@Quantum: That’s true when it comes to the initial creation of character, but I believe it becomes a bit more complex when you’re looking at the growth component, if there is any, and (what’s more important to me) the way the narrator’s and reader’s perception of the character. I suppose much of what I’m dealing with here has to do less with a character and more with the idea of the unreliable narrator (since, by definition, all narrators SHOULD be unreliable, to a certain extent).

I had started to think about using the characters in utterly different contexts, like you mention, and think I’ll try that with a few of the characters I’m working on now. I’ll keep you abreast on how that goes (maybe by sending you a few short stories for your entertainment, stuff you can read in your copious amounts of spare time, what with the PhD and getting married and all).

Maybe I’ll use the Stephen King method and simply create a person through blitzkrieg characterization then not figure out what the character WILL do until they actually do it. Heck, if I can keep myself from knowing what’s going to happen, I doubt the reader’ll be able to guess at it.

Then again, maybe not.

I think I’ll stick to interviewing my characters so I get to know then, then crafting multiple plots to increase orchestrated complexity.

My best advice is, as Edrei said, to not ask yourself “What would I do if I were this character” – that turns the character into you.

What may help with the character is to write a few scenes with the character in some situations he or she is likely to be in. For example, if your character is Picard’s Dixon Hill from Star Trek:TNG, you can write a scene where he gets a bit confused by what’s normal for the 1920s but different in the 24th century. By writing the scenes, you also get to dry-run your characters, and see if you really like them.

It would drive me mad to read about a villain that is just inherently evil. No childhood abuse or neglect, no character flaw that got them shunned by society. Something that just seemed destined for evil.

Yeah, been done. Think of all the comic book bad guys of the 1950’s. Of course, that’s not to say it couldn’t be re-done in a manner that works. Just look at The Good Son or Damien.

It would drive me mad to read about a villain that is just inherently evil. No childhood abuse or neglect, no character flaw that got them shunned by society. Something that just seemed destined for evil.

How could something be so straight forward? How can something be so.

Then again its probably been done.

Geeze i need to get back into the writing gig.

I haven’t read any Neo-Noir lately so I can’t really recommend you any. The best I can suggest for the kind of depth and complexity of characters is Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. The first few books have the first person neo-noir perspective. Later books degrade into senseless softporn though but it’s an ongoing series so I just kept reading them anwyay.

I would have thought all stories should leave some room to the reader to fill in. Just that stories that use complex characters shouldn’t have complex plots. It’ll be too confusing to the reader. it should be a simple situation which the character brings to life with their actions. That way, it’s more believable I would think to the reader.

To exand on the “If I were this character/I wonder what this character would do” line of thought: I guess what I’ve found is that if you add certain “normalities” to the character then the reader will fill in whatever’s not explicitly stated, and therefore make the character both simple and complex enough to “come to life”. I heard Michael Stackpole (I think) talk about this once, and he stated that if you just create a character 80% of the way the reader will usually fill in the last 20%.

My biggest issue with with creating multi-layered characters. I’ve been reading a lot of Gene Wolfe lately and have completely fallen in love with the depth of all his characters, so what I’d like to know is how to create fantasy characters so complete they feel real. (Specifically, I’m reading the Book of the New Sun and am finding more and more the characters of Dr Talos and Baldanders, their relationship, and their individual struggles.) Part of it, for me, is the language used: I’ve noticed that if the narration is similar to the spoken text then the world becomes more real to the reader. (That’s the problem with a lot of fantasy today: the narration is in our modern language and usage, but the spoken text is in some strange quasi-medieval meter.) This style can also serve to get the reader thinking about what a character would do instead of what they would do if they were the character.

Can you recommend any Noir detective fiction?

For instance, a character that feels uneasy that she feels no guilt or remorse when she kills people. Or a character that fails to trust anyone in their life because they have been betrayed before. A character that masks their insecurity with rage or even seduction because they have been abused before.

These kinds of things you can find them true to life and you’re right in that the way you portray these characters depends on the way your plot unfolds.

The problem happens when you expand these characters, the complexity of the real world is tricky to swallow when you’re reading it in a book. Readers tend to look back on and answer the conflicts with “If I were this character…” rather than “I wonder what this character would do?”

I think in times like this Noir or Neo-Noir Detective Fiction gives some of the best inspirations for complex characters. A lot of them portray characters of deep complexity. Maybe you can also draw inspiration from there.