A critical part of NaNoWriMo Prep is creating the characters who will populate the story. Characters are the heart of any novel. A reader continues turning pages to find out what will happen to a character and what decision/action a character will take.

NaNoWriMo Prep Includes POV

I decided early on that I wanted to have three Point of View (POV) characters. That means certain scenes in the story will be told from the POV of a particular character. We see the events and hear the thoughts of that one character. I’m not a fan of “head-hopping” where the reader is getting several character’s perspective within the same scene. I find it disconcerting.

My Characters

Prior to starting any writing on the story, I wanted to have a solid idea of who my three POV characters are, as well as many of the support cast. I created a Word document for character profiles. There I collected details like:

• Name
• Age
• Role
• Wants
• Needs
• Mistaken Belief
• Appearance
• Mannerisms
• Pet Peeves

The focus for each character is to understand what drives his or her actions. Understanding motivation gives a writer clarity. This is what I’ve called “Wants.” Characters don’t allows know what they really “Need” and this is where the writer gets to help. Lisa Cron in her book Story Genius really stresses the importance of understanding wants and needs. She explains how the “Mistaken Belief” causes a character to respond a certain way.

Naming Characters

I’ve done a previous post on naming characters and I used some of those techniques. I gave myself time to test out character names. Doing research on the names reduces the possibility that you have named a character after an actual person with associations you don’t want to make. No sense naming your hero after a serial killer!

My NaNoWriMo Prep Characters

Here are the three POV characters I plan to take into NaNoWriMo:

Penny Davis – A 16-year-old high school sophomore with short black hair. She is a Taurus. She wears black a lot, but loves bright mismatched socks. She lives with her mother, step-father, and half-sister in a nice home. Penny rebels against authority and has gotten tangled up with some classmates who encourage her to break rules. She misses her father and resents her step-father. She wants to go to Japan and become a mangaka (person who creates manga and publishes in Japan). What she really needs is to overcome her feelings that she caused her parents’ divorce.

Megan Hinson – Megan is a 40-year-old marketing professional with a bobbed hairstyle. She often wears a pearl necklace. Her wants are financial security and to be in control. However, what she needs is to let go and get in touch with her creative side. Megan is Penny’s mother. She is a Leo, and the combination of Leo parent and Taurus child is a difficult one.

Kanina Koscielniak – “Nina” is a 74-year-old retired high school teacher who lives in a senior home called Shadow Oaks. Her students always called her Miss K. She never married and has no family. She often wears bright-colored scarves or shawls. She was raised in a military family and moved all around the world. When she was teaching, she frequently spent her summers on extended international trips. She wears her silver-white hair in a single long braid. She has lost her purpose in life and wants to be left along. She needs a new purpose for her life.

Minor Characters

The three POV characters are surrounded by a variety of minor supporting characters. My character profile document includes details of the many minor characters I expect to include in the story. These characters have fewer details, but each has a name, role, and something identifiable about them.

Character Images

Having a visual image of each POV character helps make them more realistic. One tip is to search through images available on the Web until you find several that catch your vision of the character. The final character is likely to be an amalgamation of multiple images and people you know.

Next Post: NaNoWriMo Prep – Plot

The next NaNoWriMo Prep post will focus on plot. This is the problem and series of incidents that drive the story forward and affect the characters. Past posts have addressed NaNoWriMo and coming up with The Idea.