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Relationships between readers and characters exist when authors do well in telling their stories.
When characters become real to the reader, they are often not forgotten and, what started out as one book, could turn into a series. Also, the possibility exists of taking a story from a book turning it into a movie. When characters are strong enough that they seem real, the possibilities are endless.

However, there are a number of steps an author must take when creating characters that readers will remember:

POINT OF VIEW
As an author, select your viewpoint and stick with it. It can be first person, third person, or omniscient but, whatever you choose, be consistent. Shifting view points will confuse readers because they won't recognize who is speaking. The narrator, or person telling the story, must remain the same.

SETTING
If your setting is in Pluto, readers won't usually grasp your story, nor your characters, as they would if your setting was based in Hawaii. Readers settle for the familiar and, if they can't understand the environment being portrayed, they can't fully understand the atmosphere, plot, and conflicts characters may have to go through within the story. As a result, the characters haven't lived outside the imagination of the author.

PLOT
When characters sit around in a room all day with nothing happening, it will bore readers. However, when action and suspense are parts of the plot, the story will gain momentum and the characters' actions and reactions will carry the story along. Whether or not readers agree with everything characters do, the characters will stand out in their minds.

ATMOSPHERE
When moods are set within a story, characters stand out. Readers have glimpses into the characters' thoughts and feelings and wonder what will happen next - what choices the characters will make given a certain set of circumstances. Atmosphere helps carry the story forward, as much as a good plot. Readers like to feel what characters feel; they like to pretend they are in the characters' shoes and, without an atmosphere, how would readers truly understand the characters they are reading about?

CONFLICT
Internal, external, interpersonal - whatever types of conflict present themselves, these are the events which make or break characters. When characters are experiencing conflict, readers get to know the strengths and weaknesses associated with those characters. When characters come through as strong individuals, whether through making right choices or through falling down and continuing to stand, characters get the respect of the readers and, often, those characters will stay in the readers' minds for a long time.

Readers identify most with conflict in a story because all readers have some level of conflict in their lives. They are struggling in one way or another. Sometimes, though a character is fictional, the character may point readers in the direction of solving their own problems. At this point, we know the author has succeeded.

Learn more about this author, Norma Budden.
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