In the second of our five part series on where to begin developing a story idea, we start with character. An interesting person (or animal, or heck, plant or fungus or protist) pops into your head one day like Harry Potter apparently did for Rowling. You wonder about this character who has somehow taken to living rent free in your imagination. The first question you ask yourself is: What makes this character distinctive enough to be bopping around in my brainspace? If this first question cascades into a never-ending series of questions, you might be onto something:
What makes this character distinctive?
Perhaps he has a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
Where did he get the scar?
Hmm…maybe he survived a killing curse that no one has ever survived before.
A killing curse? So there’s magic in this boy’s world?
Yes, he’s a wizard, but he doesn’t know it yet.
Why doesn’t he know it?
Uh, let’s see. His parents were killed by the same curse right before he survived it, so now he lives with his aunt and uncle, who took him in when he was a baby.
But they don’t know about magic?
Oh right, huh. Okay, okay. Only some people know about magic, and the boy’s aunt does, but she hates it for some reason having to do with her sister (I’ll figure that out later), so she and her husband hide the boy’s heritage. Also, they hate him, because (natch) we need to have some conflict at the start.
Wait, wait, you can’t just say “natch” and get away with it. Why do they hate him?
Dang, you caught me. They hate him because they just want to be normal and weird stuff happens around this boy all the time, and his aunt can’t abide the neighbors learning the truth.
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. But let’s get back to the boy with the lightning-shaped scar. Who is he?
His name is Harry…something. He wears glasses and has hair that is perpetually messy. He doesn’t know anything about magic, but he’s famous in the secret magic world.
Why is he famous?
He survived the killing curse.
How would people know about that to such a degree that it would make him famous?
Ah! I’ve got it. The big bad guy is after Harry’s family because they are part of the resistance against him. He kills Harry’s parents but then when he tries to kill Harry, the curse rebounds and kills him instead.
So the villain is already dead in this story?
No! That’s the cool part. He’s only mostly dead. Somehow he survives, but it takes him a long time to recuperate. Everyone in England thinks he’s gone, so they celebrate. But he’s not gone. He’ll be back. And he’ll come after Harry.
All right. You’ve got a main character, a villain, and a magical England. That’s sound like the beginnings of a good story. But we keep slipping away from Harry. Let’s get back to him for one more minute. What happens at the beginning to shake him from his normal routine?
He gets a letter telling him he’s been accepted at a magic school.
And we’re off building the world of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World…and all built from a boy with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. When you begin with a character, the world will often spring from the character’s point of view. In Harry Potter, the reader discovers the magical world along with Harry. That’s what makes the Diagon Alley chapter in the first book so wonderful.
As you develop a story based on a character idea, see how many questions you can answer about that character and, through them, about the world. If the questions cascade into a font of curiosity, you’re onto something.
If you’d like to try one of my books that began with a character, try The Storm Curtain. Grail started as an NPC (non-player character) in a Dungeons and Dragons game I was running. And soon I realized she was instrumental in a continent defining war. Her story opened up so much more of the world I was creating, and it was a ton of fun discovering that world through Grail’s story.
Next time, in our series on Where to Begin, we’ll start with Setting.
Adam Thomas, Author 