Characters Creation the Chinese Way

(For those of you who took me at my word that I would post a new, short story yesterday at martinwolt.blogspot.com, my apologies. My family made it clear that if my focus drifted from Thanksgiving to my laptop, they would gut me and feed my entrails to a pig.

(Between a Grizzly and Her Cub continues at martinwolt.blogspot.com Mondays and Thursdays. See you there!)

I discussed, over the last few weeks, different ways to create a personality for the characters in your fiction, ensure that they remain true to that personality.

Keep in mind that your characters, particularly you protagonists, ought to experience some changes in their personalities (unless you elect to use an inciting protagonist—see future posts for more information on them).

If the events in your story fail to change your main character, your story likely didn’t offer much excitement.

Granted, characters in series, such as television shows or comics, shouldn’t change too radically too quickly, nor should they “solve” their biggest problem until you, the writer, decide to end the series. More on that at a later post, as well.

Let’s return to character creation and identity identification.

The Chinese identified four personality types based upon what motivates each of these people. They labeled these personalities with different animals.

Love motivates Sheep. The need to love and feel loved motivates their every action.

Power motivates Tigers. They seek control over others, situations, their environments, and themselves.

Career motivates Horses. They wish above all else to better their career performance.

Notice that I write the word “performance.” Promotion, praise, and money might please a Horse, but they want more than anything else to “perform” well at their job.

Vanity motivates Peacocks. They seek out praise, to look good in the eyes of others.

You must truly know your character before you can identify which of these animals represent her.

Your character might struggle to do well at work, but if she only wants to earn a promotion so she can hold greater control over her subordinates, she’s not a Horse. She’s a Tiger.

Perhaps your character works hard because she wants her boss to praise her. Or perhaps she wants her coworker’s envy. The Peacock represents this person better than the Horse.

What if your character’s parents channeled their love towards a sibling and not your character, and your character believes that if she works hard enough, earns her own corner office, her parents will finally recognize and love her? Sheep!

If your character’s a cop because she desperately wants to clean up the streets, perhaps a Horse represents her. Why does she want to clean up the streets, though? What motivates her?

You must know what motivates your character even if your character couldn't hazard a guess. Good characters often misjudge their own motives.

Your antagonist ought to demonstrate a real motive as well. “Bad guys” who act badly for the sake of “being bad” rarely work (unless done in comedic fashion, though you brave thin ice along this route).

I created another animal-type for this list.

Revenge and/or hatred motivates Dragons.

I, in my own novel series, Diaries of Darkwana, take these personality types literally (yes, literally) in the ninth book. You can read about my series at Darkwana.blogspot.com.

We examined, in the name of character building, elements and animals. What about fluids? Don’t look at me like that. I’m serious. You know these fluids (the four humors) better than you realize.

We’ll tackle this subject next week. Thanks for reading!

 You can catch my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana, on Kindle.

I publish my blogs as follows:

Short stories on Mondays and Thursdays at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at entertainment industries via feminist and queer theory, as well as other political filters on Tuesdays at Entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com

An inside look at my novel series, its creation, and the e-publishing process on Wednesdays at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips on improving your fiction writing Fridays at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Movie reviews on Sundays at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

Creating Characters by Elements

I discussed, last week, the importance of characters in your fiction. A problem must haunt your main character, as must a history that explains the origins of that problem.

Your protagonist’s journey across her story must force her to address and change (or fail to change) her aforementioned problem.

Other methods of character creation exist. One such method occurred to me while, of all things, I took a yoga class (stick with me, here).

My instructor, the nicest, oldest dude I ever met, told my class that personalities fit into one of four types, each named after an element.

I often use this elemental classification system to identify the sort of character I’ve created (usually after the first draft—or “vomit draft,” as I like to call it) and ensure that that character behaves accordingly, stays true herself.

Water types serve as people pleasers. They often act as mediators.

If Nazis conquered a Water type’s neighborhood, the Water type would make the best of the situation, work with her captors to make the subjugated peoples’ imprisonment as comfortable and civil as possible.

Fire types would have none of that. Fire types act in the heat of the moment with little forethought. The leap-before-you-look sort. Passion fuels them. Brains might, but they’ll have to think quickly to keep up with the heart.

If Nazis conquered a Fire type’s neighborhood, the Fire type would attack them immediately without a second thought. She would likely die, but no army in the world could surmount a neighborhood filled with Fire.

Earth types methodically think things through. They construct charts, crunch numbers.

Earths make excellent partners with Fires. They complement each other, fill in each other’s weaknesses, and spellbind your readers with the tension they naturally create between themselves.

If Nazis conquered an Earth type’s neighborhood, the Earth type would want to weigh the pros, cons, and chances of success possessed by each possible response.

Inaction serves as a terrible fate that might easily befall an Earth type. She might waste so much time in pursuit of the “correct” course of action, that she never settles on any course of action at all.

An Earth type will meet few failures, but not many successes, either—whereas a Fire type will experience countless failures until she succeeds out of pure stubbornness.

Fire types will accomplish achievements that Earths will not attempt.

Earths will likely solve a problem right the first time, whereas a Fire will get it wrong many times before she ultimately accomplishes the goal faster than her Earthy counterpart.

I observed often that Earth types often possess slow metabolisms.

Fires possess fast metabolisms.

Air types live in their own obsessions. They stand oblivious to everything else.

If Nazis conquered an Air type’s neighborhood, the Air type would probably not pay the event the slightest attention. She would remain too distracted by painting, writing, weight lifting, treasure hunting, or whatever served as her fascination.

Most people model as an example of more than one of these types, but most serve predominantly as one element over the others.

Air breezes through my veins while I write. My house might burn down around me for all the attention I pay while I click away on my keyboard.

Fire fuels me the second I step away from my computer.

The Chinese teach another method of character classification, one based around Horse, Sheep, Tiger, and Peacock.

I take these classifications quite literally in the ninth book in my novel series, Diaries of Darkwana (due for release in 2021—sorry, but I intend to release only one a year). I even added a fifth animal (Dragon) to this list.

I’ll explain these classifications in detail next week. See you then, and thanks for reading!

You can catch my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana, on Kindle.

I publish my blogs as follows:

Short stories on Mondays and Thursdays at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at entertainment industries via feminist and queer theory, as well as other political filters on Tuesdays at Entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com

An inside look at my novel series, its creation, and the e-publishing process on Wednesdays at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips on improving your fiction writing at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Movie reviews on Sundays at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com

Character Creation: Part One

Welcome to my new blog, Fiction Writer’s Formula. Here, I’ll discuss writing styles, strategies, tips, and mistakes I’ve made along the way. I hope that all you aspiring writing out there will find this blog useful.

Let’s start with character. You don’t have a story without one. Every event in your story, every problem (and your fiction should involve an avalanches of problems) exists to define, transform, or prove transformation for your character.

I consider character creation so important that I’ve centralize my next few posts around the subject.

Nearly every great story starts with a character, and every great character starts with a problem.

When you set out to write a story, ask yourself what belief serves as your story’s moral premise, the message you wish to convey to your readers. That revenge solves nothing? That greedy leads to unhappiness?

Create a problem for your hero, your protagonist, which connects to your premise. Decide what sort of event(s) would create that problem. What’s your hero’s goal? How does the problem frustrate that goal? Why?

You need, as the author, to understand two relationships between your hero and her or his goal.

1)                   Why does your hero have this goal (it must feel immensely important to your hero, life and death)?

2)                   Why does your hero think she or he has that goal?

The two usually exists separately.

Ever read the Japanese manga Naruto or watch the cartoon show? Naruto thinks he wants to become the leader of his village when he grows up.

He actually feels lonely. He’s an orphan, shunned for reasons he doesn’t yet understand. He wants everyone to view him as an equal. He decides, after he discovers that everyone respects the village’s leader, that he wants to become the next leader.

A character named Sasuke (also from Naruto) thinks he wants to become the strongest fighter in the world so he can take revenge against his older brother.

He actually felt helpless when he couldn’t protect his parents from his murderous brother. He never wants to feel helpless again. If he can defeat anyone (to include his brother), no one can threaten him.

Notice how these two characters can’t both get their way. If Naruto really wants only to become his village’s leader, it wouldn’t matter to him if Sasuke respects him or not, if Sasuke ever views him as an equal.

If Sasuke’s concerns end with the death of his brother, he could give Naruto what he wants—acceptance as an equal, but Sasuke must feel that no one can stand as his equal, since an equal could defeat him, return him to his childhood shame.

Take Tony Stark (a.k.a. Ironman) from the movie Avengers. Tony, at the beginning, “doesn’t play well with others” (as another character tells him after a psychiatric exam).

Tony inherited not just his intelligence and billions of dollars, but also his family’s company. His wants, whether he realizes it or not, to prove to himself that he made himself a success.

"I don’t like it when people hand me things,” he says whenever someone tries to deliver an item to him.

The movie has other plans for him. An alien attack on New York (911 flashback, anyone?) forces him to partner up with a few other superheroes and save the day. His journey forces him to work with others, to serve as part of a whole.

He spends much of the movie in opposition of his new teammates. His subconscious fear that he can’t handle things on his own serves as his antagonist, the source of frustration against his new goal: the rescue of Earth from the aliens.

The movie starts after Tony puts his name on a skyscraper like Donald Trump. He, by the movie’s conclusion, replaces his name with the letter A for Avengers, the name of his new team.

Your story needs a premise and a character with a problem that relates to that premise. Your protagonist needs a believable reason why she or he possesses her or his problem (goal).

Your character must offer more than this, though. How do you craft a personality for them?

I’ll start us down that path next week. See you then.