Creating Characters: Profilers vs. Pantsers

Just as writers generally fall into one of two camps when it comes to plotting, I also see two distinct approaches to creating characters. Some authors essentially create their characters as they write, while others need to know every little detail about their characters before they can sit down and type, Chapter One.

There are writers who compile huge dossiers on their characters, complete with 20 or 30 page lists of questions they use to “interview” their characters. They can tell you their characters’ favorite color, the most memorable thing that ever happened to them, their favorite food, the most embarrassing moment in their lives, what they have in their pockets. On one level, at least, these kinds of writers know more about their characters than I know about myself. These are the Profilers.

And then there are their opposites, those who fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to their characters. They may know the vague outlines of their main character’s life—what his father did for a living, where she went to college, how many siblings he has, if her mother is still alive. But beyond that, these author’s characters really only come to life when the authors start to write.

Guess which category I fall into? If you guessed Profilers, BZZZZ, you lose. I plot like a fiend, but when it comes to my characters, I think about them sometimes in the shower, or when I lay down to take a nap, but for the most part, I let them come to me as I write. That’s when the magic happens.

Back in the early days of my writing career, I discovered one of those lists of Questions Every Author Should Be Able to Answer About Her Characters, and panicked. Oh, God; I didn’t know what was in my heroine’s underwear drawer. I didn’t know what she thought of her first grade teacher. So I sat down with the list and tried to make up answers, and it felt…forced. Worse, it felt constraining. What if I said she loved her first grade teacher, but then I came to a scene where I wanted her to be permanently traumatized by something the woman did to her? I dithered. I panicked some more. And then I thought, This is ridiculous, and threw it away. Since then, I've met profiling writers who seemed to know their characters to an enviable degree, yet when I read their books, I found their characters oddly lifeless.

There are also some wonderful writers out there who swear by the Profiling technique. I’m not one of them. I don’t even know how my husband felt about his first grade teacher, and I’d have to look to tell you what’s in my pocket. I don’t know the most embarrassing moment in the life of my hero, Sebastian; I’ve never needed to know it. I do know how Sebastian feels about cruelty and intolerance—it was a part of the man that gradually coalesced during those thinking sessions before I lulled off to sleep on the couch or stepped out of the shower. Did I say to myself, “Sebastian hates cruelty and intolerance”? No. I now know that Sebastian dearly loves his father, despite all the problems they’ve had, and also loves his sister even though he’s wary of her. Did I know that when I first started writing WHAT ANGELS FEAR? I don’t think so. But when I was writing and I came to the scenes where I needed that information, it was there, in my subconscious.

When it comes to characters, I’m a great believer in the power of the subconscious.