This step is where you start getting serious about your story. Why? You found a writing location and you have the basic idea and theme for the story. But this is where you begin to choose and Define your Characters.
After you’ve decided on a theme for the book, consider which type of characters would be best suited for the story. Write a list of their names. Write a page about each one: who they are, what they are, and their importance to the story. Identify their strengths and weaknesses. What do they look like? Any scars? Handicaps? What’s their emotional and mental temperament? What are their likes and dislikes? Write anything else about them that you can think of. Even if some details do not make it into the story, it will help you to know them better.
One well-known writer said, “If I’m not personally familiar with all my characters, they don’t get into the book.”
These are the resource pages you will refer to as you write about them. So allow your characters to come to life on these pages for your benefit. If you do it correctly, your readers will receive the benefit later.
Writing the background for your characters will enable you to keep them straight in your own mind as you write the story.
Here’s why I emphasize this effort. In a movie I saw several years ago, a man appeared with his right leg in a cast. In a scene about 10 minutes later, his left leg was in the cast. Whoops! And in a movie I saw over a decade ago, the lawyer wore 3 different dresses in a 5-minute courtroom segment. Someone forgot to do their job. Whoops again!
Protect yourself and give your book a good foundation. Bring those people to life in your thoughts as you plan, and they will be alive when you write the story.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
Write Creatively
P & L Publishing 