Creating Characters

As usual, there's about fifty gazillion threads about creating characters and other matters. After much thought, and practice, I've come to the conclusion that it isn't as tough as it's made out to be.

Characters are much like people, they're born, they live and then they die-just like us. Now their birth can be anything from sitting down and planning a character out to suddenly jumping onto the page without warning. My six characters each appeared a different way.

Talia and her three sisters forced themselves into being. She wasn't going to stay in my subconscious any longer and not be seen, so out she came.

Micki was one I thought of when watching 'Starship Operators' and the character Shinon.

Athol, my newest and psychotic character, simply popped into being. I typed up two lines that suddenly appeared in my head, then saved them to come back. When I woke up and started to see where they went, Athol just appeared and, in vintage Athol fashion, cursed me out for making her work so hard.

Now, what's the common denominator in all this? Just like I said before, they are born, live and die all on the pages before you the writer. What makes them real? Their strengths, weaknesses and personality is what brings them to life. Look at each character you have written. What are they like? What is their personality? Are they kind? Cruel? Have a potty mouth?

All of that makes a difference. In fact, just looking at the snippets of the finished Talia novel I'm posting and the ones from the rough draft of my Athol novel show those kind of differences in black and white.

So, when creating characters, let them create themselves! Don't worry about stereotypes or Mary Sues..just write your story.

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