54 of 72

Write now Article Tools

Here are four ways to bring depth and interest to the characters that fill your fiction writing.

1. Background
Know all the details of your character's life- what they had for breakfast as a child, what size their underwear is, how they react to every kind of stress. Write something about the same character each day for a week, a paragraph or two on likes, dislikes, or small scenes from their life outside your main story. None of this may go into your story per se, but if you read it, and amend it for inconsistencies, it will help you to understand your character's motivations and ways of dealing with the world. Especially helpful is to write some pages on everything that happens to a character the week before your story begins. In this way, you'll have a great grip on that person, from the cleanliness of their refrigerator (if they have one!) to how many cappuccinos, with cinnamon syrup, they bought at Starbucks.

Knowing and understanding your characters as themselves, rather than just as agents to carry out the actions you require from them, will help you more than anything else to make them interesting, realistic and lively.

2. Research
This is another way to get at the background of a story person. Even for characters that live in a fantasy land, there are realities to be explored; live in your characters' worlds awhile, as much as you can. Experience some of the hardships, habits and delights of your people- you'll learn what works and what doesn't, what aspects of their daily life you may have missed.
If your protagonist is an architect, read up on that: read articles on the latest trends in trade publications, read a few biographies of famous architects and books about their works, even ask a professor at a local school that offers an architectural program if you can sit in for one or two lecture classes, and don't hesitate to observe your classmates and the details of their behavior. Likewise, if your main character hangs out in coffee shops for 6 hours at a time, you should put in at least one such stretch. You may be surprised at what you find out about people whose behavior you had thought you understood- and the path of your writing may change, hopefully for the better. Without research, your attempts to characterize anything outside your own limited experience may fall flat; dialog will sound stilted and false, actions will appear illogical or inconsistent, or just unreal. Imagination is a wonderful tool, but it's just one tool in the box.

3. Take

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Breathing life into your fictional characters?
We want to hear your view. Write now!