by Simon Rose, Contributing Editor (this post is an excerpt from Simon’s book The Children’s Writer’s Guide 2)
Let’s imagine that you’ve thought of a great premise for a story and even crafted a general plot.
You then need to develop some characters to inhabit the world you’re intending to create.
So where do ideas for characters come from?
How do successful authors invent people for their stories, those imaginary men, women, children, and even animals that are a perfect fit for the story?
Finding Characters
Let’s be honest, ideas for characters can come from just about anywhere – on the train, street, plane, TV, movies, pictures and photographs, historical figures, or they can even be a composite of different people such as friends, family, neighbours, or work colleagues.
However, if you’ve described a person in terms of their height, weight, general body type, hair and eye colour, age and clothing, this isn’t really creating a character.
All you have are the mere basics without any real meaning.
This might as well be a life-size cardboard cutout rather than a character who appears to be a real person.
Characters have to come alive so the reader will identify with them.
It also helps if the character is grounded in reality and has friends and family, pets, homework, annoying siblings, parents and grandparents, likes and dislikes, and so on.
The people in the story might embark on extraordinary adventures but if they have an ordinary life it makes them more plausible to the reader.
Harry Potter’s school at Hogwarts may not be like the kind of educational institution that most kids attend but the author made Harry a less than perfect student who struggles in certain classes.
Most children don’t attend boarding schools where they only go home in the winter or summer holidays and they certainly aren’t educated in the ways of magic.
Yet Harry’s struggles make him more authentic as a character.
The best writers create characters you instantly feel you’d recognize on the street if they came to life.
Think of the characters you’re familiar with from movies to determine how good a job the author did when these characters.
If we consider Harry Potter again, was your impression of the character’s appearance the same before the movies as it was when you saw the actors portraying them?
Learn more about The Children’s Writer’s Guide 2 and all Simon’s other books on his website at https://simon-rose.com/.
Simon also offers a variety of coaching services for writers and his Writing for Children and Young Adults online course.
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