A bridge over a beautiful waterfall

A bridge over a beautiful waterfall
Nature brings magic

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Writing Wednesday - Characters



Let's talk characters for a minute. Characters are vital components of your stories. You can't have a story without a character. Even if you're writing about inanimate objects, that inanimate object becomes the character in the story.

The main thing you need to do is make the character interesting. They don't have to be the good guy, but they have to at least be interesting. If they're not interesting, we won't care what happens to them. If we don't care what happens to them, we're not going to want to read their story.

Give your character flaws. If they're too perfect, they're unbelievable. We want to see that your character is pretty but shallow, or tough but afraid. The more real your character is the more your reader is likely to connect with them. The caveat to this is if you're writing satire or parody. Then you can make your characters as absurd as you like.

George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire is a good example of a character driven story. You become engrossed in the lives of these characters as they live their lives and deal with the political turmoil of the kingdoms as well as the threat of the White Walkers.

So who's your favorite character? What makes them your favorite?

2 comments:

  1. I like flawed characters--especially in romances. Flawed characters allow us a bit more of an escape than the perfect stereotype characters. If you can put yourself a little more in their shoes...you can get out of your reality a bit more.

    My favorite character? That's tough. I've always been drawn to Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird, but I couldn't tell you why.

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