Character Profiles

Hi Terri - I did the same as Robert for my first novel and as I'm writing a series most of the main characters returned in the second.

Except...I had a very minor character in the first who only appeared in a single chapter but gatecrashed the second story. I've no idea how tall he is, or his eye colour, but he's newly married, began training as a doctor before he joined the army and his father is a well-known soldier suffering from Alzheimers. And all those traits popped out as I was writing.

So although I usually write quite detailed story outlines, he simply grew as I went along and will hopefully continue to appear in future books. Goes to show that you don't always need to plan out everyone you write :)

Hi Terri,

I'm much like Robert in that I will map out my characters before I begin. I will make notes about what they look like and who their friends are, what their parents are called, what their childhood was like etc so that when I am writing I can make sure my characters fit in with their descriptions. I find it helps to do this so that I elicit the right feeling from the reader about my characters. If I want my readers to love a character then I plan in advance for the features that will make the character lovable.

I also allow my characters to grow whilst I'm writing and will sometimes add things to their individual maps to pad that character out. This doesn't work for everyone though.

Laura

PS: I also have a habit of not sticking to the notes too firmly. :)