Are they consistent? Do they develop? Do you know everything
about them that you should?
The importance of character
It is the tension between our characters that create our
stories anyway. If your characters aren’t right, neither is your story.
Creating empathy
It’s important that the reader can relate to the characters
in a text and usually there is some empathy.
Sometimes a writer may create an unlikeable character but at least that
provokes a reaction in the reader. Also in these instances we are shown why the
character is the way s/he is.
Consistency
For a character to be convincing they must be consistent.
Check for any behaviour or speech that is out of character.
Rounded
Are your characters rounded? Evil characters should have
some redeeming features. Good character should have some flaws. This all helps to make them more
believable.
Development
Our characters must develop.
Look at what they’re like at the beginning of the story and what they’re
like at the end. Is there enough change?
Character knowledge
Your character will work best if you know everything about
them. You don’t have to write huge lists and answer hundreds of questions but
you should certainly think about them a lot. You can get a writing buddy to
fire questions at you about your character. And here’s a challenging experiment:
get your writing buddy to read a passage of your text. Now ask them a question about an aspect of
your character that you know you haven’t mentioned in that passage. Do they get
the answer more or less right? If so, well done. You’ve carried the whole DNA of your
character into that scene. This shows
you know your character really well.
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