Insane Dames

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Who Are Your Characters?

by Sue McKlveen

Tell me about your favorite character of all time in one sentence. What did you include in that sentence? Is it how they look or what they feel? Is it their job or their goal in life? Maybe it's their past and childhood?

Whatever you wrote in that one sentence should include the most important things about that person. You need to know at least the following things:

Name
Physical description:
Job or what they do during the day
Conflict--internal
Conflict--external
Favorite thing to say or do (I have one character who likes to do her nails)
Quirks
Attitude (usually nasty or nice to the point of TOO nice?)
Where do they live?
Anything else? Relatives? Special challenges?

You need to know these basic things for each of your characters, so you'll know how they'll react to the conflicts presented to them. When I write a book, I write these things out as I go, so I'll know the information later on. That way, I won't have a man with blue eyes in the beginning of the book and green eyes at the end of the book. I'll also know their favorite thing to say, if, for example, I don't have a character in a certain scene. That way I don't have to go hunting for information...it's right at my fingertips.

Good luck with this. Your characters are your most important element of a book. Without them, you have no plot, no conflict and no dialogue. So plan them well.

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