You came up with a terrific story and you are very excited to
tell it, to write it down and let the public read it. But if you don’t have the
right characters to help you tell the story it is liable to fall totally flat.
Boring!
Interview your characters, yes, let them apply for the “job”.
Sit with each character individually and ask them questions: What is the most
important thing in their life? Ask for their favorite quote or poem and what it
means to him/her? What was the most important decision he/she ever made and
what was the outcome? What would they choose in a potential spouse? Ask your
character for a self-description in five words or less. Ask personal questions.
Ask what kind of place he/she would want to live in. Ask anything relevant to
your proposed plot. Unlike a real-world job interview, note what your character
looks and sounds like, get a picture of each in your head. What does this
character do for fun?
Get to know your character before you decide to hire him/her
to play that role. Seriously your characters have to be as enthused about the
story line as you. They may even make a few suggestions for the story… It would
be easy to write someone who has OUR OWN attitudes and experiences but that
would be rather dull. Interesting things happen, just like in real life, when
there are a few differing opinions.
Make sure those characters are just as real to you as you
want your readers to see.
Writing Exercise:
Write down five things that happened to YOU recently, they can be mundane,
frightening, fun, anything. Take your four or five most important characters
and let them react to each of those situations based on WHO he/she is, not how
you reacted.
Writing
Prompt: for each of your main characters write down something he/she would do
when: 1) happy; 2) sad; 3) frightened; 4) surprised; 5) feeling under the
weather; and 6) has something to brag about.
Challenge
Assignment: Choose up to six main characters (but no less than two). For EACH
character write his/her daytime routine from waking up through bedtime, just a
few paragraphs is enough. By the way NO CHEATING, if your character works
nights then the “daytime routine” still goes from waking up through going back
to sleep.
