Character Scaffolding

(Free image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

 I'm sorry readers that the Well you've been wishing in is collecting cobwebs and dust--I'm back to brush them away.

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     There are ten core characters in my Wynna story: the dragon-riding members of the Winged Patrol. For a long time I only really knew three: the Captain (or Ecipol, as Dorinthian rank goes), Wynna, and her friend Filip. The other seven were just empty boots, and I didn't know how to fill them.

     So I looked to a master of character-creating: Julian Fellowes. I made a list of each of his unique and likable Downton Abbey staff members. Beside each name I wrote an epithet that summed up their character or their role as a whole (troublemaker, loyal one, witty one). Then I parceled out some of those tags to the Winged Patrol. That balanced out the group and gave me a scaffold on which to build their personalities. Now their backstories can trickle in, and my story can move on.

From left to right: Sivvan, Justus, Lejn, Oskar, Wynna

Filemus, Ecipol Tannebelte, Filip, Dirkartha, Phoenix

How do you create new characters?