I work with emotions I have felt. I base fictional situations on ones I have experienced and channel from that.
I think that you can make any character believable if you can see them in your own mind. And since I seem to be a little off in the head I can visualize pretty much anyone or anything as though it was real. In my first book it was easy, it was me. I was an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician who got involved in some contract work that remained secret until just recently so that is where that story and character came from. I also tend to be just this side of crazy and am an outspoken and extreamly logical and direct person but I do try to be positive in that. Most people find humor in what I say or maybe in the way I say it.
The characters have to behave consistently and in keeping with their work, their associates and their personal quirks. I like to put characters in stressful situations and keep them running/guessing to the end of the story. It helps, of course, if the author has a fairly detailed understanding of who and what that character is like in 'real life.' It's tough to maintain your 'suspension of disbelief' as a reader if a character constantly behaves in ways you know are not realistic.
As an author, I certainly make use of my 40+ years in police and wildlife law enforcement ... which has included close contact with a wide range of 'good guys' and 'bad guys' ... to keep my characters believable. Basically, I figure if I'm keeping my law enforcement friends entertained, I must be doing things right as a thriller writer.
I guess a character has to be consistent. It's no use writing a flower power character who out to save the planet and have them driving an SVU and eating at MacDonalds and wearing Jimmy Choos. It just won't work.
I don't create mine - they create themselves. If they're talking to me in my head, I know they're ready to be written.
Consistency, even if the character is inconsistent or irrational, is important to be believable. They have to act in a known and understood framework. As soon as a character does something that I can't accept as a real response to a situation, the author has lost me.
I sit down and write about the character, usually based on a composite of friends. Then I try to understand what they do and don't like to do, and why that's so, and attempt to understand their greatest 'trait'. Once I do that, I don't usually need to revisit the character because I can hear and see them in my head and in the scenes.
A character must have depth. Too many new writers create a story and have the character simply go through the required motions to get through to the end. When I start a story I usually have a general idea in mind, but not the whole thing. As I start writing, the character develops and begins to dictate the twists and turns of the plot. Sometimes I don't know my character until about half-way through. Then I have to go back and re-write the parts that seem "out of character." One criticism I often get is that I don't describe my character's physical characteristics. That's because I don't find that important. If my reader sees Jill with red hair, so be it. Who am I to tell her she has black hair. As long as she doesn't see Jill as an angel when I meant her to be a bitch.
For a character to be believable, they have to be true to life and share the same kind of problems that we all share.
I try to take my characters from those that I know from my own life.
Like Rodgers and Hammerstein said, "Getting to Know You."
The key is to know all about them - how they are human, what makes them tick. I write out just about everything about them, whether that comes out in the story or not. Eventually, it will, through the character's actions and attitude and speech.
Readers are not stupid. They can pick up a phony a million miles away.
I think it's all in the mechanics of the writing. Actually, I like characters who tend to idealize or demonize (in other words, dramatize) human nature. I like to see them as symbols. I often dislike characters who seem "too real." I like to be transported outside reality. A good character must be described with much care to detail, either subtle or direct. This can be accomplished through their actions and speech as opposed to a pure description. Everything we say about our character is important, including the way they walk, talk, dress, think, feel. It's also good to sometimes leave a little mystery about who the character really is. But we, as writers, must fully know our characters in order to bring the soul out to the page. The character must begin to breathe and become an actual living entity. We must know our own character in a personal way. The reader must form a relationship to him/her he won't forget.
I would say a physical description, the setting of the story adds to the credibility of the character. I create mines with inspirations from everyday life. That's as real as it gets.
They must not be one dimensional. At least some characters must develop and change through the novel. Some characters should have traits contrary to their general natures. I do draw up a list of characteristics that I want to weave into each a character I create.
I believe a character, like all of us, needs to be never perfectly good or bad to be believable.
I try to borrow from life with my own imagination interjected
Because I'm writing from bits of my own history or the history of others close to me, my "characters" are quite believable. They are flawed, funny, demonstrative, warm, hurtful, demanding, pretty, loving, silly; they tell the truth, they laugh, they die, they play, they cry, they're smart, they lie, they inflict pain, they work, they are good at some things and dreadful at others, and on and on. Everyone who "appears" in my writing is very human. Once I get them out of my head and onto a page -- they are you and they are me.
My character are very special to me. They are people to me but in the imagintion world. They each have their own personallity. Some times it is hard to let them go once you have grown with them in a story. The end of a story is sad for me because it is the end of the character...
The birth of a character, how do i create mine... Good question.... I always sit and thing what i want this character to look like when i am creating, then it is time to place a personallity with it. Each charactor plays a special part in the story,so they have to be created just right. Almost like an actor when trying out for a part in a movie. |
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