Come on Ralf give us the pure character creation.

Ok ok I getcha your probably all like so we get all that roleplaying stuff but what about with out it. And I had a friend (Myra a great editor writer storyteller) who was reading say the same thing or something similar at least. And what she said was…

In my writing, I like to ask "what if...?" And "why?"

In fleshing out my characters, I always ask myself "what happened to make them who they are?" "Why do they do what they do?" For example, I once had a Bone Gnawer (Werewolf the Apocalypse from White Wolf same guys who do Vampire The Masquerade) who always carried a harmonica with her. She couldn't play it worth c**p, but she always had it to help her deal with her Rage. (She was born under the full moon, so her Rage was high.) She killed her own parents during her First Change. They lived in a trailer, and her father was abusive. One day, as a teenager, she couldn't handle it anymore, and flipped out.

And she added

One day , living on the streets, she found a harmonica, and discovered that playing it helped calm her beast.

All this fleshes out your character and the more fleshed out they are the more it helps your story and it also helps flesh out your world and story. Vice versa as well it all flows together each bit leading to the next and that’s what you want.

So let’s break this down some more …

Who

What

When

Where

Why

Who is your character?

Write down everything you know about them. During this step you might learn even more about them. The more you have the better it is for you even if you don’t use it.

What do they want?

It’s important because it helps the character motivation. If you know what they want you know a lot about the character.

The whens,

when does the story take place, when did this happen to your character, when did this fear begin.

Where does the story take place? Where did this happen to your character?

Why is this happening? Why does your character care? Why does your character want to do this?

So many questions you can ask and flesh out your character. And the more you ask and answer the better it is. Heck it might help you out while your crafting the story. Or if you get stuck in the story asking questions will help you flesh out both chars and story.

Ok let’s try this and I’ll play along with something new,

Who is our character ? Why do they care?

A former cop turned Private Investigator. He hated the police and decided to bring Justice in a different way.

Hated bullies in school and always stood up for her classmates.

What do they want? This also answers why

To bring justice for those that are over looked forgotten. To protect those that can’t help themselves or just need some help.

When & Where

New York City maybe a mythical NYC one outside this reality. Probably present day or maybe at a time where detectives where more prevalent.

Now this is the basics of the character I still haven’t decided if they are male or female. Or how old even though if they’ve been in the force they have to be at least late 20s to early 30s.

But as you can see, as you answer one thing sometimes more is revealed. Each thing that becomes clear helps you in the formation of that character.

Now we have the character the story follows. Even though you can have a private investigator be a main character with out it being about a case. Usually the first thing that pops into your head is a case they are on or one they will soon be on. Or the case can be something happening on the side as the character goes through something else.

Let’s say we go with a case… how about a friend still on the force calls him in on a strange murder. It’s a way to show and not tell that she used to be on the force. Maybe the friend is trying to convince them to come back on the force. Maybe they get in trouble for bringing them in. Or maybe it’s just the kind of case that our character excels at.

So now why is the murder strange?

The murderer left something unusual at the scene. Or it was left in the victim. Maybe this is the same type of calling card from a case the character had been working on before they left the force.

Now we have a bunch of ideas flying around to pick and choose from. So many directions to go on.

But let’s do something fun. We have the basics here but why don’t you all chime in to help make this story. Let’s use who what where when and why to get the idea down. What do you say? Want to make a story?

And of course as always if you have questions feel free to ask.

To be continued…