My Characters

As you all know, a few days ago I got Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I cracked it open as soon as it arrived and read till I was finished. It was great, I suggest you all read it. The characters were dynamic and very interesting and were just great. And on top of the characters, the book itself was amazing!

Developing your characters can be daunting and challenging but if your characters are no good then your story is more than likely going to be no good. And you may think oh she's only twenty and still in college so what the hell would she know about developing characters and writing them. But I can tell you that I am an avid reader and like to really get to know my characters so the author really needs to know them.

I started writing my first novel a few months ago and let me tell you, I knew everything about my characters and their lives and how they were going to end up before I even started writing. There are many different ways to develop a character: through dialogue, through their actions, the way they carry themselves, etc. I will admit right now I am not very good at detail and it is something I really need to work at, but what I am really good at is dialogue so that is mainly how I develop my characters, by the things that they say. And I try to throw in a little detail and action to help accentuate them.

I also think that a name is very important to a character, not necessarily what you name them or how you choose their name, but just making sure their name fits who they are. The way I choose a characters name is simple, if I like a certain name I will give it to a character. Sometimes that means that my characters develop around their name and sometimes that means that I have a character and because they act a certain way I give them a name I think fits and I have to like it. I chose Malia for the main female character of my book and had a whole personality for her and I could see her so clearly in my head. She was sweet and caring but also independent. Shortly after starting my book, I fell in love with the name Blair and thought that my main female character had to be named Blair, so I switched it from Malia to Blair, but as soon as I did that, my character and her personality disappeared from my head and I had no idea who my character was. So I thought about it a lot and wondered if I should change her name back or change it to something different. My final decision was to name her Jaden because her eyes were green. As soon as I decided to name her Jaden I could once again see her very clearly, but in some aspects she changed very drastically as a character. She was now very sarcastic and very independent but also had a softer side.

Jackson Pearce has a video of her in an airport talking about characters and saying that they must be real, people must be able to relate to them and must be able to sympathize with them and I think that is so true. Characters are the center of your book or your works so they need to be the most important part of your developing process.

So anyone who will actually talk back to me or comment on this, let me know what you think and how you develop your characters. I'll talk to you all later.