What Do They Want?

I have been working on getting to know my characters. I have 3 main and 2 minor characters to get to know that are in the next part of the book. I realized it’s hard to write about a person, if you don’t really know who they are or what they want.

I found a character template online some time ago that I am not fond of the format; however, it gets the job done. What I am learning is that this is not a quick process. But how can I effectively write if I do not understand what their personalities are like? I am still polishing this off, but I have made some significant progress on this effort over the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately, this means that I have not made any progress on getting actual writing done.

I thought maybe I would share with you about some of the characters in the book.

We have Lord John Ashton. He is a tall and handsome man of English country gentry. He has dark wavy hair with dark brown eyes. He is very shy with a reserved demeanor. He inherits the family estate at as a young man, and he takes his responsibilities very seriously. His tenants love and respect him very much. Lord Ashton wants to continue the traditions of his family and be a respectable member of the English gentry.

Next there is Father Michael. He is John’s best friend since childhood. He is also part of the English country gentry class. Before he became a priest, he was known as Michael Higley. He is not as tall as John but still above average height. He wears his hair long and pulled back. He has sandy blonde hair with blue eyes and a fair complexion. As a young man he was very friendly and outgoing. He was more reckless that John and loved to spend lavishly on his friends. Upon becoming a priest, He struggles with his vows of poverty, but works extremely hard to humble himself. Father Michael wants to be a good priest and follow his vows.

And the last main character of the second part of the book is Lady Mary Booth. Lady Mary is a petite young lady of 5’2”. She has long dark hair and brown eyes with fair skin color. She is the daughter of Sir Henry Booth and Lady Pricilla Booth. Lady Mary’s family is also of English country gentry. Her family owns significant amounts of land in the Manchester area of England. Mary presents herself as very accomplished and proper for a lady and carries the burden of knowing that she will be married off to best suiter that supports her father’s ambitions. Lady Mary wants to choose her own path to love.

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“Think about the person who seems to be your main character. Now, characters are defined in a story not so much by who they are (the character sketches, background, etc.) as by what they want. What they want is of course affected by who they are, but it’s the “what they want” that drives the story.” ~Diana Gabaldon