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Creating Characters

This document provides tips for inventing and developing fictional characters. It suggests various methods for creating characters, such as observing people in real life or using random names, and emphasizes the importance of writing detailed character profiles to understand them better. The document warns against overwhelming readers with excessive background information and encourages writers to stay true to their characters' nature throughout the story.

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Gurinder Singh
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17 views1 page

Creating Characters

This document provides tips for inventing and developing fictional characters. It suggests various methods for creating characters, such as observing people in real life or using random names, and emphasizes the importance of writing detailed character profiles to understand them better. The document warns against overwhelming readers with excessive background information and encourages writers to stay true to their characters' nature throughout the story.

Uploaded by

Gurinder Singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Fiction writing tips - Inventing your characters

Where do fictional characters come from? Does the stork bring them; do they grow in
cabbage patches? Both seem like possibilities, since story characters can pop up just
about everywhere else.

Some places to start:

 Someone you see on the street or in the supermarket. Imagine a life for this
person, and you've got a fictional character.
 Take a picture of a person in a magazine. Invent a name for him or her, a
personality, hopes and fears, annoying habits.
 Open the phone book to a random name. Let's say you come up with "B.
Goulding." What might the "B." stand for? Write down the first thing that comes to
mind; for example, Bertha. When you imagine someone named Bertha Goulding,
what mental picture occurs to you? I see someone tall and fat, maybe sixty years
old, with black curly hair and red lipstick. Turn the name you've chosen into a
fictional character.

Fiction writing tips - Getting to know your characters

To convince readers that your character is a real person, the first step is to convince
yourself.

The writer Patricia Highsmith confessed to being a little bit in love with her own
character, Tom Ripley. When I read Ripley's Game, I admit I became quite fond of him
myself, possibly something to worry about since the character is both a sociopath and a
killer.

Writing character profiles is a great way to get to know your characters so that they start
to come to life for you. Make notes for yourself on the character's appearance,
personality, history, current situation, close relationships, hopes and fears. Some writers
have a list of questions that they answer about each character.

A warning

Don't try to stuff all this information into your story. You don't want to overwhelm your
readers with a complete background file on your character. The idea is to develop a deep
knowledge of your character yourself. Then you can use this knowledge to shape your
story and let readers get to know your character in a gradual way.

As you are writing your story, every time you put your character into a situation, ask
yourself, "What would he or she do? How would he or she do it? What would happen
next?" Then trust the answers. Never try to force a character to do act in a way that's not
natural for that character. If you cheat, your readers will know it. The character or the
story will feel false.

But if you do things right, your deep knowledge of your character will be transmitted to
your readers, who will feel like they're reading about a real person.

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/fiction-writing-tips.html

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