Imagine your Characters
By Susan
@HazySue (39268)
Gouverneur, New York
December 30, 2015 3:41pm CST
If you are looking to write a book one of the most important thing you need to do is to imagine your characters. If you cannot see them in your mind, people will not be able to see them as real in your book.
Why is this important? To start with, characters who are one dimensional are stiff and boring. If you have boring characters you will lose the reader.
You need to make sure your characters have personalities, likes, dislikes, good and bad personality traits, hobbies, a past, and a present. In other words, they need to be real.
Many people end up using a real person to help develop their characters. You need to be able to picture them in your mind. The way they talk, what the sound like, what they look like.
When they become real to you they will be real (believable) to others.
12 people like this
12 responses
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
30 Dec 15
I see from the perspective of every character I use in my writing, even if they are inhuman monsters, I see from their way of looking at the world. If I get into the minds of all my characters, then they are really alive. As for how their interactions go? It all depends. I find that the world they are in shapes the story.
2 people like this
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
1 Jan 16
@HazySue Only they don't live in my mind. I'm seeing them in their world. My mind is just the connection point to that world. I might change their stories to make it more interesting though.
2 people like this
@OneOfMany (12150)
• United States
1 Jan 16
@HazySue Yes. It's hard to write a story without knowing all your characters. There's no depth to them at that point.
@HazySue (39268)
• Gouverneur, New York
1 Jan 16
@OneOfMany your mind is an amazing thing. I also see my characters as plain as day. I hear them and I listen to them.
1 person likes this
@IreneVincent (15962)
• United States
31 Dec 15
I just published my first novel. And I agree with you 100% about imagining what my characters look like. They are almost real people to me. I made sure that my description of them was accurate according to how I had pictured them in my mind.
My novel can be found on lulu.com under my pen name: Alice Henry
2 people like this
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
1 Jan 16
@IreneVincent well done on getting your book out - I have some on Lulu too
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39268)
• Gouverneur, New York
31 Dec 15
@IreneVincent you understand exactly what I mean. Congratulations on the publication of your first novel. I will be looking it up on lulu.
As long as it is on paper and not just in your head.
@softbabe44 (5816)
• Vancouver, Washington
1 Jan 16
@HazySue And that's if your gonna write a story
2 people like this
@HazySue (39268)
• Gouverneur, New York
31 Dec 15
@softbabe44 it's imperative to make believable characters if you want to be a writer.
2 people like this
@poehere (15123)
• French Polynesia
30 Dec 15
Wow what great advice. I think that is excellent advice and will help out so many people. I like to write but I am not sure I could actually write a book about characters or something like this one. I have 10 books published but they are not ones anyone here would ever look at or buy. Plus they are rather expensive because they are guide to data recovery and how to recover hard drives. Only people in this business would ever look to buy my books. They are also rather long and complicated so this form of writing is very different. Mine has to be more on procedure and steps to take. Where a character dominates the story and you base it around a single person or a few people. That take real talent to do this one.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
1 Jan 16
very true - character is among the toughest challenges for any writer to get right
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (44998)
• Preston, England
5 Jan 16
@HazySue yes they have to be as real to us and the reader as actual people we meet and see in life
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39268)
• Gouverneur, New York
2 Jan 16
@arthurchappell it is because they don't know how to do it. If they become alive in their mind they become real.
1 person likes this
@Carmelanirel2 (8084)
• United States
3 Jan 16
I hope that is true, I started out writing by imagining my characters and putting them into action.
I am so glad to find a fellow writer here, what kind of books do you write? I see you teach ancient history, so I wonder if perhaps you write historical books?
