As a part of my series of session recaps for the 2017 Writer’s Digest Conference, I’m figured I’d pass along the wisdom of character webs to my readers (as well as my AuthorToolbox friends). These little boogers are useful – not even just before you write your book, but after draft one. You only need to make one web one time to learn from it. So, to start:
Building a Character Web
A character web is a quick, killer tool for building more tension into your novel and for trimming the fat. Start a character web by putting your character and their driving force in the center. You can have two driving forces if those forces change throughout the book:
Then draw a line between your character and each other important side character, like so:
Next, add arrows. If the side character wants to help your main character, have an arrow pointing to the main character from the side character (and relate it to the given driving force). If the side character is working against your main character, have the arrow pointing away from the main character. In some cases, the arrow might go both ways, or the side character may not intend to be hurtful (characters which hurt the protagonist aren’t necessarily the bad guys; they may just have competing goals). For example:
Lastly, label the tension between the main character and each character – just a quick summary as to why they want to help or hurt the protagonist. Examples of tension:
- Motives
- Self-doubt
- Ego
- Fear
- Weakness (Physical or Mental)
- Addiction
- Bias
- Blind Spots
After this, you can complicate it as much as you want – place arrows between the side characters, or place arrows between the main character and themselves. Whatever works.
Ways to Use the Web
- Trim the Fat. Are two characters serving roughly the same purpose with roughly the same tension/motivations? Then cut one of them, or make them both into one person. On my map, you can see this happening with both the Eddie/Jamie characters and the Megan/Luke characters.
- Increase Conflict. Are too many characters working for your protagonist, and not very many against? Add more characters that don’t want yours to succeed, or cut some good guys, or make some of the good guys into bad guys. The same works in reverse. On my map, it seems like too many people are out to help Devon. I could do with more bad guys or fewer good guys.
- Vary Tension. Are some of the sources of tension too similar? Change that. Your book will feel fresher without repetition. On my map, too many people are driven by closed- or open-mindedness. That probably gets old for my reader, and needs a fix.
- Add Realism. Did you have trouble coming up with concrete explanations of tension? Then maybe those characters need a bit more work to feel real. On my map, I think I’ll be satisfied with the character motivations once I make character cuts, but still, I could refine my reasons a bit more, to add authenticity.
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I’m wondering if it would be wise to do the same with all the main characters. I could see this adding a nice dimension and subtle conflict between many of the cast. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
Oh, certainly it would help! The question is, how dedicated are you? That could be a lot of webs! Although really, these webs come together decently fast 🙂
Oh, I have never heard about character webs, but they look pretty useful and interesting, thanks for sharing!
What an intriguing idea! I especially like the idea of using the web to see if we have too many characters.
It’s a common issue I see with my clients, to have too many characters, so I’d recommend it! Even just a cursory web gave me ideas for cuts on a novel I thought was pretty set in that regard. Just gotta see things from different perspectives is all 🙂
This was great, thanks for outlining this method. Whilst reading I got distracted and started outlining my main character for my NaNo 2017 project, and it looks awesome. I only wish I’d started on a bigger piece of paper 🙂
Ain’t that the truth! You could make a huge one with EVERY character on it. Of course you’d probably need a whole wall for that!
Thank you, Mica! This is just what I needed to read today, and I can’t wait to share this with my CPs. Time to draw some webs!
It could make for a fun writer’s group session! I love them because they aren’t very intensive – a good exercise, but only a small commitment to create them. And easy to remember how to do it without writing notes down and losing them!
This is such a great idea! I know what I’m going to be doing this afternoon (instead of editing) Thanks for sharing!
I like these boogers a lot. Looks like you have a whole handkerchief full. I should try this. 🙂 Thanks, Mica! I told someone else to sign up for your emails yesterday. Don’t know if she did.
It’s very possible! I get new subscribers every day to my newsletter. I’m not notified when people sign up for my WordPress though. (I prefer people go for the newsletter. I have the sneaking suspicion WordPress doesn’t always email subscribers when posts go up.)
Love the diagrams. What software did you use to draw them. I can see how this would be very useful.
I used Adobe Illustrator, unfortunately (since it’s not at ALL a free program), but I believe you could do the same thing in MS Paint – you just wouldn’t have as many font choices or the same ease of rearrangement/deletion. There are probably other image programs that would work too!
Great post, Mica! I wrote a similar post last year after a talk by Michael Swanwick explaining this same method. He found after years of teaching that most failed stories he encountered formed either spaghetti (one long connected line) or just a star focused on the MC, instead of a web, when plotted this way. The one thing he did caution was that this method can be reductive and should be saved for the editing phase. However, visualizing the push and pull in your novel can really shine a light on problems you didn’t know you had. Thanks!
Oh, yes, I definitely agree that it would help most for editing! I’m using it that way. I feel like it would be tough to come up with all of this stuff before actually writing the book – although who knows, it might work for some people 🙂
It’s interesting. I like to do something similar, but my preference is to create lists, using columns or rows in lieu of arrows to designate relationships. There’s definitely something to be said for simplified diagrams of relationships, so that we can more easily see where things overlap and become redundant.
Thanks for sharing.
Exactly. Whatever works for you is what you should use. Visual cues are so important, to help you see your work from a different direction!
I LOVE this idea! This is a great way to visualize character relationships and really summarize the important parts of plot and character. Thank you for sharing!
My pleasure! I found it so helpful in my revision process 🙂
I can’t wait to try this! I already know this is going to be super helpful with my current WIP. 🙂
I hadn’t heard of this before but it seems like it could be very useful. I’ll have to give it a try some time. Thank you
What an intriguing tool! I can definitely see it being a useful exercise to fill in plot holes and trench out excessive characters. To allow the mind to percolate and release ideas to flesh out the story. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve tried to apply this kind of thing, like mind mapping, but it doesn’t work with my brain unfortunately – if only! It looks so helpful.
Everyone’s mind works differently. I really can’t stand writing character profiles – it just kills the fun for me. But a lot of people find those immeasurably helpful. To each his own!
What a fabulous idea! I can already see the application for my current WiP. Thanks for sharing.