Advice - In The Form Of Rants

T'was the deal with planning? (part 2)

Okay, so you've written your concept, premise and plan. Now what?

Well, you can sit there and ponder about how today there was a wonderful duwang, or you can actually do something productive. And this productive thing will be...

>CHARACTER PLANNING<

To be honest, I never consistantly stay on track with what I plan to do: hence why it is called planning. It changes constantly as you mature, so never feel bound to its original form. It is a guide for you to use. In fact, that may even be a stretch for some, but it is.

As for character planning, it's pretty similar to story planning: you have things that you set up initially that you build upon to add depth and character to create individuals who'll drive your story. Instead of plotting events, you plot feelings, characteristics and rough reactions to an event (character and story plans should overlap). Keep in mind that you are planning this, not saying it.

Here's an example of a character plan; the dreaded chara page! This page is full of infodump, but it makes perfect sense to you, which is all that matters.

Example of a chara page (incomplete version, spoiler free) of a character in Insignia.

Name: Mei Lan

Age:
27 (first )
28 (during second)
29-30 (third)

Gender: Female

Height: 5'6 (170cm)

Date of birth: 31st August

Division: 4th Squad

Rank: Captain

Affiliation:
UMR

Magic type: Physical (standard)

Weapons:
(Mainly magic based)
Nunchucks
Daggers
Hidden weapons (blades and ect)

Abilities:
Martial arts
Healing

Appearance:
Long brown hair tied into buns
Large brown eyes
Pale skin

Traits:
Kind
Caring
Brave
Easily flustered
Smart
Tactful

This is a super old, super vague plan of a character without a direct link to a storyline. There is a huge problem with that absense of a direct link to the story. Other than knowing her traits, appearance and affiliation, you really don't know much. This is part of the reason why your story and character plans crossover: it allows you to see character development along a span of time as well as their actions to/with/against another character. It really makes for something extremely useful in the long term- especially if you're writing a series.

For example, if I were to add this:

'After ○○○○○'s death, she became distant and harsh, unwilling to accept what happened and move on. She becomes increasingly attached to her son from the fear of death, and is less willing to go near the battlefield. 3 months pass before she comes to terms with ○○○○○'s death, but even now she is affected by it.'

It would give me an idea of the relationship between Mei and whoever, as well as the impact of their death, the way to approach it and the aftermath of it. This not only gives me some much needed context on how her traits would come into play given a situation.

But, this is just an example though, it's nothing special.

I'm sure you get it though. If you plan a character, life is made a whole lot easier when it comes to writing. Plans are a guide, not something to be bound to, so never feel bound to it.