Organic Characters

Every fiction author has their own way to write – determining plot, story line, characters, story arc, point of view and even grammar.  I still recall the first book I read that didn’t use quote marks when a character spoke – Kent Haruf’s Plain Song.  At first it was disorienting but as I continued reading it became very organic and I wondered why quote marks had ever been used.

I digress.  I want to write about character development.  A simple google search on character develop will lead you to many guides on how to create literary characters.  The ‘greatest of all time’ for characters has to be Charles Dickens and to the best of my knowledge he didn’t use any character development guide although he certainly could have developed one for the rest of us.

I find all of those guides mechanical.  It is like creating a character by the numbers.  Chose one for physical traits, one for psychological traits, one for personality traits mix and match and come up with Character X.  I don’t understand how any author can use this method because it is separate from the story.

For me a character is birthed from the story.  In my current manuscript draft the protagonist, Adeline Dawson, came to me from photos of pack horse librarians and then she brought me her story to tell.  All of her traits come to me from what she presents – a twenty-year-old woman, plain, short brown hair, curious, a wife in a coal mining town and ordinary in every way.  Then this ordinary woman has to respond to her husband dying in the coal mine.  The story is how she survived.  Likewise, Adeline’s friend, mentor and boss, Florence Pruett introduced herself and her relationship with Adeline.  It is because of Florence’s friendship that Adeline learns to survive and thrive after in husband’s death in Pike County, Kentucky.

It may sound hokey but my characters are all organic and not derived from a list or a “method” to create characters.  To all those who may use a list – carry on – it just isn’t for me.
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Are your characters organic?  Send me a response to this post.