“The Secret of Creating Characters Out of Thin Air! --An Expert's How to Write a Book Step-by-Step Guide”
Here's how to tap into a non-stop supply of characters all waiting and lined up, begging to be part of your book. And you already know each one so well they're really old friends even before you start!
by Steve Manning
One of the most intriguing elements in the creation of a novel is the character creation that takes place. You want your characters to be life like, real people, three dimensional. Within a matter of a few paragraphs you want your readers to know these people. And to see them as individuals with lives as they are.
There are several easy ways to do this. These techniques don't involve a lot of time, or a lot of effort. But the results are fascinating, because you instantly create characters who are alive on the page.
The first technique in is to use people you already know. Friends of yours, acquaintances, individuals who you have already met. The more you know about these folks, the more of a treat that will be on the page. You know them. You know how they will act in different circumstances. So what they do and how they do it is virtually out of your hands.
Think about a character you have in your book. And now substitute for that character one of your friends. Initially, you will want them to have only broadly similar characteristics. If you need a smart character, pick a smart friend. If you need a very relaxed and laid back character, find someone similar in your own personal history.
It's unlikely any friend of your friends will be an exact replacement for a character in your book. That's because the characters in your book will be slightly more nasty than the people you have as friends. Or they may be more ambitious, or more lustful, or, frankly, a little less intelligent than most of the people you hang around with.
But these are all nuances you can change as you go through the book. Remember, you want to change names, descriptions, and anything else that might overtly connect your real-life friend with the character in your book. That's particularly important if the character you are trying to portray is a particularly nasty person or criminal.
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If you're writing a book about your life and you want to include characters from your past, real-life people, who may not have been very nice, tread carefully. I don't want you running afoul of libel laws.
One other excellent source of characters are the characters you'll see and grow fond of on television programs. These characters already have personality characteristics that are larger than life. Again, change names and descriptions, perhaps even genders, but have that person in mind when they are involved in the story. Here again, if you're a big fan of the television program, you already know how they will react, what they will say, or what they will do in any given situation.
To a lesser extent, you can do this with movie characters as well. But with the exception of movies with sequels, you are not as likely to know as much about a character from a movie as you otherwise would.
Sometimes in your story you'll want your character to do something you're real world character would not do. We have two choices: force the situation, or head off in a direction that's more comfortable for your real world character. I suggest the former rather than the latter because you and I both know you already have a story outline and you can't afford the time or the effort to let characters run off and do what they want.
There is a saying you'll frequently hear from authors, "the characters practically wrote the book themselves." That's really not what you want. Change the personality qualities of your characters to match the story rather than the other way around.
What you want to avoid is the laborious task of creating your characters from scratch: where were they born, how did they grow up, what events most affected their life, and what qualities both good and bad do they exhibited most often. Creating a character profile like this could take you forever. It's a lot easier to have all that information already in your mind.
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