Depending on your writing style, you may know every detail of your character's personality, appearance, tastes, and life story, or you maybe the author who has no idea what will happen next or why it happens.
When I write, I intimately know my characters, I understand them, and 'care' about them. I care, inasmuch as one can care about fictional characters fabricated with imagination and produced with black squiggles on a screen. But as to my novel, I'll view my characters, and their story spins in my mind, then I write out what happened! Occasionally, what I write is a surprise to me too! It is always so amazing to watch the story unfold.
Maybe you are the same, and you don't know what happens till it's written down.
Or, maybe you are the type that has a storyline, plot, and characters all set up in a neat and tidy outline. (Go you!!)
Either way, there are a few things about building a character that may help you to create a more realistic, personable, and influential character.
Fredericka is our character today. She only has a first name right now.
How old is she?
Where is she from?
How does she think?
Is she friendly or cold?
What is her last name?
What does she look like?
Does she have an accent?
What are her likes/dislikes?
What are her persnickety tendencies?
What does she believe about the things around her?
What is her nationality, how does that impact her character?
Is she a messy person or highly organized, or a happy medium?
If we answer all these questions about Fredericka, you would know her a lot better. If you are a slightly (or highly) visual person, you could see her in your mind's eye. If you are a more kinesthetic person, maybe you can believe it more, because you can feel how real her persona is.
Either way, build your character with this in mind:
- what you need to get across,
- what your readers want to know,
But not, too many irrelevant details, or too many details to side track the story.
Think about it this way. You need to know your character, and your readers needs to know your character, so tell your readers what they need to know.
Now, you don't need to write all a character's details out as a single description of the person, you can use eye witnesses of that person to solidify the characteristics. Eye witnesses make a character undeniable.
I John 1:1-3
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us - that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."
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