Creating a Supporting Characters Set with ChatGPT
Write a Novel with me using ChatGPT — Part 5!
In the last installment of our experiment, I created a protagonist, Emily, for my horror novel. She’s now as fleshed out as she can be at that stage of my process and I even have a few images of her, all generated through ChatGPT and DALL.E
Now let’s populate the rest of this novel, starting with the townspeople.
For this, I asked ChatGPT to give me ideas for a supporting character set for this novel, including a B-Story character. I’ve decided this character also needs to be a love interest, since it always amps up the tension to have one and Emily is a single young woman.
That’s a lot of characters, potential motivation and shadows to cast! Honestly, it’s too much for my brain to process all at once and it’s also what I perceive as a potential downfall of using AI to write a novel.
It simply can create faster than my brain can weave a story. I need time to let things simmer and to add the all important layers of emotion to the story that is needed to write something of quality.
What I’m going to focus on right now is just a few of those characters and insert them into my outline to shape the first part of my novel.
A-Story Characters
Those characters are linked to the main conflict, in my case the malevolent spirit (monster) haunting the mill and the town as well as my protagonist’s efforts to confront and destroy it. These characters are liked to the theme of reconciling with historical guilt.
- Thomas Hawthorne serves as an antagonistic force. He represents the town’s desire to keep its dark secrets hidden, adding tension and obstacles to Emily’s quest. He represents a refusal of the theme with his desire to keep the historical wrongs of the past hidden.
- Eleanor “Ellie” Morgan acts as a bridge between Emily and the town’s history. She provides valuable information but also embodies the internal conflict of the town — the struggle between preserving peace and confronting the past.
- James “Jim” Barker offers a firsthand perspective of the mill’s history and hauntings. He’s a living link to the mill’s past, but his reluctance to speak out underscores the fear and mystery surrounding the ‘monster.’
Now, I didn’t like the ages suggested by the bot as I don’t think they are appropriate for a situation where a 28 years old’s great-great-grandmother committed some unforgettable sin resulting in a century-long haunting, so I am changing the age of those characters as follows and adding some depth to the brief description given to me by the bot.
Also, because everyone likes a good portrait and writers are no different, I will be asking DALL.E to produce a portrait for each of these characters for future reference.
Thomas Hawthorne
Age: 45
Description: Tall, with a lean build, short graying hair, and sharp blue eyes. He often wears a stern expression.
Occupation: Mayor of the town; a descendant of one of the town’s founding families. He is a relative of Emily through her great-great-grandmother’s family, but neither of them know about this.
Link to Conflict: Thomas is deeply invested in keeping the town’s darker history, especially regarding the old mill, under wraps. He becomes a co-antagonist to Emily’s quest for truth and embodies the refusal of the theme.
Eleanor “Ellie” Morgan
Age: 62
Description: Medium height, curvy, with curly brown hair and warm, inviting brown eyes. She dresses in a homely, comfortable style.
Occupation: Local librarian and part-time historian.
Link to Conflict: Ellie assists Emily with historical research but is torn between her loyalty to the town and her growing friendship with Emily.
Jim Barker
Age: 94
Description: Broad-shouldered, rugged, with a weathered face, deep-set eyes, and a gruff demeanor softened by a surprisingly gentle voice. He lived his entire life in the small town and knows all its secrets.
Occupation: Carpenter and local handyman, though he is now retired.
Link to Conflict: Jim has firsthand knowledge of the mill’s history and the strange occurrences linked to it, but he’s hesitant to talk due to past experiences and deep shame of his own family’s involvment in the past injustice that led to the malevolent spirit’s haunting.
Now you have it! We have a nice set of A Story characters, some portraits and whole new road ahead of us.
It’s important to note that I will be keeping all these in my scrivener file, which I am building up at the same time. This is my usual process for building up a novel and I am staying true to it.
What’s up for tomorrow? The B Story characters, of course!
