Okay, how to breathe life into your characters. This is never easy, so just hear me out.
One thing you can do is just hop straight into their life, so the audience can see how they act on a daily basis. Show their conflict. Their personality. Do they like someone? Do they have an enemy? Do they have to do something? Just show their goals.
Another thing you can do is treat the whole book like it's a journal entry so it's easier to tell the reader about their personality. Like...you could say, "Hi there. I don't know who's reading this, but I guess I should introduce myself, person-who's-looking-through-my-diary. I'm ____ and I consider myself to be _____, ______, and ______. Now that you know more about me, I guess I should say why I'm writing all this down." and so forth.
I should just say, there's no right way to do it. I should probably say, there can be wrong ways. Such as, "I'm someone who likes video games. I'm not gonna tell you my name because then some creeper will know my name. My friend, Max, also likes video games. What about you?"
Let me point out the flaws. First off, all we know about the character is that they like video games. Okay? When will we need to know that? It's their only defining feature. They also don't give you their name, saying that you're a random creeper. We are bound to have to know their name in the future, so why don't they give it to us? THEN, all they say about their friend is that their friend's name is Max and they like video games as well.
It's just in general a bad introduction to a character. All we have is useless information.
BUT, what you SHOULD do is layer your character in settings and conflict. Another thing, you need at least one thing to be wrong with your character. For example, they could be scared of something or someone, but by the end their fear is almost gone. C h a r a c t e r d e v e l o p m e n t is something you need to remember. It is a MUST. Otherwise, your characters walked away from the story learning absolutely nothing and if that never happened nothing would've changed.
Otherwise it would be a very boring book. You need something to happen to your characters. Something has to change.
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How I Write
De TodoDo you have trouble writing books? Ever have writers block? Do you have an idea but don't know how to portray it? Well, this'll help you.
