I have a story to tell. But it’s what I’m learning as I tell it that’s really worth writing about.
I’m writing my first novel. This is a new direction for me after a thirty year career as an engineer. So I’m having to learn a lot about the craft of writing fiction.
One thing I’ve learned is that there are ‘plot-first’ writers and there are ‘character-first’ writers. I’m plot-first. I started with a story, and now I have to create characters to tell the story.
Even though the story came first, I believe compelling characters are essential to good storytelling. So I’ve been spending time studying how to create characters with depth.
Now, if you’re here looking for the secrets to creating compelling characters, you’re in the wrong place. That’s not what this article is about. And frankly, I’m not the right person to write that article.
This is about what I learned while I thought I was learning about creating great characters.
As I said, I’m a plot-first writer. I started out with the story I want to tell. Then I asked myself what characters I would need to create in order to tell that story. This was primarily skill-based. I needed a botanist, a zoologist, a geologist, a doctor, an engineer, an authority figure, and a couple of gunslingers. And a red-shirt. (The Trekkers out there will know what that means.)
Then for each character I asked myself, what type of person gets into that line of work? What personality type? What would their strength profile look like? What’s their backstory? What life experiences shaped them into the person who landed this job on this mission? I created each of these characters with the ultimate objective of having them tell my story.
As I was going through this process with each of my characters, I realized that this is not unlike the process God went through when he created me. You see, God has a story to tell too. All of history—the history of human civilization, the planet Earth, the universe itself—is His Story. He created me, and you, and everyone we encounter, even the universe itself, with the specific intent that we would each play a part in telling His Story.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6-7 NIV
Just as I created my characters (and my planet, and my universe) with specific traits—personality type, strength profile, even life circumstances—that equipped them to play their part in my story, God created each of us in a unique way so that we could each play our part in telling his story.
What is my role in his story?
- What is unique about me? What’s my personality type? What’s my strength profile? What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? What’s my backstory?
- What is God’s story about? I’m a part of a story that’s much bigger than me. Who is God, and what is his story? What’s he doing in the world around me, and how am I uniquely equipped to bend those events and circumstances in the direction he wants ‘his story’ to go?