The Client Screener
A superstructure-informed approach to character creation
I’m trying out a new approach to character creation for my own fiction, and today’s post is me sharing that with you. Lit in One Sentence will also be off next weekend, and should be back the following weekend.
When I get an idea for a new fictional character — especially a main character, though I expect this will also work well for secondary characters who have their own arc within a story — I find it helpful to think of them as a potential “storytelling client.”
Similar to me becoming their lawyer or literary agent or therapist, I am considering becoming their storyteller. Which could take up a lot of my time and energy if I accept the project, so I first need to make sure that I’m excited about their voice and their story, and that we’re a good fit for each other.
The fact that I have 100% imagined them up does not necessarily mean all of these things will be true, especially not right away!
So, I have developed a short “screener interview” of important questions to ask every fictional character whose story I am considering telling.
Completing this interview in their voice then becomes my way of gauging whether I have a strong command of this voice and what they do in this story, and whether I’m excited about writing it.
It can also help identify areas that need more development. If I’m feeling kind of “meh” about what I wrote for the screener, I can always lean into the parts that did work and answer it again for an updated “version” of that character and voice. If I’m excited about certain elements of the story no matter what, this is sort of like auditioning different actors for the role.
It’s also important to me to keep this exercise short and sweet. I don’t need to know everything about the character at this stage, like where they were born or what their parents are like or who they were in high school or their favoite species of tree — unless these details are relevant to the journey they’re about to go on in this story.
So, what are the elements that feel most critical to me to consider, in deciding whether I want to move forward with a particular character and their story?
Below are the four key questions I like to ask of any fictional person, right up front.
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