WRITING: An ability to understand and forgive humanity is essential in any author. Some of the best authors write themselves over and over again, and at once condemn and forgive themselves. Some of our most re (...)

What is required for a character to be believable? How do you create yours?

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An ability to understand and forgive humanity is essential in any author. Some of the best authors write themselves over and over again, and at once condemn and forgive themselves. Some of our most revered and favorite authors - Kurt Vonnegut, Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemmingway, J.D. Salinger...

I think there's inevitably going to be ego and self-referential characters in any work of fiction, no matter how hard you try to avoid it. Whether your avatar is the hero or a cameo, it doesn't matter. I think you have to have something genuine, genuine growth, genuine pain, something real. It can be muted by fiction, by different characters or context, but there's something real that has to be sewn into the story. That's what makes writing an art, and that's what makes characters believable.