Character Developments

            In my opinion, the most important part of a book is its characters. It doesn't matter how good the story is; if the characters are too flat, too perfect or too unbelievable, no one will want to read it. Consequently, a lot of work needs to go into creating a character.

            Every time I introduce a new character (at least, one I feel is important enough to name), I pause in my writing to come up with some background information for them. Sometimes it’s just a few sentences describing what they look like and how they act, often I add in a bit of history to explain their personality and where they came from and, every so often, I go into great detail about their history – sometimes tying their ancestry into the history I've written or even panning a book surrounding them. Then I go back to my book and continue writing.

            This is where it gets complicated and even a little weird. You see, that first little bit of writing was just the start of the character. They are then born in my mind and developed further and further as they are written. In fact, it gets to a point where they take on a life of their own. They seem to gain the ability to think for themselves and, as their writer, I feel like I become a tool for telling their stories. I can’t count the times that my characters have surprised me with things they've said or done! Or the times they've done things I specifically wanted them not to (probably just to spite me).

            Needless to say, because of how lifelike characters can become, authors can get very attached to them. It’s a bit like raising children, really. You want what’s best for them and want to teach them not to make all the mistakes you know they’re going to, but you know you need to let them go ahead with it so they’ll learn. It becomes hard, sometimes, to put them through all the trials and torments that make a good story, but it has to be done because otherwise there’s no story to be told.

            The worst thing is when you have to kill off a character. It is extremely difficult to do, but often a necessity. Even a minor character has to have enough effort put into them that their death will have meaning to the readers, which means the author has to have a deep connection with them. The result is feeling like you've just killed a good friend.

            Personally, I find it fascinating that a fictional character – a figment of my imagination! – can become so incredibly real. It’s almost as if sections of my brain take on the role of these characters, telling me how they’d act and why. That’s the only explanation I can find for how this phenomenon occurs. Either that or I'm just crazy. Then again, I've heard so many other authors say the same thing that I can’t be that crazy.

            If nothing else, learning about this has made me rethink how mad I used to get at authors for killing off characters I liked. I realize now that those characters were just living out their own lives and their deaths probably were harder for their authors than for me. Unless, of course, those authors were sadistic psychopaths....

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.