I haven't created any character as up to date yet but I feel that a character should be created with flaws and not just perfection, probably benchmarked against a real person that the author knows.
I’ll reiterate I like characters that have certain affectations. A specific example is one of my characters likes to fiddle with a chess piece. It's a little nervous habit that makes him a little bit more interesting..
The character has to have real characteristics, real feelings, anything to make it possible to relate to them. I try to envelope myself into the characeter so I can describe the details better.
Authentic dialogue, thought, and actions.
I create characters, for the most part, based on people I know. However, there are times when fully-formed characters kind of pop into my head.
I also think that a character needs to be relateable. Even if he's a secret agent or something, there needs to be something about him that the average person can relate to.
Believable dialog. In my life, I've found that people rarely say what they mean. No one ever comes out and says "I love you" or "I hate you" unless they don't actually mean it. People beat around the bush, hem and haw, and work their way up to what they really want to say, if indeed they ever really say it. I find that my characters are better if I know what it is they want to say and what it is that is preventing them from doing it. Although I can agree with character over another during a discussion, it's wrong for me to make one character's points breathtakingly clever and the other to be at a moron level just because I want the reader to agree with my own personal conclusion. All characters have things that they want and their speech and ideas reflect this. I often find myself talking to myself, taking both sides of the argument that my characters are having, in order to fully understand what they are thinking.
For a character to be believable, it is important to write a profile on that character and any others in your book before you begin to write your story. I covered this a bit before, but the reader must know as much as possible about the character including likes, dislikes, personality traits, habits and so on. Make a complete outline ahead of time and then filter in this very important information through descriptions and more importantly, through conversations where the character can show his or her true colors.
One should think of the main characters at least as three dimensional beings, having been born and matured in a world to be created by the writer. Too many chacters in books by skilled writers are simply two dimensional plot devices. I believe PD James is one writer of the mystery genre who attempts to put flesh and blood on her characters' bones. As I mentioned, in conceiving a story a think for days about my main character, giving him or her a beginning, a mind, an attitude, a detailed past. I may not use much of this in the actual story, but I feel more confidant that I have working for me or with me someone I can almost touch and feel.
Flaws, allot of flaws. Nobody is perfect and nobody will react entirly the same at a situation.
Somebody who reflects real people. Nobody is perfect. I write about ordinary people, not super rich, super fit or famous.
Ordinary characters in unusual situations make an exciting story.
I think on the main character and no one is perfect
I do not use real people at all but use personality types such as the Tribals who are born with defective cultural windows in their minds and react badly to new things, they are built differently to people with fully functional cultural windows in their minds and who are "first with the latest".Tribals are built like big game hunters and sometimes hunt women whom they murder, something needs to be done about identifying Tribals at an early age so they can be monitored by the police.
I also use the previously mentioned manipulative male personalities, Standard feminine cultural creators, project officer women and simple dominator males who all live on a social terrain and make social progress down the social terrain by becoming more direct, more accountable more transparent, more socially responsible and less political and less manipulative under pressure from increasing education.
So I do not use real people at all but illustrate the social situations that the various personalities find themselves.   | | |
A three dimensional character works. In novels, unlike the movies, action does not speak louder than words.
a) It's the reader who makes a character believable;
b) I simply follow the dictates of the character;
Understanding of the Self.
Personal work on vipassana meditation.
Believing in them.
I like to get a photo that can be taken from a magazine or book and this helps me keep a picture of my character's face in my head.
I then do a basic profile - name, birthday, family, school/work, address, likes/dislikes, personality, quirks.
After this I need to get a bit deeper so I interview my character and ask them what their role is in my story and a bit more usually comes out about themselves and a I can start to hear the way the character talks and this is important in making a character real for the reader. |
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