Who are your Characters?

What is a story without characters? Whether you use real people, animals, fantasy characters, or anything else, the character is always the center of attention. The best way to kill a story is by not knowing your characters.

It might seem at first that the plot and conflicts within the story are the most important part. Yes, they are important to the story, but what’s more important is that you know your characters.

When you start writing a story, you probably get really excited about your story. The twists and turns you’re going to sneak in as well as the shocking turnaround get you so excited that you can’t help but jump right into it without much background knowledge.

You’ve finished writing and, while rereading, you realize that your characters change throughout the story. Of course, characters should change, but that’s not the change that occurs. You notice inconsistencies, from the obvious such as their hair color, to the not-so-obvious, like their tendency to be obnoxious in the beginning to suddenly being an introvert.

Before you dive in, you need to research your character. It’s almost like you have to write their story first. Describe everything about them including physical description, family, living space, background, and personal characteristics including habits, emotions, etc. You need to know them like they are your best friend.

A great idea to develop a background for them is to pretend you are them. Someone asks you to describe yourself. Write a short little autobiography.

Do this for each character. Spend more time on the main characters, but make sure you have a little something about each smaller character, too.

Once you know your characters, you will find that your writing goes much more smoothly. You don’t have to keep searching through your story for a quick fact, all you have to do is review your character description.

Also, when you know your characters well, you will be able to use them more effectively. You can teach them, change them, fix flaws throughout your story, and really use them to make your story more meaningful.

You know you really know your characters when you feel like they’re your best friends and you start to feel a little sad when the story is over. Don’t be sad, feel confident that you’ve produced something great and that because you knew your characters well, you’re story is truly a work of art!

Back to Structure and Technique Homepage