Fiction Writer’s Toolshed | Practical Tools for Authors
You look at Wolverine or Link and want to make a character that’s just as cool, just as loved, just as full of history.
Then you try to build all of that before the character has lived through a single scene.
I know how heavy that can feel. This episode is my current best approach to letting a first version exist, so the next version has something to grow from.
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Fiction Writer’s Toolshed
You're Strangling Link, Wolverine, and Mario… Stop. | ep 014
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You’re comparing a beginning with years of stories
The Wolverine you know now carries years of adventures, changes and reader affection. The first appearance didn’t contain everything the character would become.
Later stories gave writers room to develop him. They gave readers more reasons to care. Even the look of the character changed.
But when we sit down to make our own character, it can feel as though we have to do all of that at once. The name, the backstory, the personality, the unforgettable moments. We want the whole history before we’ve written the beginning.
That’s a lot to ask of a character who hasn’t done anything on the page yet.
Think about a character you love now. Does an awkward early version erase everything you’ve enjoyed since? Or did the work that followed give that character more to carry?
Do your best now, then learn from making it
I’m not saying don’t try. I’m saying give yourself a chance to improve through the work.
If you keep your best characters, stories and plots in your head until they feel perfect, you aren’t getting the practice of writing them.
Imagine thinking about learning guitar for two hours a day. You can picture the song. You can picture your hands moving. But you still haven’t put your fingers on the strings.
Then you pick up the guitar. Hold the pick. Try a chord. Hear what happened. Try again.
Writing gives you that kind of contact with the work. You find out what the character does, what the scene needs and what you can do better next time.
A rough scene gives you something to work on. The perfect scene that only exists in your head can’t give you the same practice.
A small choice can become something you care about
We can spend so long trying to find the perfect name that we never finish the chapter where the character would start to mean something.
Mario’s name came from a Nintendo of America landlord. His hat, mustache and overalls also served practical needs when there were very few pixels to draw him with. Those choices became features people recognize.
A choice doesn’t have to arrive with all its future meaning attached.
Choose a name you can write with. Let the character enter the scene. What do they want? What do they do? What happens because they did it?
The name has more to carry after you’ve written those things.
Let your first version be small
When you look at Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, the scale can seem impossible. How could you make something that big?
But those games belong to a series that began with much smaller work. The early Zelda games gave the makers something to build on, change and try again.
Your first version doesn’t have to contain everything you might someday make with the idea.
A scene can be another attempt at a character. A character idea can be tried in a different scene. You can discover a better way to tell it by writing it.
I’m talking about scenes and character ideas here. You don’t have to restart an entire novel every time you learn something.
Give a small piece of storytelling your attention. Let it become something you can read, rather than asking it to match the huge version you can imagine.
Write the version you can make now
That’s the invitation in this episode: write.
Use the name you have. Make the character who still looks a little goofy. Let them do something in a scene.
Then use what you learn to make the next attempt a little better. You don’t need to solve the character’s entire future before you begin.
Don’t get trapped trying to make Breath of the Wild when you haven’t made your own 8-bit Legend of Zelda yet.
And don’t despise that little 8-bit beginning. It exists because you made it. Now you have something to build on.
See what’s keeping your first version unwritten
In You’re (STILL) Strangling Link, Wolverine, and Mario… Stop. (Diagnostic Follow Up), I look at six ways this can show up in a draft, from searching for a name to building more world history or rewriting the opening.
If you recognize the pressure but aren’t sure what to do about it, that follow-up can help you identify the pattern and choose a tool to try.
Fiction Writer’s Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors is a Make Exist podcast hosted by Tim Kearney. It offers hands-on training for fiction writers to diagnose writing problems, build their skills, and finish more work.