Creative Writing for Science Fiction: Character

Before you even start your science fiction story, you should have plotted out the story either on paper (best) or in your head. In creative writing,regardless of the genre, you need to have some idea of who is going to be the main character, the
protagonist, who is the one that the main character will have by his or her side throughout the story, or if there is anyone, and who will be the one who causes
the setbacks, the antagonist.

What do each look like? How old or how young do they look? Where are they from and are they very educated? For that matter, in science fiction, you need to let
your prospective readers know if they are human or an alien from some other world in the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Take your main character, when and where was he born? Did he grow up in the city, and if so from the suburbs or the slums? Where and how did his family make many
inputs into his life? Put all of this down on paper and write about that particular character, like you are describing someone you know well. Get to know this character as a person in his or her own right. The above goes for each one of the other characters.

This is called: character profiling. Write everything on paper, maybe on a 4 by 6 inch card, until you know them. You are not going to put all the information in the story but what you know about them and what the reader must know will come out. Remember, if you know them as a person, they will feel and sound like real people.

Remember to ask yourself why the antagonist is the antagonist. Why is he or she causing problems to the main character? Is it the main character himself, or what he is attempting to do? The protagonist will be the one to turn the story around, will learn from his or her experiences and will grow as a person toward the end. The antagonist, on the other hand, will try to stop the main character's goal in any way he or she can. In order to do this effectively you must know your characters just as well as you know those in your own real-world family.


Ask yourself several questions about each character
and write them down.

1. How does he or she laugh?
2. What kind of thing would make him/her laugh?
3. Can he laugh at himself? Or other people?
4. What kind of temper does he or she have? Violent or
mild mannered?
5. Does he or she dress like most people, or dresses
completely different than others?
6. He is handsome? Is she beautiful, plain, or
average?
7. Is he short? Tall? Medium height?

As a sample of what I mean, let's say you are sending your cousin several states away because you know someone who will hire him immediately and your cousin needs a job as soon as possible. Say his wife is about to have a baby and he has been out of work and needs to earn some fast.

You put Bill on the bus where he will arrive in Tacoma late the following day. With him you send a typed letter explaining all about your cousin and why you know he is the one for the job. You also put in as much information as you can so that your friend or acquaintance that needs a worker will have an idea of just who you are sending. Very similar to a resume but including more personal information than just the date of birth and where. You also include some of your cousins past experiences, how well educated he is, what type of family he might have come from, and what
he has for a personal goal, or goals. For your story you might add other bits of information such as does he or she have a problem with something? Is he guilty
from something in the past that he finds it hard to talk about? If he feels guilty, should he? Maybe once he survived a crash dive into the ocean but his co-pilot did not. He tried his best to save him but he could not. Do you see what I mean? This could affect a person’s character.

You need as many characters as the story needs. Too many characters can be confusing for the reader but too few will make a good story choppy. It may even make the story seem condensed, or not complete. If you take the time and effort to do a complete character profile for each of your characters you will have a ‘rounded out’ cast to play out your story. Publishers do not want bland stereotyped characters or 2-D
characters, but well rounded out 3-D characters to give the story a life of its own.






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