“Why?” is a simple question which can aid in developing complex, realistic characters and leading them into original, character-driven plots.
Orson Scott Card Asks Why
At a writers conference in the late 1980’s, Orson Scott Card created both the protagonist and the plot by asking conference participants, “Why?” He began by arbitrarily choosing age and gender, attributes which characters cannot change and which can be chosen by the writer’s interests.
The class suggested possibilities for the character’s occupation, finally choosing engineer. Card asked, “Why?” and the conversation began something like this:
“Why is he an engineer?” “Because he likes to build things.” “Because his father was an engineer.” “Because he was good at math.”
“Why is he good at math?” “Because it’s like solving a puzzle.” “Because he likes things with concrete answers.” “Because he studied for hours to please his mother.”
Past Experiences Drive Character Choices, which Drive Plot
By the time the session was over, participants may not have known the character’s hair color, but they knew the underlying feelings and situations that led to his current situation.
Beyond the predicament that opens the story, this background information helps writers understand how a particular character can inadvertently create his own problems. These nuances will also complicate his future choices – how he handles the plot problems that are thrown at him.
Creative Writing Exercise
1. Choose an age, gender and occupation (or hobby) that sound interesting.
2. Brainstorm at least five ideas showing why the character chose that occupation.
3. Choose one of those reasons, then ask why that reason came about and brainstorm at least five explanations.
4. Continue until the character is fully fleshed out (perhaps 5-10 levels of questions and ideas).
5. Choose another aspect of the character’s life, such as a spouse, an additional hobby, or where he lives, and repeat the process.
A sample result, continuing on the idea of the engineer above, might be:
30-year-old male engineer
• He’s an engineer because in high school he was good at math.
• He was good at math because he liked things with concrete answers.
• He liked concrete answers because his childhood was unstable.
• His childhood was unstable because his family moved a lot and his parents fought.
• They moved and fought because his father couldn’t hold a job.
Engineer is unhappily married.
• He’s not happy because his wife wants him to change, to be more outgoing.
• He can’t change because he doesn’t understand how.
• He can’t ask how because he doesn’t want to dig too deeply inside himself.
• He doesn’t want to dig because he’s afraid of what he might have to face.
• He doesn’t want to face the fact that he carries many of his father’s characteristics.
Even without knowing more, the writer already knows this character is smart, likes an ordered life, and is content on the surface but not deep inside.
Will feeling like a failure as a husband and being afraid of becoming his father cause him to withdraw further inside himself? Or to take an unusual risk to prove himself? This development of this character will lead to inevitable conflict in the story.
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