, in fact she is the very opposite, but she endures terrible hardship despite her physical weaknesses. She is clever despite being borderline mad. She is kind when no one has ever been kind to her, and she is hopeful when her world gives her no reason to feel even the slightest inkling of hope. As you can probably tell, I love Madeline, and I hope readers will, too!
1. She is a twin/has a twin
2. She lives in a creepy mansion
3. She has catatonic fits
But who is Madeline? What does she want and dream of? As I develop a character, I always ask myself questions about her, and the most important question is always: What makes this character get up in the morning? This is what separates characters from real people in my mind. Many people don’t have a reason for getting up in the morning (real people can be annoyingly random), but characters must have a reason. They should be driven, particularly my female characters (who are always trapped in some way). But they can’t just be trying to escape from whatever is trapping them, they must also have a personality of their own.
So, in order to begin The Fall, I figured out what makes Madeline get up in the morning. (The hope that Roderick will return at first, the drive to bring down the house, later.) I determined what makes her happy (her garden). I determined what lengths she is willing to go to for her goals and to protect the people she loves. And more than anything, I determined how the person she might have been, the person she was meant to be, was warped by the three facts above, as well as by her isolation and the genetic predispositions of the Usher family.
What I ended up with was a determined, loving, impossibly brave young woman, who is terribly naïve, borderline insane, and in every possible way, a hero. She isn’t strong physically, in fact she is the very opposite, but she endures terrible hardship despite her physical weaknesses. She is clever despite being borderline mad. She is kind when no one has ever been kind to her, and she is hopeful when her world gives her no reason to feel even the slightest inkling of hope. As you can probably tell, I love Madeline, and I hope readers will, too!
Thanks, Bethany! I love seeing how authors go about creating their characters!
Giveaway
I have an extra ARC copy of The Fall that I'd love to pass into the hands of one lucky reader!
Ends Nov. 10, 2014; US mailing addresses only please.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Ends Nov. 10, 2014; US mailing addresses only please.
