How To Get Inside The Mind Of A Character - Steve Harper

[@filmcourage]

How do you get into the mind of your characters?

[@brettpilkington9539]

I know more about my characters than what goes in to the story. I write a diary for them which goes in to their thoughts, years before the story even begins. I want to know their psyche intimately and then their motives in the story come more naturally and it feels less forced.

[@Theomite]

I do a combination of 1) tropes, 2) people I know who resemble those tropes, and 3) build layers of subconscious based on a pseudo-analysis of that character/person's personality (e.g. This person behaves this way because they have this/these conditions, which stem from "this" kind of life experience, and the sophistication of this condition means they experienced it at "this" age, etc.). The result is a common character who has singular individual traits so they stop becoming stereotypes/archetypes and become unique and unpredictable. Then, I put them in the skeletal structure of the story and watch them react to the events as the story goes along. Sometimes I'll alter the story based on how they'll react rather than the other way around. The idea is to have a story and characters that are organic...so that means the author has to cede some control to let things happen. It's a weird way to write, but the stories are rarely repetitive, and the characters don't always grow, but they behave in ways that are real and believable. It's also great for making a character change from "good" to "evil" in ways they never expected.

[@filmcourage]

Are you a fan of anti-hero stories?

[@NickSklias]

Yes!

[@LoneWolf_Cub_Ogami_Itto]

Depends. The Sopranos on the cover, yes. I like Tony. I don't like Walter White by end of 1st Season, Tony Soprano I know exactly who he is and what he's about episode 1. Walter White is incredibly dishonest and devious grifting the innocent civilian move. Tony is a gangster, a Madeguy, a Caporegime, in the DiMeo Crime Family, he was raised in it by his dad Johnny Boy Soprano & Uncle Junior/Corrado Soprano. Don't get me wrong, I like Breaking Bad, but I dislike Walter every season less that by season 5 I want the worst to happen to him. Tony I felt he's either going to beat a RICO case, and whack Phil Leotardo and get to work making money being a wiseguy. The interesting question is if Tony was whacked, Paulie? Butcher? Patsy? Carlo? In the end, whatever happens to Tony, happens and there's a logical explanation for near all outcomes. But I still like Tony, he's a Wiseguy, a Capo... Boss of the DiMeo Crime Family of North Jersey.

[@brettpilkington9539]

I prefer anti-hero stories because I think hero stories are way too cliche now. No one really makes interesting heroes anymore. Everything is too formulaic.

[@bekindrewind335]

Nope! I never understood the appeal of shows like Breaking Bad. It’s unlikeable people doing bad things.

[@jonathangriffin8060]

I am a big fan of anti-hero stories. Those characters who have their own brand of justice when actual justice is not being served or being dispensed properly because of corruption or corruption within the system.

[@miguelissak5501]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@FictagiousDaveSavage]

I hate this hard-line about relatability. We create characters that are NOT us, but have certain traits that we can relate to, to an extent.

[@Theomite]

I do not relate to Patrick Bateman at all...but it's interesting watch him do his thing in AMERICAN PSYCHO because he's interesting in all his horribleness.

[@ian-online]

​​@@Theomitethe thing with patrick bateman, he is a very immature and insecure person. that sort of flaw can be really retable with men with fragile ego. i mean the movie is literally a satire of a male power fantasy. the audience can relate to that. not to the violence and murder but the character's view and the way they interact with their world. so no, not everything is 100% relatable, but there's a level of relatability in the character. (immoral or moral character--doesn't matter, their response is based in real emotional experiences) if you don't have that, your audience MIGHT not care for a character that is overly powerful or overly melancholic with no nuance. edit: i agree, but i misread your comment and went into details.

[@Theomite]

I've never bought into the idea of "what do the characters want?" So what? We all want something, but how long does it take us to get it? Do we get it at all? Why are we limited to telling the story about the character getting what they want? What if they get something else that they didn't want,...but it still doesn't replace what they wanted? Yes, it's important to know what the character wants to know their character...but I don't think that should play into the story necessarily. Say you have a character leave work. He wants to go home. He wants to eat the steak that's in his fridge. Then, suddenly, because of a decision someone else made, he gets into a traffic incident that involves him in a criminal situation where he has to now pursue a side-quest involving high-stakes problem-solving. *Nothing has changed.* He still wants to go home. He (maybe) still wants to eat his steak. But he's now having to focus on "what I *have* to do" instead of "what I *want* to do." And say by the end, he solves the problem, saves the mob princess, escapes the bad guys, and maybe even gets some $$$ out of it. He still hasn't gotten what he wanted. It's only after he leaves and resumes his trip home that he gets to do that. And he was already in the process of getting it when The Story interrupted. The Story happened...and it was completely irrelevant to what he wanted; it didn't even *give* him what he wanted, or even something he needed but didn't know. He underwent change and growth, but none of it affected who he was or what he wanted. He achieved no enlightenment, only a few new skills or information he didn't have before. But he's still the guy who wants to go home and eat his steak and wake up back to his old life. There. There's a scenario where knowing what a character wants plays no real part in The Story.

[@c.s2193]

I don’t really think you understood what "want" actually means in a storytelling context. See it more as a goal that gives your characters and the story a direction not as fleeting superficial thoughts (e.g. I want to go home, I want to pet my dog, I want ice cream …). The Goal (want) is the reason why there’s a story in the first place. Peter Parker WANTS to go back to how things used to be after his identity is revealed, THEREFORE he asks Dr. Strange to make people forget Spiderman-but it goes horribly wrong and his goal shifts. Goals are (or can be) fluid but they have to be activity pursued to qualify as a want. As a beta reader I can tell you that a missing direction (character goal/want) is a mistake a whole lot of amateur writers make. It mostly makes for boring stories without focus or connection