Over and over again I hear about problems people have picturing and describing characters and sometimes people who just can't think up characters at all! Personally i call myself a "visual writer" whereby I like my characters to have something familial or solid about them and so to help me with visualisation i often take pictures of people (i mean celebs, obviously not just randomers I meet on the street) and create a basic profile that I can reference back to. Often i'll make it into a temporary book cover or I will have a selection of pictures at least two if not three of which will be contrasting in one way or another to allow be to refer back to, especially when describing emotion or drawing on the characters look or attitudes.
Pour Example:
Photo: Saorise Ronan.
By using a range of different pictures portraying different expressions and from alternate angles i can use this to better description and clarity of my character, regardless of the figure/person you chose to represent your character, it's the range of emotion and the range of features you want to be able to focus in on!
However, I do hear quandries about those who either "can't think up characters" or "can't be bothered to think up characters" or simply don't know what to do with the character/s they have. I found a pretty nifty exercise whereby you take two pictures, e.g. picture a) a thundery sea front, and picture b) your character or someone that you can use to represent that character and you write a short excerpt or short story on how they got there. This allows you to explore and examine circumstances, play around with your character and gives your plot somewhere to go when all else fails.
However, I personally got a little tedious of this exercise until I came upon a slightly different idea, involving a video, a singer, taking into account the lyrics the settings and the actual artist I found that my character was literally living in front of me, singing something I could weave a story from and gave me all the basic foundations i'd need for a short story that could easily overflow into a novel given time and imagination.
The example i'm going to show you and the task I set is easy! Watch the video! The girl is one of your characters, she could be a main character, she could be the main character or just have a fairly substantial part to play. Think about:
* Who she is
* What's her name
* What is she feeling
* How did she get there
* What happened
* Why is she there
* Where is she
* What room is she in
* Why does she dressed that way
* Who else could be there with her
* Who is she singing to
* Can anyone else hear her singing
* Are the lyrics meaningful to the plot or just something that express what's inside her?
There are so many possibilities that spring to mind watching the video you'd have to have less imagination than a Victorian nanny not to be able to write something from this and, for me, one of the best parts about basing a character, or part of a character, on an actual person is that it enables you to draw from very real emotions right in front of you and gives you the potential to really absorb all the physical detail that wouldn't be possible or nearly as easy if your characters are purely all mental.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzCDt2eidg
I've popped down the lyrics because as exampled in previous posts, lyrics really can help lace together ideas and weave them into a rich tapestry of flowing words which will spin themselves into a novel!
Come on skinny love just last the year
Pour a little salt we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in the moment this order's tall
I told you to be patient
I told you to be fine
I told you to be balanced
I told you to be kind
In the morning I'll be with you
But it will be a different "kind"
I'll be holding all the tickets
And you'll be owning all the fines
Come on skinny love what happened here
Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full; so slow on the split
I told you to be patient
I told you to be fine
I told you to be balanced
I told you to be kind
Now all your love is wasted?
Then who the hell was I?
Now I'm breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines
Who will love you?
Who will fight?
Who will fall far behind?
Song/Video: Birdy - Skinny Love (Originally Bon Iver)
Lyrics credit to: http://www.lyricsmania.com
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