Hi there and welcome to my first blog post. Read on as I talk on about the wonders of writing and how to improve yourself! Thanks for reading!
Writing is such a unique thing that has so many layers upon layers. Writing can be as intricate as a flower with each petal being some form of it. Writing allows for so much creativity. Writing takes the wonderful thing called imagination and turns it into something amazing to be shared with others.
It is so wide and vast, that for this discussion we are just going to focus on one aspect of writing: character creation. That, in itself, is a huge section of writing. Without characters, you have no story. Characters are the centerpiece of storytelling and it is vital to create memorable and insightful characters.
When creating a character, it can seem overwhelming. There is so much that goes into just person. Personality, looks, attributes, wishes, weaknesses, strengths, feelings thoughts, etc. It certainly can be overwhelming to just think about. You want to make the character memorable, for certain, but not so memorable that they aren't realistic. The characters need to be down to earth as well and relatable. The perfect character doesn't always do what is right. They don't always make the best choices. And they most certainly don't always succeed. They need to fail, they need to make mistakes.
One thing I have noticed in my own short writing experience, is that when you have created a successful character, then they begin to tell the story for themselves. It is almost as if you are just the scribe for them. When making choices, they come alive in your mind and you know exactly what they would do.
But too many times in stories, characters are made sloppily and placed into the story as not as important. As a result, they drag the story down and push people away. People unconsciously connect to the story as they read (I know this from experience) and when you have a person who is unbelievable or perfect in some way, then what is there to connect to?
For example, picture an intricate flower in your mind, any flower. (you will see I like to use nature as examples a lot) Now, picture each petal uniquely and by itself. Feel the texture of the flower in your hand. Smell its fragrance. It's beautiful and unlike any other flower; different even to a flower that is of the same kind.
That intricate flower is a character. Each petal is a part of the person and put together, it makes them who they are. The character is beautiful. It isn't perfect, but it most certainly is amazing. The petals, the pollen, the stem, etc. Every part of the 'flower' or 'character' makes it who it is. It needs all the pieces to be complete.
So the next time you are creating a new character, whether the protagonist or just someone in the background, consider these things. Consider how important they all are to the story.
"Let’s face it, characters are the bedrock of your fiction. Plot is just a series of actions that happen in a sequence, and without someone to either perpetrate or suffer the consequences of those actions, you have no one for your reader to root for, or wish bad things on."
-Icy Sedgwick
