Character creation in stories

With my short story writing, I only have to come up with the basics of a character. With a novel, of which I have published one and have three more in the works, I plan out certain character aspects, and then I do something really weird. I imagine my character in a certain situation, and try to figure out how he/she would respond to it. How he or she reacts develops the personality further. For example, you create a character and choose "honest, good, kind, intelligent" as some traits for them. Put them in a situation that would test these traits, and also bring forth some others, such as a little girl is about to be hit by a moving vehicle - the character is good and kind, but will they jump in front of the girl bravely (but stupidly) and get hit instead, or will they watch in horror, and then feel guilt gripping at their heart for the rest of the story? It can be a surprise sometimes. There are also occasions where I am writing, and as I write a character seems to...behave on their own. I want a certain thing to happen, but somehow the character's personality becomes more and more real, and they do what THEY think is best, rather than what I want. When that happens, the story turns out so much better. I know it's odd. I live in my own head way too much. Regards, Simplicity.

To have a believable caracter we do have to write down the important details, unless we are writing a true story. Characters which play a small part can be created while composing a story because they can then be forgotten. The main characters should be fully developed with no inconsistencies. Having a draft on the character helps because we can see if any additions fit in or not. all the best, rosdimy

Hi Cool....if I were to write it would probably be short stories becasue I like to be spontanous and you can be in short stories more so than novels. I would just make it up as I go along and then do alot of proof reading to make sure it was the way that I intended it to be. flutterby