Characters, the reality and otherwise of

I was following a blog thread on characters that started here with discussion on how to develop characters' voice then moved over here with a side discussion on interviewing/pretending to be your characters, or not and then to here with dicussion on what degree of real characters have to their authors.

The thought of pretending to be my characters is squicky. I can't interview them either -- it's just wrong. I did manage to come up with 20 questions that they will answer, but as you can see they're not very talkative and it's certainly not a character building tool. I think this is because they don't exist out of the context of their story/world, so they how can I interview them? Maybe if the interviewee was someone from their reality, it might work, but I don't see it as much use, for me, as a character developing tool.

What does work for me, is having them tell me their story beyond the borders of whatever I'm actually writing. That is, making up stories about the characters' past and futures. Past events get added to a timeline in case I decide to refer to them, future events are just for me (ha). It seems a more natural way of working out what makes them tick, what matters to them etc, that the artificial nature of an interview.

One thing I do that pulls the characters out of their reality though, is "take them shopping" or to a museum or some other place that might interest them. The point of this is to explore how that character see things, to be able to filter the world through their view of it. Which is, in my opinion, what character building is all about -- developing a character so they do have their unique perspective and then being able to get this across to the reader. (Visiting such places/exhibitions also helps to expand my knowledge of subjects that are relevant to the story/characters.)

Does it require breaking down, or at least thinning, the fourth wall to actually interview a character? Or is it just a different way of approaching the problem?

At the other end, I can't treat characters just as pieces to push around the board. I don't see how you can do that and still get believable characters. Maybe it works in idea/driven stories? If I try it, I end up with dry as dust scenes, when I can get them written in the first place. I'm happy enough to kill them/torture them/otherwise make life tough for them, but again, I can't do that if I just see them as playing pieces, because then I don't care, so what's the point?

First Person, Oh Dear

Now I remember another reason why I don't like first person for writing: The narrator always wants to say things their way, and if I don't let them, they sulk. This would be fine if they didn't get so carried away.

I end up with lines like:

As he approached his apartment up on Level 4, Chev heard voices. With the instincts of any animal that has been hunted all its life, he froze.

Oh dear. It's going to be a long rewrite :|

Language Making

I find made up languages in fiction annoying at best. So why am I now adding one to this WIP?

It seems to me that if a character comes from a family who speak a different language at hime, then words from that language are going to slip into his speech from time to time. Maybe expressions his parents used, or single words like "No" or "Wait" that he doesn't bother to convert, or long words when he's frustrated or upset.

If those single words and short phrases are going to have some consistency, then I understanding of the syllables and words are put together, and the accompanying grammar. Then once these starts to develop, I start to play with more complicated constructions.

It's a slippery, this language constructing. And, of course, I have no idea if it works :)