Reflections on Writing - Make your character real

It doesn’t matter if you are writing an illustrated children’s book or multi-part sci-fi novel series. Your characters need to exist. They need a personality. They need a past. Fleshing out your characters ahead of time allows you, as the writer, to get to know your characters intimately. This gives you the ability to understand how your character will react to certain situations and why they make certain decisions. And if, during the development of your book, you decide to add a new character, stop and write a bio on that new character.

These are your characters. Who else is going to know them as intimately as you do? Give them the emotions that they need to deal with the world that you are writing around them. Give them that past that shapes them into who they are today. This allows them to grow within your storytelling. It makes them relatable to you readers. And to you. You will laugh when they laugh. And you will cry when they cry.

The bio is also something that you can refer back to in order to help keep your character, and your book, on track. It aids in the consistency of your writing. Having that relationship with your character is satisfying and makes the storytelling easier. It helps to take the guesswork out of their situation and allows the work to flow naturally. The world in which they live will seem more natural to your readers and they will be able to connect more easily with your characters.

So, take a few moments to develop the backgrounds of your characters. And write about it. And then write some more.