There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Character …

Or develop one, that is.

In a very recent post, fellow Rogue, Bridget Callaghan, discussed how she created her highly adored character: Georgie Mae Perez. She offers two ways that characters can be generated, by flat-out copying a real-life person (or fictional person) or creating an amalgamation of several, by borrowing traits and characteristics from multiple people or characters.

Although, I’ve created more than my share of amalgamations in my writing days, I want to discuss a third technique: situational character development. I don’t know if it’s an actual writing “technique” or not, but it’s something I began to do out of necessity for some of my works. Being that I like to write literary fiction that’s highly influenced by environments and social issues, sometimes I come up with an issue or situation I want, or need, to write about, and then let the environment birth my character. The challenges of this environment will help me to determine the personality and character traits my protagonist will need to share my message.  

David Haas, exploring his dark side

This is basically the technique I used to create The Method Writers’ David Haas. I knew the path, or “method,” that I wanted my character to travel. But how would I get him there and make it believable? After all, I wanted an author to transform into a vigilante, of sorts, in a short period of time.

I needed someone who was down and out on his luck. All that he had worked so hard for had failed. All the ways he had learned to get by and succeed in life were false teachings. He had to be open to giving in, trying something new. Something desperate.

Enter David Haas.

David lost his father several years back to alcoholism, something David is also susceptible to. His senile mother is confined to a nursing home. He left his job as an editor of a big New York based magazine to help care for his mother, and as a result, his fiancée, a beautiful model, left him. He’s broke, jobless, alone, and his first novel had bombed.

At some point, David’s serial protagonist, the vigilante Kenny Black, begins to whisper in his ear, planting seeds, giving him ideas.

Dark, sinister ideas.