Writing the next story: how to choose the right characters

Does anything satisfy more than writing “The End”?  In my case, it’s writing “Finis” for my Roman-era stories. It’s time for a celebratory cup of tea, a special dinner, a relaxing stroll…and planning the next story.

How do we know what that next story should be? The characters, the setting, the plot, the theme…how do we decide?

That’s the dilemma I’m facing right now since Truth and Honor just released. If I’m going to have another story written and ready to release in six months, I need to get those four features well in mind and start to write.

I’m not a pantser, so I don’t know whether starting the next story presents the same challenges for those who are as it does for us plotters. We plotters do better if we know where we’re headed instead of letting the story just happen as we go. I don’t know all the details when I start, but I do need to know the end from the beginning and what some of the crisis-point scenes in between will be.

Everyone has their own approach to starting that next story, but I thought it might be helpful to share how I figure out what should come next.

I would love to hear how others do it. I hope you’ll share in the comments. Maybe something you do is something I should do as well.

I know I’ll be writing a Roman-era adventure with dangerous situations, spiritual arcs, important friendships other than the romance, and a romance woven through. Remaining faithful to Jesus, even when that might cost everything, can change the world for those around us, even for people who might start out as our enemies. My characters will be living that during the story.

A high-level view of what the story will be can define the theme, but it’s the details that take something from a grand idea to a solid story.

Characters, setting, and plot are the writer’s tools that get us to a story readers will love. How do we choose the right ones?

While all are important, having the right characters is what makes a book most memorable for me. So, I’ll start by sharing how I choose the characters before I begin writing on that first blank page, whether it’s paper or computer screen.

For my Light in the Empire series, some aspects of the setting are a given. Set in the Roman Empire shortly after AD 100, it’s a time when being a Christian was no longer legal. A believer could be killed for choosing to follow Jesus, or the local governor could choose to overlook it. So in each story, I’ll need a set of characters that include believers and pagans, a problem that keeps them close together where those opposing world views come into conflict, and a spiritual awakening where the nonbeliever wrestles with whether the story of Jesus as savior is true.

There are several steps I take as I’m trying to figure out who the characters will be in what I write next.

1. Picking the lead characters

   I’m writing a stand-alone series where you really don’t need to have read any of the earlier novels to get rich enjoyment out of the one in your hand. But some of the characters do appear in more than one story. Sometimes they had a leading role, sometimes a secondary one. I work at keeping recurring characters consistent between stories. One reviewer said the books of the series create their own universe. I enjoy all my characters, but some are special favorites I’d like to spend more time with. But how do I choose who returns?

   I ask for help from my readers. After all, it’s our readers that we want to find enjoyment and inspiration in what we’re writing. It only makes sense to ask who touched them in a way that they would like to see those characters again. I do this at the back of each novel and as a routine request near the end of my newsletters.

   I’m especially looking for secondary characters that are requested by a number of people. Thirteen-year-old Galen in Blind Ambition came back as grown man in Faithful because so many asked to see him again. I’d had such fun writing him as a teen that I might have chosen him even without reader input.

   

   Sometimes my readers will recommend someone I never thought of making a lead. In True Freedom, leading man Diegis risked his life to save his owner’s daughter from what happened to his older sister, Ariana, twelve years earlier. Ariana never appeared in the story, but so many people wanted to know what happened to her that I made her the lead in Hope Unchained. I would never have written about her without my readers telling me I needed to. When one of my secondary character becomes a new lead, I avoid making the new story a mere continuation of the one before. Since I want each story to stand alone well, the other leads will be new characters who never appeared before. But anyone who read the earlier novel will have a richer understanding of the returning character.
2. Picking the secondary characters

   Because I’m writing multi-POV novels that includes a love story that isn’t a genre romance, this is very important. Sometimes they were in an earlier story and make a reappearance. Sometimes they are appearing for the very first time. But no matter what their past history in the series might be, I want them to be three-dimensional people with a backstory that helps define them. I might be the only one who knows that backstory, or I might share part of it during the course of the story.

3. Figuring out the backstories

   For multi-POV stories, we need to have a backstory for each POV character. But there are other characters who never get a POV scene who are essential to the story. I figure out a backstory for each of them as well.

   Perhaps this is why I’m sometimes surprised by readers selecting a relatively minor character as the one they want to get a full story. I always give serious thought to the unexpected suggestion. That might be exactly the right character to lead a future story.

   I hadn’t expected the response Tribune Titianus got for his minor role in True Freedom. But the readers were right. He became one of my favorite lead characters when he was a few years older in More Than Honor and What Matters Most. He returned again as a secondary character in Truth and Honor.

4. Keeping future stories in mind

   I keep track of all the suggestions I get from readers. Even if a requested character isn’t going to headline the next story, they might be perfect for the one after that. They might become an essential secondary character. They might be great for a novella. I haven’t written any of those yet, but I might someday.

5. Selecting the settings that are right for both characters and plot

   For the strongest story, we need the right settings for our characters to live out their adventure. For each scene, we need the right POV character and the right setting for maximum emotional effect. I write scenes as if I were shooting a movie, and the right setting is crucial. Sometimes a setting might almost be a character itself. I’ll be writing about this in a couple of months. I hope you’ll join me then and share what you’ve discovered that works well for you.

With a choice of leads arrayed in front of us, how do we narrow it down?

As Christian writers, of course the number one tool will be prayer. We don’t know who will be reading the next story or what story will really speak to them. But God does. I can narrow it down to a few choices, but choosing the best one…that’s hard. When faced with several who look like good choices, I enlist my prayer partners to join me in asking for wisdom to know which will be best.

For the ones I decide not to use, there might be future stories where they are exactly what I need.

Share your thoughts!

1) How do you choose the characters for your next story?
2) What do you look for in characters that return?