Crafting a character, part 2

So, going back to Friday's (I know I said I'd post this on Saturday... whoops) post for a second, the way I described those characters is what I meant by the narrative approach. It's the only way I can get anywhere with my characters, get an understanding of who they are and what's up with them, before I start writing the story. Those were lists in and of themselves, of course, but they were lists of the characters' experiences, the biggest events of their lives that made them who they came to be.

It's all well and good to say someone is quiet and reserved, or angry at the world, or very shy and jumps at his own shadow. To me, that's what that second method I mentioned, the sort of outline thing that I talked about, does. It lists attributes but it doesn't get into why they're like that. You certainly can take that approach with the list but it doesn't lend itself to it. You know?

Until we know why a character is quiet or angry or shy or easily frightened, we don't really know much about that character, do we? Maybe the quiet character was one of ten kids and just craved quiet as a child. Maybe she was yelled at every time she opened her mouth. Maybe the angry one lost both parents as a teenager. Maybe he poured everything he had into a business that just collapsed. Maybe the shy one was an acne-prone dork as a high-schooler. Maybe she... I dunno, but you get the picture. Writing a character description in terms of the character's life experiences is a great jump start, in my opinion, to get you thinking about the person your character has come to be.

I think character flaws are more likely to come out that way, too. We can see the places they haven't necessarily dealt with the events of their lives, the problems they've faced. We can see how they might have chosen to deal with those events in less than productive ways. What if Wedge, from my example the other day, had chosen to join his parents and put himself out of his misery? What if he'd chosen to drink away his problems? He'd be a very different character and the events that occurred surrounding him in Star Wars would have been very different as well. If they happened at all.

I really struggle with creating flaws for my characters but I've managed to come up with some very quickly for the book I'm plotting out right now (different than the one I've been writing for a few weeks) using this approach. Creating backgrounds for my characters amuses me and is, for me at least, a great tool. It doesn't mean I know everything there is to know about my characters before I type "-1-" at the top of my first chapter. But it gets me going, gets me thinking and gives me a direction to go.

What approach do the rest of you take? Has anyone else used the way I use?