The Introvert's Party

Countdown to NaNoWriMo: 7 days

This one's dedicated to a friend of mine named Carly.  She's a first time NaNoWriMo, ladies and gents, give her a warm welcome!  We've been talking character in the last few days, her concerns, my sage advice (brushes fairy dust from her shoulder with an ain't-no-thang smirk at the camera).  If you're a first time WriMo and you're worried that your character dough ain't rising, so to speak.  Fear not.  It's a first draft, most of it will be crap.  Also, even fully formed, perfectly frosted gingerbread characters can be totally bland:

If you're a screenwriter by trade, I think it's hard to just write.  It's taken me years to let go of the index cards (which never worked for me anyway), step back from the epic outlining (also, failed), dial back the story Bible, and just write...  Most of my best ideas and story revelations have to push their way through grocery lists and petty concerns before they finally appear in week two or three and make their way onto the page. 

7 Skimp-able Character Ingredients: (aka Recovery From Screenwriting Class)

1. Back Story:  I am a child of the Disney Renaissance.  Without Howard Ashman, I wouldn't have an intrinsic need for 1st act back story and the heroine's solo that tell us what she wants and makes us fall in love with her and root for her to the bitter end.  I love back story.  I live in character details, down to what shoes he or she would wear and why.  But sometimes a little mystery between you and a character is healthy, surprising.  Unravel them slowly.  Ask them questions in the midst of their conflict.  How would you know how your protag would react to a pistol in their coat pocket unless you put them there?  And why would you need to know how they would react, if you never plan to put them there?  Every scene is not a case study for a Psych textbook.  It's fiction!
2.  Physical Description:  Maybe it's important to know that your character has hair like day old cotton candy.  Probably not, unless it's how they are identified or it becomes a factor later in the story.  Let your audience fill in the color and details with references from their own life.  Knowing their pants size does not make them memorable.
3. Occupation: Anne Lamott has freed me from what I previously thought of as the Professional-Consumption-Personality-Conundrum.  I used to research exhaustively for unusual professions that "said something" about my characters, until I read about five books by Lamott centered around fascinating women who don't work.  Professionally, I mean.  They were mothers, lovers, friends, volunteers, but their personalities weren't dictated by source of their paychecks.  Hell, all my characters end up being writers anyway.
4. Desire: Every screenwriting class hammers this one thing into your brain:  What does your character WANT?  That is the essence of every movie.  A want, a need, a desire.  And what gets me stuck every time is that I don't really know.  And most people don't, I think.  It's okay.  Unless you're writing action drama, then you're screwed.  Or romance, people seem to have pretty set expectations when you introduce your story as romance.
5. Vice: Should I say truly interesting vice.  I don't smoke or do drugs, and barely drink, which I think on paper makes me incredibly boring.  So I could spend time writing about someone who does all those things because I think it makes them interesting, but maybe if you drink, smoke, do recreational drugs, you'd find my vices amusing.  Tediousness is a vice too, me thinks, just not as likeable. 
6. Uniqueness: Obviously, no one wants a carbon copy, but don't break your brain trying to figure out how to make your 20-something year old girl in LA different from Jane Smith's 20-something year old girl from LA.  She is different.  She came out of your brain.  Even if you and Jane Smith wrote about the same girl, you're observing her with your eyes.  Also, there is nothing new under the sun.  Take comfort in that.  
7. Personality: They don't need to break the mold: Nick Carraway is a pretty flat character, but the story necessitates it.  Otherwise, the complexity of Gatby and Daisy might get lost in his judgement of them.  He is the eyes through which we view this bizarre and tragic world of New York's rich and famous. 

I should also note that I go through an exhausting re-draft after NaNo, which maybe be alleviated by better planning.  Or not.  This is budget-friendly spontaneity for me: It makes the journey surprising and a bit terrifying, like packing a bag and blindly choosing a destination.  What if it's cold?  I didn't pack a swim suit.   Should I have gotten a dengue fever vaccination? 

Either you try to pack everything and look like that tourist or you figure it out.  Make friends.  Invent something.  Steal if you have to, just be Aladdin about it. 

Happy "Planning," Friends!
Kris

Also, the Giants clinched the pennant, soooooo.... I will be utterly unproductive for the next week and half.