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to these differences.

Fourth. What is your character's history? Where do they come from? This is very important for you to know, because it will affect how you address the character in your writing. You can choose to give the reader bits and pieces of history as the story unfolds, to hold their attention. By doing this, you are slowly unfolding the complexity of the character. Again, I would encourage you to write out a biography of each character, with as much historical detail as possible. You could even choose to speak it into a tape recorder. The exercise itself is what will improve your writing, and make your characters more varied and specific.

Fifth. How does your character react in a given situation? By presenting varied situations and allowing your character to react according to his or her personality and background, you are giving variance to your character. Don't rush through this step, think about how Carrie might react if she lost her job. Sure, loosing a job is a devastating thing, however every single person in the world will react in a different way.

Sixth. How does your character relate to others. Carefully watching and crafting how all your characters relate to each other will add depth and specificity to your writing. Carrie might like Paul, and joke around with him a lot out of affection and familiarity. However, she may be intimidated by Sarah, and mostly stay quiet with her head down, when Sarah is around.

Seventh. This is my favorite. How does your character speak, what is his or her voice? What words does he or she use? This is where you have to be very careful, don't let every character talk like you. There are many ways to differentiate voice; sentence structure, vocabulary, dialect, and descriptive words; are just a few. For instance, one character may have a southern accent, and mumble while he speaks. Another may have a very huge vocabulary and speak in a monotone. And, another may be from a foreign country, speak very loudly, but mix up the sentence structure in translation.

Have fun while you write, but be diligent. It is your responsibility as a writer to entertain and inform. In doing this you want to create recognizable characters. Take time to flesh out each character for your own sake, as well as the reader's.

Learn more about this author, Caroline Ross.
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