I picked up a copy of the January issue of The Writer magazine and thumbed through it during my break at work. An entry on page 20, in the middle of the Lee Child interview, caught my eye. In this entry Mr. Child talks about starting with an unlikable character, it could be your best character ever.
I thought about that for a moment before I realized how true that is. At least for me. The two characters I remember best and that ‘speak’ to me the loudest started with a flaw.
Mouse–yes, she will make another appearance soon– started with insatiable curiousity. I knew that I wanted her to be curious because I was new to gaming and I wanted an excuse for all the trouble she was going to get into. Then I shaded the curiousity with cowardice. She’s non-confrontational and prefers to avoid or run away from fights. She lives and breathes in the world inside my mind.
John St. George began with sarcasm and middle age. This led to bad knees and a fatalistic view of his job, dragonslaying. John is the protaginist in a short story that I wrote last spring and he has been sitting in a corner in my mind patiently waiting for another story of his own. And making snarky comments about other projects I’ve been working on since.
The other characters I’ve made have started with generalities and good traits. Bravery, nimble fingers, a need to protect the innocent. These characters all feel like cardboard, dry and flat.
Next character I write up, I am going to take Lee Child’s advice and work backwards. I will start with an unlikable trait and move out from there.
