Sitting down with your character

[John Dean]

Getting to know your characters before you begin to write your story is critical. If you don’t know much about them at the outset, you’ll struggle to bring them to life on the printed page.

So here’s a tip - spend some time living with them, at least in your imagination  - how would they react to the situation in which you find yourself? How would they react to a jobsworth or excessive bureaucracy, to someone making a bad joke etc?

Once you know them better, creating them on the page will be easier so why not also sit down with a pencil and plenty of paper (remember them?) and sketch them out, trait by trait? Cheery or grouchy? Generous of spirit or grudging? Determined or weak-willed?

As you live with them/jot down their characteristics, a remarkable thing will happen; they’ll start to assume their own personality and point you in the right direction. Then, as you start to write, they’ll help the story evolve – all on their own. All you have to do is type!