Well created characters are crucial to the success of any creative writing piece, regardless of the length of the piece.
It doesn't matter if the piece of writing you are creating is a short story, a competition piece or a full blown novel, the characters within the writing need to be well constructed if the fiction is going to 'work' successfully.
Crating characters is notoriously difficult.
Well, let me re-phrase that! Creating strong, believable characters is notoriously difficult! Perfecting the lead characters within your writing is often the task that takes the longest amount of time and causes the greatest amount of frustration to writers.
You might have a fantastic plot, your use of descriptive language may be well refined, but if your lead characters are flat, then the entire fiction piece will in turn feel flat.
There are techniques that you can employ to help ease the process of creating characters however.
Almost all writers will have their own preferences as to how they go about creating and developing characters.
Thus the list below acts as a source of ideas as opposed to strict guidelines on how to build successful characters into your short stories, novellas or novels.
- Create a biography and a CV for your character.
Where do they live? How old are they? What does their academic background look like? What does their career history look like? What are their hobbies? What are their successes? How was their childhood? Who do they socialise with? What is their relationship like with their family members and why is it like that? What important events have shaped their lives to date? - Build their family tree.
Write down important facts about their family members - Understand the character's personality.
No one is purely good or purely bad.
We all do things that can be classified as 'good' and things that can be classified as 'bad'.
Generally our decision to act in a certain way is fuelled by past events or teachings that we've received or witnessed before - and these influences aren't always obvious or known to others.
But as the creator of the character you need to ensure that you do know why a character acts or responds in a certain way, in all scenarios.
- Visualise the character.
Make sure you know in detail what the character looks like.
- Think about their mannerisms.
How does the character sit? How do they speak? What does their laugh sound like? Do they use their hands when talking etc?
It doesn't matter if the piece of writing you are creating is a short story, a competition piece or a full blown novel, the characters within the writing need to be well constructed if the fiction is going to 'work' successfully.
Crating characters is notoriously difficult.
Well, let me re-phrase that! Creating strong, believable characters is notoriously difficult! Perfecting the lead characters within your writing is often the task that takes the longest amount of time and causes the greatest amount of frustration to writers.
You might have a fantastic plot, your use of descriptive language may be well refined, but if your lead characters are flat, then the entire fiction piece will in turn feel flat.
There are techniques that you can employ to help ease the process of creating characters however.
Almost all writers will have their own preferences as to how they go about creating and developing characters.
Thus the list below acts as a source of ideas as opposed to strict guidelines on how to build successful characters into your short stories, novellas or novels.
- Create a biography and a CV for your character.
Where do they live? How old are they? What does their academic background look like? What does their career history look like? What are their hobbies? What are their successes? How was their childhood? Who do they socialise with? What is their relationship like with their family members and why is it like that? What important events have shaped their lives to date? - Build their family tree.
Write down important facts about their family members - Understand the character's personality.
No one is purely good or purely bad.
We all do things that can be classified as 'good' and things that can be classified as 'bad'.
Generally our decision to act in a certain way is fuelled by past events or teachings that we've received or witnessed before - and these influences aren't always obvious or known to others.
But as the creator of the character you need to ensure that you do know why a character acts or responds in a certain way, in all scenarios.
- Visualise the character.
Make sure you know in detail what the character looks like.
- Think about their mannerisms.
How does the character sit? How do they speak? What does their laugh sound like? Do they use their hands when talking etc?
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