What do you mean my characters aren't real?
Saturday, January 30, 2010
When you're in the middle of a draft or very intense editing, and while you're getting a cup of tea for your first break in three hours, do you ever think to yourself, 'I wonder what [insert character's name here] is up to.'?
Then you realise that that person is in fact a figment of your imagination. And you feel like a bit of a loser but it's okay because all artistic types are like this, at least you think so, in order to stop yourself from coming to the conclusion that you're actually crazy.
So, let's get to the point, shall we?
Do you have any idea where your book characters come from?
Before you start writing, do you sit down with a baby naming book and a hat filled with physical traits on little slips of paper, and compile a character like that?
Or do you already have some ideas - a name and a certain ability for them swimming up from the darkness of your subconscious - and you just have to fill in some blanks?
Do you sit down and write and they just occur naturally?
Or do you base them off real people, or yourself?
How do you create well-rounded book characters?