Two Techniques for Creating Vivid Characters

This will be a bit of a simple post, since I'm currently fighting the flu. (Right now it's a draw, but I'm hoping to emerge the winner in a day or so!)

Creating a vividly drawn, unique, and interesting character... Where does a writer start? I want to propose two techniques for bringing the spark of a real, multi-faceted character to life. One I stole from F. Scott Fitzgerald. The other I stole from Sheryl Crow (and also JD Salinger, but mainly Sheryl Crow.)

Technique One - Fitzgerald - The "Start with a Person" Method:

Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, is widely known to have been the inspiration for the character of Daisy Buchanan, who in turn is believed to have been the inspiration for the "flappers" of the Roaring Twenties. Daisy was a unique, complex character, who didn't seem to borrow from the literary heroines who had come before her. Fitzgerald always upheld that his characters were unique because they started with an actual individual as their inspiration.

Fitzgerald said, "You can start with a person, and end up with a type; if you start with a type, you end up with nothing."

Technique Two - Crow (and Salinger) - The Judgmental Narrator Method:

Okay, maybe Sheryl Crow never taught character development to fiction writers, but she does deserve the credit for this next technique, since her song, "All I Wanna Do," inspired me to create characters in this particular way. Here's a quote from the song that exemplifies this technique:

"'All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die,'
Says the man next to me out of nowhere
It's apropos
Of nothing
He says his name's William but I'm sure,
He's Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy
And he's plain ugly to me
And I wonder if he's ever had a day of fun in his whole
life
We are drinking beer at noon on Tuesday
In a bar that faces a giant car wash
The good people of the world are washing their cars
On their lunch break, hosing and scrubbing
As best they can in skirts in suits

They drive their shiny Datsuns and Buicks
Back to the phone company, the record store too
Well, they're nothing like Billy and me..."

What I love about these lyrics is the way they not only describe "Billy," but they tell you an awful lot about the narrator at the same time. You learn about the narrator by her internal reactions to Billy - she doubts he really goes by William, even though it's the name he gives her, she considers him "just plain ugly," and she wonders if he's ever had a day of fun in his whole life. Just these thoughts about the man sitting next to the narrator at the bar give you a lot of insight into the narrator herself. The narrator continues with observations about the people washing their cars across the street. It's lunchtime, and while she and Billy are drinking beers, "the good people of the world" are washing their cars, "on their lunch break." Her final observation about the members of the car-washing crowd is that, "they're nothing like Billy and me."

Within this one stanza, Crow has created an idea in our minds of what kind of person Billy is, and even a bit about what kind of people are at the car wash, but she's created an even stronger sense of understanding in our minds of the sort of person the narrator is. A great example of a narrator who reveals himself through his observations of the people around him is Holden Caulfield in CATCHER IN THE RYE. Holden is quite willing to share the details of his opinion of almost every character who crosses his path, and by so doing, he reveals the most about himself. (Salinger, of course, deserves credit for inspiring this second technique, but to be fair, it is Sheryl Crow and "All I Wanna Do" that I turn to when I need to be reminded of this method.)

Do you have specific techniques or methods that you use to help you create vivid characters? Please share your ideas with me in the comments!