I have an intricate personality matrix where I record all the information about the central characters of my books. Everything from their physical attributes, likes and dislikes, family members, key experiences that have shaped their character etc. All that filters down to become multidimensional characters that are very real.
For me a character to be believable has have been alive.
I bring out more of their character that has been missed or overlooked.
In order for a character to be believable he must have all the human elements. He must have strengths, weaknesses, and they must be incorrporated into the book.
I take a combination of all the people who have been in my life down through the years and weave them into my characters.
Making sure the character reacts as he is supposed to. I used to be in acting and I act out mentally what the person/situation would be/say.
All my characters are inspired by my family, friends and foes. The madder, crazier, the more likely it is that you will turn up in my stories. No one is perfect and it is these flaws when magnified and blown out of proportion especially in humour writing, make the characters more real and lifelike.
In today's world of fantasy & fiction writing, any character is believable; as long as the character fits the story.
I create my characters to fit the setting of the story.
I base my characters on REAL PEOPLE. I attempt to harness their idiosyncrasies and describe them in words that will make the character likeable, or even despised.
In my next novels of "Detective Mike Walsh", the attorney Walsh works for must have been the character played by Joe Pecci in the film "MY COUSIN VINNIE". His Goddaughter, who worked in the office after school, filled the role of Marisa Tomei, who won an Oscar for her performance in the movie. The real FRANK was a native of Brooklyn, who graduated suma cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law.
He is a brilliant attorney, but to look at him, you would think he was just plain inept.
He won far more cases that he lost in a court of law.
Many of the cop and attorney characters in my novels are based on people I have known and worked with. They are REAL PEOPLE. The bad guys, they are real as well.
In order for a character to be believable, the reader has to be able to relate to that character. A believable character, even if they are not human, needs to have human-like qualities. Emotions are a key element of a believable character. The writer needs to be able to convey those emotions to their audience. This can be accomplished at times through dialogue and at times through the character's actions. For the hero/heroine, there needs to be obstacles that the character must face and the character has to fail sometimes. Sometimes the character will overcome, sometimes they won't.
I base my characters off of qualities and characteristics of people that I either know or know about. If it is someone that I only know about, I will research that person until I feel like I know them. By basing characters off of people that I know, I am confident that I am building believable characters because I can honestly relate to them. Of course, I always changes the names to protect the innocent and I never base a character entirely on one person. I like to take qualities, ideals, and belief systems from multiple sources and combine them to make a good character.   | | |
Dialect and movements must be consistent with their personality. A shy person may be more twitchy and unsure of what to do, whereas a strong leader will be the authoritative, go-get-em type.
I try to use the personalities that I observe in my and community.
For a character to be beleiveable, they have to have an interesting personnality. If they have a down-hill personnality, that often changes, it's hard for the readers to grasp the character. Also, of they are to be believable, they have to be able to interact well with the other characters in the story-line. I create my characters, based on aspects of personallities that would well fit the story. If the character fits the story well, it helps the author to meld them into the story.
my characters are real people so for me I don't have to create them because I used someone who has touched my heart and soul and used them as the characters in my story.
For me to make my characters believable, they have to have a life the reader doesn't even know about. All of my characters have back-stories I have created for my own point of reference so I can understand their personality. Once the character has a distinct personality in my own mind and I can see them as a real entity, it makes it easier for me to describe their actions and motives.
I believe that, to make a character believable, they have to have some foundation within the writer's experience.
For instance, I base them on someone that I know. I keep character charts and list height, weight, eye and hair color, skin color, how they like to dress. I think about them and develop them in my mind.
I have a good friend that indulges me, and I discuss the characters with him. We talk as if my creation is actually alive, and therefore, they become alive to me.
We discuss things like: would she do this? How would she react to this? It's quite fun, actually.
A character should not be one dimensional. If they are a weak character, they should at least have some strength. If they're strong, they should be vulnerable in some way. But I think the most important element to creating believable characters is consistency, both in their mannerisms, actions, personal quirks, and dialogue.
For a character to be believable they have to not be perfect. They need to struggle with stuff I struggle with or at least someone I know struggles with. They need to talk like people do. (except I only use clean language)
My husband has many interesting sayings and phrases. I sprinkle some of those throughout my books along with stuff my dad and other aquaintances say that strikes me. |
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