When to write a Character

When to write a Character.

Writing can be about anyone or anything. The subject matter is up to the writer’s discretion. We all wonder about what we want to write about and who it involves. It is only natural. As stated in the last blog, any story can be about anything. Thus too, are the characters that inhabit the text and pages that fill out the story within it.

Though, where is the fun in writing without getting to know the characters you create? You could be personal, consider them your children, and craft them with care as you mold them within their narrative or path. A fan that is cheering them on and giving them everything they can to grow and develop within the trials they face. Then again, they could be fact mixed with fiction as they are based on real people, events, or concepts. Remember that the characters you create need to be something you care about and feel alive. If they don’t, then you and your reader will not either. Leading to no emotional attachment or interest. They will stop and not continue with you or the character in their journey. Step back, ask yourself why you care about the people you surround yourself with, and incorporate that feeling or sentiment into your story.

Let’s discuss when a character needs to be made. It can be at any stage of the writing process. Simple, right? You need to be motivated and care. We already discussed this part, but it is best to design your characters before or as you write the current chapter. Some people write it all out in a rough draft and then come back with the written sketch work to clean up the description and dialogue. Although many of us wish for perfection in our work, you will find that hard to be. As we are humans with either complicated or simplistic thoughts, so will it reflect our characters’ imperfections. This concept will make the characters more believable and natural as we all get to know them.

Thus, we need to think about the growth and development of the character. They could have various moments or interactions within the story or a single throwaway line. The interactions they build off one another will also express the story’s progress and the reader’s interest. The reader’s growth can be the same growth sought after for character growth. Ask yourself who the character and audience of a textbook are.

We struggle in life, and so too, do the characters of our story. They don’t have to always wallow in misery or fall into a Greek tragedy, but the world can’t be good times forever, or no development can build up when there is no progress and no change; the story and characters within will be stuck in a quagmire, unable to move. We need them to move as an example for all of us to move.

In the end, the characters we create become the teachers for us to teach with and be taught to. They are the example, and the readers are the students that learn from them. What the learner gets out of their lives is up to them, not the teacher. So is a life that we create upon the pages. Create characters whenever you desire.