Creating Characters for a Book

When Frank and Lucy (Phranqenlu, "Frank-and-Lu") were creating characters for a book, they decided to generate CMDs (Conflict Motivation Diagrams) for each character, as well as some for various sets of circumstances. For the CMDs, each separate element is randomized. Phranqenlu began with core attributes needed to guide each character's behavior. There was nothing random about the decision for which attributes would be drawn up as core elements. Every author will need to determine which attributes are important for development, while creating characters for a book.

The base mechanics in creating a CMD use a design resembling the face of an analog clock. For a deeper look at how this is built, and some of the process that went into its creation, feel free to join Phranqenlu as they show you some additional portions of their creative method.

Each of the core elements was intended to be randomized, not only in potential future development, but also in terms of intensity. They possessed the ability to "overlap" one another on the surface of the CMD "clock face". This created both an unintended intricacy, and the need to randomize the order in which they were presented.

It was obvious to Phranqenlu from the start that the chart would be visually complex with the clock-face illustration/interpretation. To help break up what originally looked like visual chaos, the elements used designated colors in order to be able to distinguish them from one another. The elements' initial order is Aggression (P)urple), Politics (B)lue), Economics (G)reen), Slavery (R)ed), and Work Ethic (Y)ellow).

Once the order of the elements is randomized, each element is given a corresponding number (in the order that they are displayed above) from which they are randomized. This randomized order ensures that certain elements are more dominant in some characters. The main goal when creating characters for a book is to produce blatant, as well as nuanced, differences between personalities.

For this article, a completely new set of character traits, and thus a new character, will be generated in order to show how this might work. In this case study, the randomized sequence is 43512 (1-Aggression, 2-Politics, 3-Economics, 4-Slavery, 5-Work Ethic). This means the order of elements, if they were separate layers, would be laid down in the following order:

Slavery
Economics
Work Ethic
Aggression
Politics

There are several ways to randomly generate numbers, whether digitally, like the number randomizer by Calculator Soup. But numbers can also be randomized in an analog method, like using dice. 

In any given CMD, the first randomized element has the potential to eclipse any other element. Under the correct, albeit unlikely, circumstances it could even eclipse all of the other elements. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the last element can never eclipse an of the others. In this case, politics would be the element that can not eclipse any other element. Although lower elements are not usually buried beneath another, it remains possible. We will see, as we break down this character's CMD, overlapping elements will not have a huge bearing on the outcome for this CMD.

Now that we have the random order assigned to the elements, the five elements are randomized between 1 and 20, in order to provide a general placement. With the random numbers (these generated as 12, 5, 15, 6, and 19), the format would begin to look like this: R12.|G5.|Y15.|P6.|B19.|.

Next, five numbers are randomly generated between 1 and 8. This is for the finer tuned placement, in order for the elements to each "drift" away from the larger numbers which were just assigned.

This would now look like: R12.5.|G5.6.|Y15.4.|P6.7.|B19.6.|. Finally 15 numbers are randomly generated between the numbers 1 and 10. This provides each element with the breakdown for elevation, size, and saturation. The final coordinates are:

R12.5.5.6.4|G5.6.6.5.8|Y15.4.7.5.9|P6.7.3.9.2|B19.6.9.3.4|

This is a blank template for the CMD (simplified):

While the slavery metric is the first element in the order they were randomized, Work Ethic (the yellow element) has the unique feature of being the focal point for the direction of all the crescent shapes. Because of that, it is always a good idea to place the element that is going to be the focus (or the "sun"), so that the element knows which direction to face.

The coordinates for work ethic, 15.4 puts it at 81 degrees, with an elevation of 7. The size and saturation is 5.9, which will be taken from the pre-made list of elements at the proper size and saturation. The Work Ethics element is then turned to face the center. This is the only one that will be faced this way, all of the others will face the "sun" element, which for this chart is work ethic. Any sun elements face the center point of the chart. The CMD is now going to look like this:

Next to be placed is slavery. The first two coordinates are 12.5, which is going to be 132.75 degrees. The elevation is a 5, so we will measure the location of the degrees with the width of the ruler being 200. After the element of 6.4 is placed, it will be turned -144.4 degrees to face work ethic. The chart now looks like this:

Economics is the third element (which, practically speaking, is the importance of money). With the clock and minute hands being at 5.6, that puts us at -103.5 degrees. The elevation is a 6 bubbles from the focal center point The element is then rotated -101.2 degrees for the proper facing.

For aggression, our coordinates of 6.7 put the ruler at -132.75 with an elevation of 3. When aggression is placed, it is rotated -109 degrees for the proper facing.

The final element to be placed is politics. At 19.6, the ruler will be set to 4.5 degrees, with a length of 360. Politics is then turned -44.3 degrees for the proper facing. The CMD now looks like this:

Since Politics is off of the chart, Frank and Lucy consider it to be an element that the character does not care about. The portion off the chart is greyed out so that it is visually minimized as well. The greyed out element looks like this:

Now moving onto the bars that can be seen to the right of the CMD. Frank and Lucy use these as a metric to more easily compare characters to each other. The same base that is used to determine the size and saturation is used to determine the length of the bar and how filled it is.

Taking aggression, the first element in the lineup, the length of the bar would be a size of 90 units, and the bar would be filled by 72 units. The lengths and fills for each bar will be:

P: 72/90
B: 48/160
G: 160/320
R: 96/160
Y: 180/360

The longest bar size is 400 units. The size and fill of the bar is directly dependent on the size an saturation of the element as it was randomized. The order of the element-bars are standardized across all CMD's so that characters can be more readily compared to one another.

The final chart looks like this:

Interpreting the Conflict Motivation Diagram

You may be asking yourself, "How does this silly chart help me make a character?" And that is a very good question. How does a series of crescents and half circles help give your character depth? At first glance, this may look nonsensical, but there is a method to the madness.

Anything above the horizontal line running across the chart (the "horizon") is what Frank and Lucy interpret as what the character shows. Everything below, though that information is just as vital to the character's development, represents aspects they keep closer to their chest. The closer an element is to the center point of the entire chart, the more important.

With that in mind, the vertical line running through the chart from its intersection with the horizon upward also serves a similar interpretive purpose. That vertical line as it directs from the horizon might be viewed as the immediate perspective of the character. What the characters sees when looking outward tends to be the focus of that life. The elements on the periphery are often very visible to others, even when being dismissed by the character.

At the onset, we can see that work ethic (yellow) is a very important aspect for this character, as it is the largest element on the chart. However, both this, along with the issue of slavery are not things that they flaunt or talk about. Slavery (red) is not necessarily a small element, but it is smaller compared to the other elements for this particular character. This might be interpreted as important for this character relative to another character, but not central in their overall outlook on life.

It is pretty clear that this character values money over everything else. The fact that it is front and center in their chart indicates that it is one of their biggest motivations. Because Economics (green) is overlapping, or at least touching, aggression (purple), this character's disposition could very well be tied directly to money or income. In other words, they seem to have a fairly pleasant disposition (that is, a very small element, even though it is almost fully saturated) and was most likely a determining factor for being selected for their position.

This person clearly needs to be diplomatic as part of their occupation. Aggression is small and connected to wealth. Politics (blue), on the other hand, has the potential to be an issue, but is only a sliver of its potential. Furthermore, even that potential has been shoved completely off to the side, and most of it lies below the surface. This might indicate, once again, not so much that money has determined these outcomes, but that this person holds this role but because these features are intrinsically part of their being.

Conclusion 

While the CMD has developed into something much more complex than shown here, this is a fantastic method for creating characters for a book, specifically in determining a character's interests in the context of a larger scope. While the CMD was designed primarily with conflict in mind, it also gives a wonderful glimpse into the inner workings of the character as they look at life as a whole.

While this is the way that Frank and Lucy started to randomize and design their characters, there are plenty of other ways that are significantly more simple that you could adapt for the randomization of your own characters.

For example, you could randomize only the bar system. This would still give you solid randomized metrics, but would remove the complication of designing something like the CMD.

Whatever you decide to go with, try to think outside of your natural tendencies so that the result is an authentic personality outside of your own. Try to develop a system that helps you to understand where your characters are coming from, and each character's thought process.