CREATING BELIEVABLE CHARACTERS

Interesting, believable characters, drive a story. Characterization has to coincide with the story line. In other words, developing characters that fit in to your story is important. That is why I tell my students, before a good story is written, spend some time with the character(s).

One suggestion is to build a brief biography of each character. Supplying all pertinent details, name, age, gender, physical descriptions, mannerisms, background info, etc. I have heard of writers starting with a character and learn as they go. I usually start out with a character in mind, after a few words, I have a pretty good idea of who he/she is. Bad traits, good traits, habits. etc., Knowing your character is important as the story itself. In order to understand a character, you need to know something about their heredity and the environment in which they were raised.

With luck, imagination and a bit of dreaming, you will develop convincing fictional characters with a good story to tell.