The reality of writing a novel of any kind tends to evade the comprehension of normal people. That is not to say that they are in any way stupid, but the peculiars of writing a novel are largely lost on them. The most glaring thing most people tend to miss is how much goes into character within a novel.
Of course, when most people think of characters, they think of the common archetypes – the stereotypical character. Yet, while on the surface, a character might appear superficial or flatter than the mind of a flat-earth conspiracy theorist, there are so many hidden layers that do not show in the novel. It is those layers that hide traits that truly define what the personality of a character is.
For Crow, there is only one major character who receives exploration of these layers before the latter half of the book. That character happens to be my primary focus character, Ashley Hudson.
Here is where I explain her name, because that serves as part of her character and really shows the influences I have regarding her. Ashley, though a common enough name, has greater meaning when one thinks of The Evil Dead series. The protagonist in that series is, of course, Ashley Williams. And there are similarities between that Ashley (who is a male) and the Ashley who serves as the focus character of Crow. The most glaring is that they are both womanizers. They’ll happily do anything needed for a piece of tail. The second similarity between those two is that both love to snark at people around them and they’re not above throwing those they pretend to care about under the bus. In essence, both are morally dubious characters, but they do still show they care. It’s a beautiful and strange dichotomy.
As for the last name I chose, it is a direct reference to one of the greatest influences in my life and one of my dearest friends. There’s no way I’d be able to thank him enough in all my remaining years, but the way he views his life does give influence into the mindset of Ashley Hudson.
So, as already seen, the name of a character carries a lot of weight with it. There’s already a lot of justification and next to no explanation of the personality of the character. Yet from that name, people can develop expectations and visualize what they believe the character to be like.
Then comes all the nitty gritty of the character. I can start with a (shortened) list of what I feel goes into a character. That list is as follows and in no particular order:
- Name
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Political views
- Sexuality
- Promiscuity
- Education
- Family
- Relationships (non-sexual)
- Relationships (sexual)
- Choice of Music
- Choice of Career
- Hobbies
- Interests
- Way of Speaking
- Way of Thought
- Presentation of Self
- The Clothes they wear
- Outlook on Life
- Introverted or Extroverted
- Hair color
- Skin Color (not ethnically linked in many cases)
- Ancestry
- Approach to Problem Solving
- Fitness Level
- Do they have Piercings? If so, where?
- Tattoos? Where?
- Medical conditions?
- Mental Health Issues?
- What emotions do they rely on?
The list goes on, but there’s so much that goes into a character, it is difficult to grasp all the nuances needed to portray but a single character! And this is something a writer needs to do not just for the focus character, but all characters in the universe, even if they are long dead.
So when I say that my weakness is in writing character, think about what goes into the creation of a single one. Then multiply that by the fact I have more than half a century of named characters all floating around in my head that require all these nuances to be involved with them.
Fenrir's Lair 