Character Creation
Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I’d like to talk about character creation – why it’s so important and how I personally go about creating memorable, fully realized, and realistic characters regardless of the genre story I’m writing.
Without characters a story is nothing but setting. Characters, their desires, their flaws, their fears, their conflicts with each other, all drive the story forward. Characters are plot. Characters are not subservient to the plot, they create the plot by the very nature of their being. Plot could not exist without them and by virtue of them existing, plot should exist.
So how do you start? How do you create a character that people will want to follow for one short story or a whole series of novels? I wish there was an easy answer to this question, but the truth is, it takes a lot of work, a lot of trial and error, practice and most of all, listening and watching. We are all surrounded by people every day and these can and should be your inspiration for your characters. Am I saying you should create characters based off of people you know? Absolutely not. But it’s okay to take a quirk from one person, a pattern of speech from another, a fear from a third, and so forth and so on until you have someone completely unique but also very very real.
If you’re interested in falling in love with a whole cast of richly drawn characters, then look no further: Hungry is the Night is now available for preorder on all major ebook platforms! Visit the link here to order your copy in advance and, if you send a copy of your receipt to rsjromance@gmail.com, I will send you back an exclusive excerpt of the book! Three full chapters of wolfy goodness for you to enjoy!