Stories come to us in many ways. Some of us receive them in images, others in certain ideal we desire to see played out.
Some of us get the plot. And the some of us get taken by a character that won’t let us go.
They fill our thoughts and days. We listen to them relay their life in our heads or we discover bits and pieces over time, through pictures that makes think back upon the character.
We see movies that remind us. We are determined to tell this character’s story. But how?A good story has conflict and a dilemma, a situation, or problem, if you will.
How do we take a character we love and fashion a story around them that others will not want to put down from reading?
However much you think you have nothing with which to work when all you know is your character, never fear, you have a gold mine.
Because character and personality are teeming with conflict.
Remember our protagonist, Rabbit, from yesterday’s blog.
The history of Rabbit’s life, a major part of what shapes Rabbit’s possible response to entering the gathering of frogs to obtain the carrot is that Rabbit was not only raised by a family of frogs, but that those frogs saved Rabbit from being killed by a band of rogue rabbits that killed Rabbit’s entire family.
Talk about conflict, war always makes for good stories. Rabbit’s story of being the lone survivor of the attack on her or his family revels in tension.
Who were the rogue rabbits that attacked Rabbit’s family?
Why did they choose to attack Rabbit’s family?
How did they attack Rabbit’s family?
Did the rogue rabbits attack other rabbit families or were they simply out to get Rabbit’s family?
And why?
And that’s just one aspect of Rabbit’s life.
What has Rabbit does since the attack? How has she or he lived? What is Rabbit’s occupation?
Was Rabbit injured in anyway during the attack?
Our lives are laden with conflict.
Those conflicts affect our personalities and give rise to other, more personal and deeper conflicts.
When you have a character and not story ask your character to write a letter to you and in that letter describe her or his life.
As you listen you’ll hear offshoots of possible stories.
Write them down and see which catches your fancy.
How do stories come to you, character of plot first, or both?
How do you get to know your characters–by asking questions, doing outlines before your write, perhaps character analyses?
How important is character and personality to you as an author?