by PocketPen

Created on: January 20, 2010

For a convincing characters, you need to have complete confidence in how these individuals negotiate life. You should know what they do for a living if you want a full character; you should know their likes and dislikes; you should know what the other characters think of them and vice versa. What they say to and about each other is a good way for the reader to learn more—not just what the character thinks of himself or herself, or what the author thinks, but what the other people in the novel think as well.

You should know how they walk in the world—whether they go first or last through doorways. People give us lots of information by the way they hold themselves, by the way they physically relate to other people and other things. Arrogant? Considerate? Submissive? Shy? Showing how someone enters a room filled with people is a quick and intuitive way of giving us clues to the character’s strengths and weaknesses.

How do they dress? Are they casual or formal dressers; are they self-conscious, aware of where other people look (at them? past them?)

What do they want? The biggest, most convincing aspect of a character is that desire to do something, be something, achieve something—the start of the story has to make that desire important, if not absolutely critical, for the character if not for the world.

Everything that the character encounters has to matter, in large or small measure, because this is the story of a conflict and resolution that altered the world for him or for her. What keeps him from getting what he wants? What will she do to get it? How much do they want what happens to them? Reveal more as you go along, as the setbacks and successes change the aspect of the story, so we see more about the characters as they’re tested.

One thing to remember is not to make your main character just like you—at least not all the time. You can easily sink into a kind of monotony because it won’t challenge you to consider actions outside your own comfort zone. The same rule applies if you’re using incidents from your own experience as you write: the problem is that the story may be constricted by what actually happened. Real life isn’t always a good story; real life is sometimes boring and sometimes hard to believe. Use your experiences, but always try to make something different in them right from the start, so your imagination rules the story, rather than your memory.

Learn more about this author, PocketPen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.