By Lisa Phillips, @LisaPhillipsbks
When your character walks onto page one of your novel they are (or should be) more than the sum of their actions, their dialogue and the thoughts in their head.
In order for your character to be complex, they need to be a fully realized person.
Robin Lee Hatcher, the prolific historical and contemporary author, is a pantser with her plots, but before she begins the book will write out the character’s life history from birth to the day the book starts—every significant life event.
Your character is the sum of their entire life so far.
Everything they’ve learned. All their experiences. Their upbringing. What they were taught—good or bad. Did they learn how to goof off, or were they taught to be cynical? Did your character experience enough holiday trauma that they hate Christmas now? Perhaps a rock-climbing incident as a teen gave them a fear of heights. Your character remembers every unforgettable trauma, embarrassing moment, and every high point of success in their past.
It may not all be relevant to the story, and the character’s motivation and goal, but as the author you need to know their history.
This in-depth character history might make its way into your book as an angry reaction the moment your character is triggered. Or it’s buried in their need to make this bakery a success.
Know the why.
I mean, yeah – know yours.
But know your character’s why. What drives them? What passions ignite them into action? What would make them run into traffic, or say that one thing they would never say? What would make them do the one thing they would never do?
A solid SEQ tells you why this character says what they say. Why they do what they do. Why they react one way, and not another.
Why they make the choices they do…
Which will lead to your plot.
All plots are a cause and effect trajectory driven by your character’s realizations and ultimately the choices they make.
What’s the most surprising thing you know about your character?
The FBI betrayed her. Now they need her.
Private Investigator Kenna Banbury lost everything two years ago at the hands of a serial killer. From the ashes of that encounter, she’s built a life she believes in, searching for the lost and forgotten all over the western US.
Bringing her own brand of justice.
When a series of murders drags her into an FBI investigation, Kenna finds herself back in the place where it all went wrong. Struggling to make sense of the case, Kenna’s past and present collide in a deadly plot that risks another betrayal and threatens to shatter everything she’s built.
Kenna faces the darkest part of her past in this first book of a brand-new series from Lisa Phillips.
USA Today and top ten Publishers Weekly bestselling author Lisa Phillips is a British ex-pat who grew up an hour outside of London. Lisa attended Calvary Chapel Bible College, where she met her husband. It wasn’t until her Bible College graduation that she figured out she was a writer (someone told her). Since then she’s discovered a penchant for high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily ever after.
Find out more at www.authorlisaphillips.com
Comments 1
I’ve spent the last four months writing a novel-length backstory for two main characters who will show up in a sequel to a fantasy novel I wrote several years ago. It’s amazing all the things I learned about them. 🙂