When I’m writing my stories and sketching out the relationships between characters I often write down the lines of dialogue that if delivered by Character A would most thoroughly undo Character B. Almost always these lines of dialogue — and the people who could utter them — don’t appear in the stories, but spelling these out helps me understand the relationships and the characters, helps me understand the silences and subterranean tensions that hold my characters together / apart.
Often these lines of unraveling, these Avada Kedavra, even if spoken, won’t hit characters until long after the story is over, years later. I call these delayed impacts overnight mail. I like it when a character has overnight mail because it automatically gives them a future, and when a character has a future it’s a lot easier to write them dynamically. Even if we don’t actually see the character change drastically the fact that there is a change pendiente often lends the character a dynamic vibration.
Or so I hope.
With some characters there’s nothing anyone can say that will get through to them — so dense and unassailable are their defenses — and that’s important information to have, as well.
Sometimes I try to conceive what my characters wish would be said to them — though usually that only comes into focus after I’ve finished the story — something discovered in the consummation and not before.
Another equally useful technic is writing down what you characters think their redlines are —what actions they don’t think they would ever tolerate — versus what their actual redlines are.
We humans are a mystery to ourselves. As a writer we have to synthesize that mystery — that darkness that comes before — and the best way I’ve figured out to accomplish this strange demiurgicity is to ask characters questions that serve first and foremost the character and not necessarily the story at hand.
We may be unknowable but it is the task of the writer to render their characters’ unknowability while simultaneously making them worth knowing.
I have three golden questions I must ask of every character in order to get a real sense of them: what did they dream of the night before, what was the first thing that entered their head when they opened their eyes in the morning — could be as banal as i want to go pee— and, what is the one thing they want that they think will make them most happy in life.
A nice refinement for character development. Thank you.