Keith Blenman - Character Development For Badass Writers

For Tom Budday

Character Development

For

Badass Writers

* * *

by Keith Blenman

Copyright Keith Blenman 2017

ISBN 978-1974651559

Index

Introduction

• - An exclusive note for Amazon Kindle owners: The following introduction was written for the original paperback edition of Character Development for Badass Writers , and does spend considerable time discussing the badassery of the physical book itself. While this Kindle edition is certainly lighter and can be read on a multitude of devices (which is awesome), there are of course several minor concessions that had to be made for the ebook edition. For one, you are no longer able to write in the spaces between prompts. We cannot emphasize this enough; do not write in the spaces between prompts. This will ruin your Kindle screen. So do not attempt it. Also of note is that this edition was not made from dinosaur remains or molten rock. Nor will it cut you and absorb your blood. Should you find use of this book on your Amazon Kindle or other electronic device causes blood loss or the inexplicable discovery of fossils, we assure you this is due to the device itself, and the publisher of Character Development for Badass Writers is in no way responsible for such incidents and claims zero liability. Of course you are still welcome and encouraged to name newly discovered dinosaur species in tribute to the book and its author. Thank you. The original, wholly preserved introduction from the paperback edition of this book follows:

By show of follows on social media, how many of you purchased this book because the word badass is in the title? I only ask because of a certain implication that goes with profanities, and I want to assure you, this book lives up to all of them.

Lets qualify that. Before we start developing millions of the greatest characters the world is yet to know (and, sure, probably five or six shitty ones) lets just take a moment to discuss why this book is so ridiculously badass. First off, it can cut you. Every single page of this beast has three unbound edges that, when touched at just the wrong angle, will slice right through your skin. And guess what. Paper, made from dead trees, is subject to cohesion, adhesion, and capillary action when it encounters liquid. So if a page does cut you, the book absorbs your blood. Not that it needs it. Its not some silly vampire. It doesnt even care about your blood. But itll still take it without so much as a single thought.

Now lets talk about the ink in the text youre reading. Most ink today comes from carbon black, which comes from a potential assortment of petroleum combustion, extracted tar, and vegetable oil. So explosions are involved and its collected anywhere from the surface to deep within the earth. Dinosaur deep? Brewing volcano deep? Who can say? Is it possible this book, this indifferent blood sucker, is made up of dead plants, dinosaurs, and volcano vomit? Sure. And by extension, are you -probably not but maybe, just maybe- holding remnants of ancient creatures and thunderous rocks right now? Thats pretty badass.

So now that weve established just how much herculean awesomeness is surging between these pages and your mind at this very epic moment, lets get into exactly what this book is. If youve flipped through its pages already, you have the short answer. This is a collection of writing prompts, all of which are designed to help you hone in on the identity of your characters. Why? Because in fiction, character is everything. You can plot the perfect murder. You can always find a way to get the girl. Your characters can save the world or destroy it a thousand times over. They can get stuck in impossible situations or do the sort of magnificent deeds most people only dream of. But if your characters are bland? If the people youre trying to get the rest of us to read about have no soul, your story is dead on arrival. Nobody cares about an empty husk. Readers arent interested in the struggle. Theyre interested in the person the struggle happens to.

This book isnt just some tool for compiling a quick backstory. As a writer, you couldve done that with little effort. Beyond the characters height, measurements, that one childhood trauma, and some strained relationship, is the potential for a person. Somebody so much more alive than the volcano and dinosaur smears of text lining these pages. Flip through this book again. Theres a beating heart in here. Better still, there are infinite beating hearts. With this book youll discover bottomless wells of traits, details, and memories you never wouldve considered had you not subjected your character to it. The prompts here do more than help you shape the characters. They take your creations and your craft to a whole new level. Youll consider aspects of them you never otherwise would have. Youll put them in new and interesting scenarios. Youll be able to understand your characters more fully, which in turn will enhance your fiction and bring added depth to your story.

You can use this book to create people. You can use it to create populations. Their depths and how well you comprehend them as individuals is entirely up to you. Youre their creator, their mother. This book is just the baby daddy.

Thats right. This book isnt just cutting you and taking your blood. Now its getting laid. Its banging your imagination.

As for how to use this, theres more than one way to eat a Reeses. You can flip through, one page at a time, writing your answers to prompt after prompt in a notebook or word processor. You can write in the spaces between the prompts and pick up additional copies for more characters, keeping them on a shelf for later reference. (As a writer, I typically use the first method mentioned. As the publisher and a man who makes car payments, I highly recommend the second method in spite of there not being enough space between questions to fully realize your answers.) You can flip to random questions. You can answer as many or as few as you like. Are you basing your characters off real people? Use this book to interview them. If youre writing an autobiography, answer the prompts for yourself. Even if its something you dont want to publish, the practice can be entertaining. Perhaps even therapeutic for some. Are you experiencing writers block? Pick a random page and see where the prompts take you. Or if youre an actor playing someone elses creation, this book is the perfect utility for getting to the heart of someone.

Essentially, this is what you make of it. A device that lets you get to know somebody. Someone youre meeting for the first time, as youre making them up. Just like getting to know people in the real world, its a simple matter of spending time with them. Peeling away their layers. Through this youll find their favorite song. Youll see how well they dance, and what their first kiss was like. Youll invent their hopes, their fears, and everything they want out of life. You can see them for who they are, existing away from your story, before you introduce them to your plot. And probably destroy them.

Thats right. This book is for playing god. What did you think we were doing here?

Part One:

The

name

Before we answer your very first question, lets just take a moment to consider everything that goes into it. Your characters lineage. His or her parents. Whether or not your character even likes this. A vast majority of writers like to have this piece of info first. Some choose to fill in some other details while they brood over this part for a while. One option is no more badass than the other. So just to be clear, there is absolutely no pressure in getting this part right. If you screw up, its only the thing readers will call your character from now on. Thankfully, you can always come back and change it later. At least until you publish. Once the book meets its audience, this is pretty well set in stone. Can you imagine if Shakespeare, several years after gifting Romeo & Juliet to the world, took it back and said, Actually, you know what? Instead of Romeo, from now on were going to call the guy Todd. That said, whatever youre about to jot down, think of it as a placeholder. Like everything else in this book, you can always come back and play with it later. Also, as you fill in this first part, feel free to imagine a choir of angels singing in rhythm to every stroke of your pen.