Writing a "Character Sketch" of an Object or Institution"

Sometimes a key character in a work of fiction isn't a person at all, and when this happens the writer will find himself doing what I am doing now--- working up a character sketch on something that isn't a person, or even particularly person-like.

Think of J. K. Rowling, planning her Harry Potter series, writing up a character sketch of Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry. Or Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, doing a character sketch of the Enterprise. Or Herman Melville writing a bio of the great white whale.

(At this point newcomers to this blog are leaning toward one another and whispering, 'This nissa_amas_katoj that writes this blog, she must have something wrong with her brain!' I do; it's called autism/Asperger's Syndrome.)

How do you know if an object or institution in your planned novel is worth writing a character sketch for? If it something that looms large--- or at least medium-sized--- in your story; if it changes or grows over the course of the story, or thwarts or aids your human characters on a regular basis; if it has an importance similar to that of one of your second or third tier characters--- there is a case for writing up a character sketch on it. (I wouldn't recommend making an object or institution your main character if you are hoping for publication.)

In one of my current projects-in-the-planning stage, there are two rival organizations that will play a role--- the Freemasons and the Jesuits. I've chosen the organizations in question as both have been accused of being sinister secret organizations involved in unholy conspiracies. One at least of my characters is convinced that both orgs. are equally evil, but must ally with one or the other....

In a big organization like these, I won't be writing a sketch on the whole of Freemasonry or the whole of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Instead the sketches will be of the Masons and Jesuits on-the-spot and in the era in which my story takes place.

The Freemasons in this story will have an inner circle which is very sinister and that will be the center of the sketch.

An organization or institution is made up of people; it also may have a physical presence in the form of a building or buildings, it will also have a philosophy/ideology.

One important thing is to differentiate between the organization/institution's ideology, and the ideology of the main representative of the institution in your story. In Harry Potter, the Dark wizards are more-or-less slaves of Lord Voldemort and must do as he says and think as he thinks. But just because Lord Vordemort likes snakes doesn't mean all Dark wizards keep snakes as pets. The snake-loving thing is a personal quirk of Voldemort and not part of the Dark wizard ideology, as Muggle-hating is.

I suppose one drawback of writing a 'character sketch' of an object/institution is that you might make it more human than you ought. It may seem like that apparently haunted house hates your main character but you (probably) don't want to make the house so human that your reader wonders if it might not BE a human enemy transformed to a haunted house by some spell (unless, of course, that's how the story is going to come out....)

And then to wrap the whole thing up you might decide to look at your characters as a bunch of cogs in the machinery of your story and write up a 'wiring diagram' that shows how they all fit in to the machine....
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