Bring Characters To Life

Author: Arline Chandler

"Everything that happens in your story springs from character action and reaction…plots are not possible without characters,” wrote Lee Wyndman, author of Writing for Children and Teenagers. A solid plot and strong characters are intertwined in a good story. Therefore, writers often have a dilemma: make up a plot or create characters and fit them into the story.

While one should begin with a story idea and a main character, Robert Peck, author of Fiction is Folks, wrote that believable characters make a story sparkle.

Sketch Your Character

He suggests that you sketch your character with every fact that comes to mind—age, birthday, height, color of hair and eyes, hometown, father’s name, mother’s name, number of siblings, pets, favorite friends, and worst enemies.

Describe Your Character

Next, expand your character to list his or her personality traits. "Is she shy?", "Does he talk constantly and never meet a stranger?", "What kinds of sports capture her interest?", "Who is influential in his or her life?", " What is her favorite style of dress?", etc.

Obviously, you will not use all this information in your story, but the intimate information you create about a character will shine through—even if you only write a brief text.

Write An Action Scene

When you have developed a good physical picture of your character, then and only then, write a scene placing him or her in action—or in contemplation. Get inside your character’s head. How would he react to a bully? What makes her cry or mad? What is his biggest fear? How does she like to spend a Saturday morning?

Surround your character with tangible things that tell more about her—a favorite toy horse, a treasure from his grandpa, a music box, a cuddly blanket. Use whatever brings the character to life and makes him walk, talk, and breathe. And remember not to make your character perfect. Give her strong points, but also a few flaws.

Give Your Character Importance

Next, assign your character an element of great importance. For example, does he live and breathe for baseball? Does she long for the attention of her mother? Or perhaps, long for a dad who is no longer present?

In a sketch I wrote of Jason, I used action verbs to paint a word picture of this active child. Notice how I avoided telling descriptions.

Jason bolted through the door of the kindergarten classroom bobbing like a smiley-faced yo-yo on the end of his mother’s hand. Dark brown eyes spoke mischief from beneath a row of sun-bleached, shaggy bangs. He raced around the room as though a motor inside his body propelled him. Two skinny, sun-tanned legs with scratches like tic-tac-toe marks stretched out of navy blue jogging shorts as he crawled on his stomach under the table to the chair the teacher assigned him. He bounced up and down like a rubber ball, drawing giggles from his classmates.

Jason skipped to the book center. He grabbed one end of a book that Blake held. They tugged on opposite ends until Jason gave a big jerk and won the battle. He banged Blake’s head with the book and reasoned aloud that he had finished looking at the book. No one should look at a book twice.

Do you see Jason? Once, after reading about Jason, a colleague said, “I know this child! He was in my class.

Yet, just as important as the protagonist (the main character) is, so are the supporting characters. So don’t slack on the development of the secondary characters. Get to know them—and bring them to life, too!