Writers' Wednesday ~ Creating Captivating Characters

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What is the #1 "bookhook" that keeps your you reading page after page📖? Makes the story come alive for you? Makes it UNPUTDOWNABLE?

Source: Wikimedia Commons,
 Dutch Painter Gerard Dou   

Is it the storyline?

The setting?

While these are important components to any great story, they are nothing without the characters that inhabit your imaginary world.
A fantastic plot falls flat if you are not invested in the main character. You have to care what happens to him until the last page. And, hopefully, will linger in the mind of the reader for a long time afterward.

How do you create such captivating characters?

1. Create a "backstory" for your main character.
2. Learn more about human behavior and psychology.
3. Imagine how your character would act in given situations.

Creating a Backstory for your Main Character:

Years ago, several women and I formed a writing group at the library where I worked at the time. This was one of the writing exercises that my cohort gave us one evening. 

She explained afterwards that most likely your reader will not read most of the backstory you create. It is like you are creating a full-fledged person who will think, act, talk, make decisions, and just live life based on the background you give them.

This is how we humans live our real lives. So, no matter what fictional world you create around this character, they will most likely behave a certain way because of what is contained in their backstory.

One of the best templates I have discovered for creating backstory can be found at How to Create a Character Profile: the Ultimate Guide. It is very thorough, and will make you think. But, by the end, you should know your character better than you know yourself! Lol

Learn more about human behavior and psychology:

A good friend of mine, Sandy James (sandyjames.com), is an award-winning author and a high school psychology teacher. In a writers' workshop with my past writing group, she has said that her psychology background has helped her tremendously with character development.

The more she understood human behavior, the more she could get into the minds of her characters. She had a better understanding of how they might react to any situation, and how others might react to them.

Imagine how your character would act in given situations:

If you have created a fairly thorough backstory for you character, and have a good understanding of psychology and human behavior, you are ready for the last step.

You know how children like to play the "What If" game? For example, they will constantly think about what would happen if two superheroes used their superpowers on each other, who would win, etc. Come to think of it, I have seen the guys on "Big Bang Theory" do this!! Lol

Same concept! Try to imagine how your character would act in any situation that you can imagine. You have been in his world while creating him, now it is time to put him in your fictional world and storyline.

By following these steps, you already know how he will act, and the story will just flow from your fingers!

Happy writing!!!!    📑🖊📑🖊📑🖊📑🖊