I used to be a people watcher. In order to make my characters feel more real, I'd go to the mall and shop a little for shoes, but mostly I'd check people out. I'd listen to their conversations and study they way they move, and look at their features. But honestly speaking, I kind of felt like creeper. Especially when people noticed me watching them.
Now I stay home. Thanks to Pinterest, I find my interesting character faces online without creeping anyone out besides my hubby. Here are the faces of my current WIP that's a contemporary spy novel:
Milla - Kick-A protagonist. Lethal agent that too often listens to her bleeding heart.
Mag - Milla's bestie, just as lethal but not as confident
Crow - their beloved trainer that looks tough but really has a soft side
Kane - the new trainer who is as mean as he looks . . . most of the time
And the boy. Sigh.
Now, the questions of the day:
How do you find your character's voices?
Are you a picture finder? If yes, who is in your dream cast?
Or are you a people watcher? If so, where do you go?
17 SPLURTS:
I do this, too. My MG novel has Abigail Breslin in it. :) Finding a face for my characters often helps me find a voice as well.
I love the pic of your MC! Her face intrigues me and I can really see that confidence in her face. I look for pictures, but I try not to pick famous actors. I'd rather have the character in my head then the work that I've seen the actor do, but that's just me. I'm totally addicted to pintrest too, I don't pin a lot but I could spend hours browsing :)
I *heart* watching people! Yeah, I can feel a little psycho at times though. haha. Hopefully they don't catch me, but sometimes they do. I need to get the Pinterest thing figured out. Every says the best things about it and I need to get myself hooked! LOVE your pics!
I used to look for pictures, but then I wanted people that felt a little more real to me, so I started people watching. I don't do it all the time. I also troll Facebook for pictures of real people. Mostly my nieces friends. Love the pic of your MC. OH, and your story sounds very interesting.
I used to look for pictures, but quickly became frustrated because no one looked like the characters in my head. I'm such a perfectionist. : )
I'm not a picture finder, but I really want to be. I think I am going to start RIGHT NOW. I'm not kidding. RIGHT NOW.
But first, gotta say that I loved your pics! EXACTLY how I pictured Milla.
I've used photos from TV Guide and other magazines to put on cards where I have my character descriptions. I also people watch on the infrequent occasions when I get to a mall.
Thanks for visiting my blog, Erin.
Marsha Ward
Writer in the Pines
love the spread of characters! GoRGEOU
S! HMMM...yes!
I gou out in a grubby rain coat and mutter to myself when I'm people watching.
OK, I fibbed. I never felt creepy until your comment the other day :o|
Double *sigh* for 'the boy.' :)
I'm not much of a face finder, but somewhat of a visual is always helpful.
Oh no Iain! I'm so sorry. Did I totally offend you? Sometimes I do that. It's ok to be creepy.
This is a hot idea! I think u may have started something here. I already posted liam hemsworth as my boy...but the other characters could use some more visual help. Except u totally stole MY George!
I have pictures in my head of what my guys look like but I don't search them out. Maybe I should :-)
Pinterest is AWESOME!
I don't do offended. :o)
You just made me realise that maybe watching people can appear creepy. Then again, if someone is watching me watch someone, then which is creepier?
I signed up for Pinterest, used it for a couple of days, and then the site decided that I didn't exist anymore. :/
David Farland had the idea to have characters "audition" for the roles in your book. I really liked that. Compile a few different traits, a few empty faces to go with them, have them audition for the role and see which one fits.
Otherwise, I compile traits that make a character sympathetic and build from there (usually with some key factors I know I want the person to have), or they just randomly pop in my head and make my life easy. ;)
I like picture-finding--I save interesting pictures to my flash drive for future use. I have a friend who's an artist and does commissions for cheap, so often I go that route if I want a good image of my characters. (She's really good, did this: http://tinyurl.com/3t5pnfb)
I've never watched people, but I probably should.... I get the same creeper vibe, though.
Iain, you're hilarous.
Charlie, awesome! I think I might use what you said in a future post.
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