by Enisa Haines
I love immersing myself in stories where I'm plunged straight into the midst of action from the first page, where I meet characters that yank at my emotions and, as events unfold, I experience what they experience and feel what they feel.
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Stories like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I lived that story as if it was real. When Claire Randall was hurtled back in time to 1743 Scotland, I tumbled with her. When raiding border clans clashed, I fought alongside Jamie Fraser. As Claire fell more and more in love with Jamie, their love story enthralled me.
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Sometimes I'll pick up a book but it doesn't captivate me. I'm drawn by the plot and the setting but the characters fail to pull at my emotions. I don't care about them, about what they say or do. Instead, I'm disappointed and in frustration I stop reading.
That's a reader reaction no author wants.
So how do you hold a reader's interest?
Learn everything about them and then they'll be real. You will identify with them and care for them. And as you write about them, fleshing them out in your stories, they'll pull the readers in and grab at their emotions.
How do we learn about our characters?
Fill out character charts, listing basic details such as appearance, background, education, career, personality and desires.
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Interview your characters, asking a series of in-depth questions that will bring them to life.
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Get inside the minds of your characters. Put yourself completely into them, feeling what they feel, thinking what they think, seeing what they see. By being a character, getting deep into their point of view, you will show them to readers and they will experience everything the character experiences.
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Characters are the living heart of a story. Know them well, inside and out, and you'll pull readers into your stories, making them feel the emotions the characters feel, making them never want to put the books down.
That's the reader reaction authors want.
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How do you get to know your characters? Do you have a favourite technique?
Love to love: discovering all the different types of characters.
Love to laugh: when a character behaves in a way I don't expect.
Love to learn: what makes people who they are.
Hi, Enisa!
ReplyDeleteGreat article! So many great tips and tools! Thank you.
Personally, to get to know my characters I talk to them...a lot. They're like family to me. I want them to succeed in their lives but like real life "things happen" that keep them from success so like the big sister I am, I talk it out with them.
Hi Dee. Talking to them is great, isn't it? You get lots of information that way. I also think up situations and then visualise how they would react in them. That works too.
DeleteHi Enisa, I love this post. I too love outlander and Jamie and Clare's love story. It is so real... You make some very good points regarding interviewing and getting to know your characters so readers fall in love with them too. I think of my characters as real people - sometimes base different characteristics on friends - so they have many dimensions. I also think if I don't like them then neither will the reader... So I enjoy making the good guys likeable, believable and inspirational... whereas the bad guys are just not nice and really bad.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen. It's wonderful when the characters are so real you imagine you're right there with them, experiencing everything that they are. It's a bonus when the bad guys are realistic too so readers shudder when they read them.
DeleteHi Enisa! Before I can begin a book I have to spend a lot of time getting to know my characters. I examine Enneagrams, the Myers-Briggs personality types and Vogler's character archetypes before filling in character profiles for all my main characters. It takes a while to get to know them but I find the pre-preparation makes it easier for me to write realistic characters.
ReplyDeleteHi, Marilyn. Wow, that's very organised. Before I start a new story, I only a little about my characters. It's as the story progresses and I think about their pasts and their motivations for their actions that I get to know them well and can flesh them out completely.
DeleteHi Enisa. I don't really do a lot of character interviews etc but I usually have at least one of the main characters fairly well rounded in my head. They are usually my spark character - the one that the story will be about. I can picture them in my head and hear how they speak and sometimes even some kind of little querk they might have. I do however, write down a few of these details so I don't change their eye colour half way through. I think doing the interviews and templates is a good idea though, especially if you have a long book or a series in mind.
ReplyDeleteHi Cassandra. I'm like you when it comes to characterisation. I do interviews but only for in-depth questions relating to their pasts and motivations and goals. For me, a character will appear in my head and a story sparks from that visual. I do document the physical characteristics and mannerisms to be consistent as I write.
DeleteHi Enisa, love this. Nothing more exciting than identifying with a character and making him or her your own. Or falling in love with one, or wishing you were that character! Your tips are so helpful, Thankyou!
ReplyDeleteHi Malvina. It's the characters that make books so it's vital to make them like real people readers can identify with and empathise with. Otherwise it's easy to put a book down and forget about it.
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