Article on Writing by Katzendragonz

Excellent article by Katzendragonz on Writing

A Few Thoughts on Character

Your characters are the number one factor that will make your story great or cause it to fall flat on its proverbial face.  Complex characters are crucial to the success of any story. The truth is, without a character you have no story.  Our characters are the people populating our stories – all of the people populating our stories – from our main characters, who appear on every page, to the almost invisible "extras," who inhabit the worlds, countries, cities, and towns where our stories are set, as well as the entire supporting cast between those two extremes.

Before we ever try to commit our characters to the page, they must live in our imagination and our minds. If we, as writers, don't believe in, identify with, and feel for our characters, our readers won't either.  The first steps in creating well-rounded characters are planning, more planning, and yet again even more planning.  The more planning you put into creating your characters, the better the characters will be who spring to life on your pages.

The greatest inspiration for planning your characters surrounds you pretty much everywhere and every day. What is it?  Other people, of course!  So watch them!  Watch them a lot!

Plan regular "People-Watching Sessions" into your everyday schedule.  Carry a notebook with you everywhere you go and Use It!  You never know when that quirky man dancing on the corner will tickle your imagination and become the springboard for a full-blown, main character in a brand new story.  But, that won't happen if you don't, first, look around and really see him, and second, give yourself a strong reminder of the things that made him catch your eye in the first place.

Once you have a wealth of ideas and details, you next must get to know your character and get to know him intimately.  There is no corner of your character's life that is secret.  You must know it all!  The good stuff and the bad stuff.  Remember: No person is all bad or all good.  Your characters should never be all good or all bad either.  No one will believe in them or be interested in them if they are.

Below is a list of just a few tools that will help you become acquainted with your budding new characters.

  Make a detailed list of your characters' physical appearance and attributes
  Keep a selection of photos and/or illustrations that look like your characters
  Create and complete Life History and Personality Profiles for each of your characters
  Fill out Character Questionnaires for each character.  You can find lots to choose
  Do Character Interviews.  Picture your character sitting across from you and interview him or her.

Using any one or, even better, several of the methods above will help you create a realistic and well-rounded character.  But, what do you do once you have all this information compiled?

What you do . . . is get to work on the actual writing. 

The characters we write must be convincing and life-like, whether they are human, animal, alien or whatever. They also need to be multi-dimensional. Flat, two-dimensional > characters will not hold the interest of your readers more than a few fleeting minutes. It is the diversities and contradictions, within each character, that will give them strength and make them memorable. Those are the characters who will niggle and tease at your reader's mind, long after they finish your story and set the book or magazine aside. Here are three of the most popular ways of revealing your characters to your readers.

  Descriptions and Describing
  Depiction through Action
  Dialogue between Characters

Mixing, matching, and blending these methods and sprinkling the results throughout your story will reveal your characters to your readers gradually and help move your plot forward.  Master these techniques and you will be well-on your way to a cast of strong, interesting, multi-dimensional characters, who will be realistic, believable, and memorable.