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.
I am not sure a character needs to be believable. I have met some unbelievable characters in my time.
The verisimilitude of all the events in characterizaion.
What is required for a character to be believeable is a tough question to answer and I can but say they must be real - they must be slowly described as to the way they move, the way they speak, teh way they dress, etc and they must use language that is real. If you are writing about a bad guy, make him extremely bad - perhaps with not a single redeeming character, but when creating a good guy, he must also have a bit of a bad side to be believeable. My age and life experience gives me somewhat of an edge in creating characters, since I have known or met so many people both good and bad over the years. Mostly, it goes back to having a vived imagination.
I think that characters need to be fallible, and to have flaws to which readers can relate.
When creating my characters, I do my best to make them vulnerable. They make mistakes. They argue with one another. Sometimes they perceive incorrectly or guess wrongly about things. They are often misguided in their personal philosophies. Sometimes they jump to conclusions. They occasionally do things with which the reader probably disagrees. Most importantly, they are never immune to the consequences of their actions, and they don't always win in the end.
First I get a picture in my mind of the individual and what conflicts they face and what they want to achieve. Once I do that, the rest is easy.
Characters who are both good and bad; characters who struggle for truth and the right way of living. Plus, the ability to overcome evil with good.
My characters are real at least in my head. I just meet them and tell you about it.
This is a great question that I am not sure how to answer. It is like a movie, when a character does something that makes you feel, "yeah they would do that." My characters are supposed to tell me what they are doing in the story. When it doesn't ring true, it is because I forced something or tried to be clever.
Truth. Truth. Truth. The most believable characters ever created by any writer since the beginning of time have more than a grain of truth in the basis of the character. (Don't you just LOVE the way Chaucer describes in detail his characters) The character is usually created as an aspect of the author, what they've experienced, and learned, and how they've grown from their own personal experiences OR they are a composite of persons or draw on the characteristics of a person they've met or know. Truth, or basing a character on an actual person (or composite of people) is the only way to create a character. Remember, we are writing about the human condition, about life. How can someone write about something they don't know firsthand, unless you're writing the same way you would for a technical research paper and just spewing out "facts" about your character instead of the "emotion" within and internal and external flaws of your character.
Real emotions, flaws (no one's perfect, after all), unique voice and personality. I don't know that I create my characters - they seem to create themselves. |
99690 interviews created
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS