Life is about People. Likewise, stories are about characters. What the characters do and say, what happens to them and how they react, how they get along with other people; these are the building blocks of your stories.
You, as the writer, tailor-make characters to perform however you choose. Your aim is to create 'real' characters that react in a life-like way to whatever is happening. Making the reader like or dislike the character, or at least be interested in him or her, is your goal.
Just as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, being an ordinary (or extraordinary) character is a matter of opinion. Your character comes alive for the reader when he or she can identify with that character in some way.
How do you create characters?
God has already designed people with their incredibly wide variety of characteristics, both physical and behavioural, so we are not inventing people entirely. Our characters will therefore be 'borrowed' from a mixture of real people, rather than a copy of one particular person.
In fact, you shouldn't try to replicate a real person's total characteristics, because if anyone recognized themselves in a story, or were recognized by others, you could cause legal problems for yourself.
Think about how we get to know a person we have just met. We tend to judge first by appearances; but we quickly form more lasting opinions about that person by how he or she speaks and acts. Aim to get your reader's attention and sympathy for - or annoyance with - your characters as soon as possible.
Here are some ways to create lifelike characters:
Here are some ways to create lifelike characters:
• How does this character act? Actions show what makes a person tick. Does your character kick the dog which gets in its way, or reach over and pat its head? Does she smile or scowl at the child who is crying in the supermarket?
• Consider how your character speaks. This is not referring to their accent, although that can certainly be a characteristic that sets one person apart from others in your story, but their whole speech pattern. We get to know people by how they speak. For example, do you want a character speaking roughly or gently, bossily or kindly, aristocratically or more humbly?
'Actions speak louder than words' so they say, though I think, in a story, their 'volume' may be about equal.
• What does your character look like? Yes, we do judge by appearances, even if we claim not to, so they must be in the story to some degree. Make use of apt descriptions in your story, but don't get carried away. Readers like to know the character's gender and approximate age fairly quickly, but otherwise your character's physical appearance need only be described depending on how important that character is to your story. A major character in a longer story will need a lot more information for us to 'picture' him or her; lesser characters can have brief descriptions.
• Beware of describing fashions unless the story is about a specific time period, or it won't be long before your story is as out-dated as the latest clothing trends.
When you are trying to create a character, try not to describe them like a mannequin in a shop; but show that character saying or doing something; or reacting in some way to a certain circumstance. For example, you could describe a person sitting gloomily in a wheelchair. Or - better - you could reveal that person by showing their reaction to learning that they are not likely to ever get out of that wheelchair again.
As the advice goes: "Show, don't tell."
Janice Gillgren
http://www.wordsandscenes.co.nz.
Writer's blog offering encouragement, inspiration and useful tips for writers of all levels.
http://www.wordsandscenes.co.nz.
Writer's blog offering encouragement, inspiration and useful tips for writers of all levels.
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