The SWM (A Characterization Tool I Made Up) · 8:44am Jun 27th, 2018
Long-time followers of mine will notice I often make reference to original fiction I’ve been working on. The project in question has hip-hopped and changed numerous times, and my short attention span and work schedule are certainly contributing factors.
But the main factor in me dropping a project is often simply me being unhappy with it. To be confident in a work and its characters enough to commit fifty-thousand words of writing to it is not easy. And no small part of this is due to my improvisational, sometimes even reckless writing style.
To rectify this, I’ve been trying to find outlining and pre-writing tools that play to my strengths, and that cover my weaknesses. One such tool that I’ve seen recommended in the past, is the idea of boiling down story elements and characters to basic ideas and answerable questions. Things like “what is the central conflict of your story?” or “describe your story in one sentence”. Issac Asimov often said he would start with only the beginning and end of a story, and the writing process was getting from one side to the other.
For my latest attempt at outlining a novel, I am trying to answer as many of these questions for myself as possible.
One weakness I’ve noticed is that, after working on fanfiction for so long, it can be difficult to put myself in the mindset of my own characters again. After working with premade templates for years, throwing those templates away has left some of my skills rusty.
So to rectify this, I’m developing a simple tool to help me understand my own characters better. I call it SWM (pronounced like ‘swim’);
Strength: What is the character’s strongest feature? Are they good at fighting? Are they clever? Can they eat really fast? This can range from the mundane to the generically badass, but it should be the aspect has the most focus on the story.
Weakness: What is the character bad at? What is their shortcoming that most readily prevents them from achieving their goals? Some characters have no weaknesses that affect the story, but perfect heroes in fiction is mostly relegated to myth these days.
Motivation: What drives the character? Why do they do what they do? Again, this might be mundane or fantastical, but it should be something that affects the character at every point in the story; ‘hunger’ or ‘revenge’ can be equally valid motivations, depending on the scope of the story.
And obviously, these things can and should change as the story warrants. If we look at MLP and have Twilight take a SWM, her M changes in the first episode. Commander Shepard’s only W in the first game is their dancing ability, but by the time the 3rd game rolls around you could make a case for lots of things.
Unlike most of my posts about being a better writer, this does not come from experience or observation. This is new, untested territory. So constructive criticism and commentary is more important than ever. And like all things in writing, perhaps it is a bad idea, and this is merely self-reflection to discover why.
I think having a character stat card is a good idea. I’ve run into this problem for several characters in longer things I’ve written. It’s why my huge fic is back on the back burner. I often find I have characters’ behaviors changing (not due to plot) between chapters one and chapter ten, and on a re-read find I’m doing something wrong.
For committing to something that long, I’ve started making Fate character sheets for each character. You don’t even really need a rule book to download one of those things and fill it out for each character. (Though the rules do help give you examples of what to shove into certain things, ie wealth is a skill, apparently.)
So for Fate sheets:
- Pros: They’re quick to fill out, easy to reference, and can even give you a ranking on certain characters vs each other for certain things, like two ponies playing chess, foreleg wrestling, or even just fighting.
- Cons: You have to make them, either print a bunch out, or keep a bunch on your phone or comp, which can impact accessibility if one or the other is not available. Not having a rule book can lead to inconsistent and hard to compare skills.
4890508 I've heard of authors using Fate sheets before (AlicornPriest used to recommend them, and has several blog posts dedicated to concepts like the High Concept or Trouble that Fate uses). And I have tried using RPG tools in the past (I used the Mutants and Masterminds rules to stat out the superpowers of a cast before). But I don't think most tabletop RPG rules are well-suited for prose. While Fate does have some interesting ideas, it's still mostly designed for play.
A story isn't determined by random dice rolls, and a character being better at one thing by 2 points or levels isn't as impactful. While they can be a good template, I think they are at once too complicated and too narrow. They can do some of the things that a prose story wants, and they can be a good starting point, but I haven't seen them be worth it enough to warrant their use.
4890864
Main reason I went with Fate instead of another system is because of the aspects. The aspects are things that let you put in a strength or weakness or motivation. Or all 3. The levels are just a basic guideline anyhow. The aspects tip the scales since a character will have an advantage if it is their strength or motivation, and will be less effective if it is their weakness.
Fate is... kind-of for-play... another reason I recommended it. It’s pretty vague compared to other systems, more set up for navigating a story as opposed to rules wrangling. Even Savage Worlds, which is pretty loose in its ruleset compared to M&M or DnD, has a more rigid gameplay framework in place than Fate.
Eh, but I’m not here to lecture. (He says after having lectured)
I think your idea is good, and yours will prolly fit on a 3x5 card for easy character reference. I tried little stat cards before I started making sheets. There’s 11 lines on a 3x5 card if you count above the red line, so there’s a surprising amount of room on there.
This was my setup:
Line 0: Name (and Alias, if applicable,) race
Line 1: Fur, mane, eye, and miscellaneous colors
Line 2: Identifying physical characteristics
Line 3: Clothing / accessories normally worn, if any
Line 4: Basic personality and behaviors
Line 5: Manner of speech
Line 6: Recurring sayings
Line 7: Mental state
Line 8: Primary motivations
Line 9: Accomplished goals
Line 10: Current goals
It made for a decent amount of info without having to navigate an entire character sheet, but I found that 3x5 cards don’t have enough room.
The other way I know, and have only heard good things about (if you can put the time into it) is XMind. You can have any number of characters or events listed, give them a collapsible little bubble of info, even separate bubbles for goals that might be shared by others, and, probably the most useful tool in the entire thing, create relationships bubbles between everything.
Example of use: It’s chapter 10, and you want to have Pony A become friends with Pony B . You check Pony A and Pony B and see that in the relationship bubble that connects them, they’ve been mean to each other in chapters 2, 4, and 7, and that they’ve only had one positive interaction in chapter 5. So, you now know you have to either give them more positive interactions first to make a friendship more believable, or change the dynamic of their relationship in some other way.
XMind is a lot of work, essentially it’s a comprehensive outline and character and plot info storage. But, once it’s done, you practically can’t mess it up.