Fiction Writing: Giving Life to Your Fictional Character

Along with a well thought out plot, creativity and emotion, a novel must have believable and interesting characters. It isn't enough that your characters bumble along and tell your story - they need to really live it. Without this, the reader will not be able to relate and what could have been a brilliant piece of literature becomes something much less engaging. Giving life to your fictional characters is of utmost importance so before you write your novel, here are some tips on how to make your fictional character leap off the page and enthrall!

Know your character's background

Before you do anything else, you must think about your character's backstory. Without a solid knowledge of who your character is, it will be hard to keep their personality consistent. Understanding who they were before they appear in your story will help to guide you on how they would react in any given situation. When it comes to giving life to your fictional character, this should always be the first step. Read more about creating a character's backstory here.

Don't let your personal opinions cloud the way your character thinks

This is one of the reasons you should create a character backstory. It is quite normal to let your personal thoughts slip into your work when you are writing about your character. If you planned for your character to think the way you do - no problem. But if you are writing a character who is your complete opposite, you will need to do some heavy editing which can become time consuming. When giving life to a fictional character, think the way they think.

Don't make them perfect

In real life,perfection doesn't exist. The only place perfect fictional characters exist is in fairy tales. Even then we can't really be sure that Prince Charming is really so great when it comes down to it - the chances are, he too leaves his dirty clothes all over the bedroom and forgets to put the toilet seat down! If you are trying to bring your fictional character to life, they must be real. They should be flawed in some way. Nobody wants to read a story about two good looking people with no problems living in blissful harmony. It is boring. Your character should ideally have flaws and obstacles to overcome. Without these things, your novel may never make it into the bookstores and your work will be wasted.

Names

The name of your character doesn't entirely need to have a meaning behind it, but it should be fitting in some way. It would have been far more difficult to be afraid of J.K Rowling's Lord Voldemort if his name had been Lord Fuzzypants! Okay, that might be a silly example but the point is, to truly give life to your fictional character, their name needs to be suitable for who they are.

Add some humour

It isn't necessary for all novels to have humour, or for all of the characters to be funny. Likewise, a character doesn't have to tell lots of jokes to be amusing. Think of Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones' Diary. He wasn't clownish, quite the opposite in fact. But he was funny in a dry, geeky kind of way. Even in the worst of situations, humour can be found so don't overlook it when you are writing. It brings something extra to a character and to the story overall.

Other things to consider when giving life to a fictional character are: dialogue (possibly words used only by that one character/regional dialect/language can even be slightly dictated by age) actions, places they would hang out, home surroundings and who their friends are. There are so many aspects to making a character real that it can seem overwhelming at first. There is no need to rush it though. A well rounded character which takes years to create is much better than a one dimensional character who takes five minutes to create. Take your time.