Hey guys! So here we are at the last blog post for a year and a half! I can’t believe that it’s here. I wrote the last page of my manuscript for a year and a half last night and it was one of the saddest moments of my life. I feel like I’m losing a whole universe of people all at once. I hope that you guys enjoyed all of the post that I’ve written up until now and I hope that you will tune back in for more posts when I come back from Europe! So without further ado – here is the last post.
Building Better Characters: The Conclusion
I have departed as much knowledge about characters and how to make them more real as I have. I don’t think there is a whole ton left that I can add to help you build better characters. There are a few last second pieces of advice that I will impart to you and then I will leave you to write the stories that you see in your head.
First, I would say that you need to stay true to your character. When your character has been created, and you have developed them to totality, your character has become a person. A person does things for a reason, they have weird quirks that they keep throughout the duration of a story, and they don’t change their biases very often or very easily. Your character shouldn’t change without a good reason. But that doesn’t mean that your character should remain completely static. If your character doesn’t learn a lesson from the story, then neither will your reader. Your character should change a little bit through the circumstances of the story, but they shouldn’t become a different person completely. Your character should always just be your character.
Second, don’t forget that your character is human too. Your character has emotions. Your character has relationships. Your character is a person. Everyone should be able to find something in your character that they relate too. Humans can relate to human emotions. Humans can relate to human relationships. Even if your character isn’t exactly human your character can be humanesque. Your story is written for humans and so your character should be relatable to human readers.
Lastly, observe the world around you. No one wants to write a character that’s just the same as their last character. This makes for a very boring story. But the writer is just one person. You are one person with one person’s character traits, one person’s quirks, one person’s biases. If you really want to have a character that is unique and its own person you need to observe the world around you. Talk to new people. (I’ll admit I struggle with this one.) Figure out what things those around you do that you find interesting. Makes lists of these things. Use these things. If you use characteristics of different people, then your character can become someone different from you. Observing the world is the only way you can get a perspective like this. So, do it. Sit somewhere, out of your usual route, and people watch. A writer’s inspiration for a new world tends to come from the existing one.
That’s all I’ve got to say on building better characters. I’m really going to miss writing these posts. I’m sure that next Friday I will feel the sudden urge to write a blog post and then get hit with the sudden realization that I can’t. We’ll see if I can survive this trip! I hope that you guys will always keep writing and keep improving. Even if you think you know everything about writing I can promise you that you don’t. There is always something new to learn. So, get to it. And always remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you in a year and a half!