M. Lori Motley

In a novel or short story you need characters that seem as real as possible and act in ways that make sense to the reader. Some people make a grand production of creating characters, filling out a 25 page character sheets, writing character episodes and even drawing artwork of their characters to get a real feel of what they look like. Other people just some open a baby name book, randomly choose a name and say, “Frank. Yeah, Frank is a great name for my stereo typical warrior.” And then they proceed to write the same warrior that has been found in every formulaic fantasy novel since the 1970s.

To get a truly believable character for your fiction writing, you probably have to fall somewhere between those two extremes. Of course, if you enjoy delving into the deep dark secrets of every character you make you can use character sheets and write stories of the character that will not end up in your finished novel. For simple characters, like the back up guy who gets killed by the rampaging werehog halfway through chapter 2, you probably could just give them the name and set them loose on your pages. Continue reading →