Have your characters developed a life of their own?

by June Liggins
21st May 2014

Mine have, well sort of. If I haven't been able to move characters on, if they are all poised waiting for their next cue or I am trying to devise a way to get them from one scenario to the next I can hear them calling to me saying 'hey! When am I going to get out of bed? Or out of the car? Or wherever they are suspended waiting for me to breathe some more life into them. It's most peculiar, but nice, I like it.

Replies

I think you've written a good character if people are debating what they'd do next. People are complex, they're hard to second guess but everyone thinks they can. Good characters are the same.

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Katie
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Katie Gerrard
23/05/2014

Hi June, sorry, it's short for Game of Thrones fan fiction - when people take characters from a favourite book and write their own stories about them. Happens a lot, apparently. I believe Fifty Shades of Grey started off as Twilight fan fiction. I would feel quite strange if someone took my characters and did that to them!

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Helen Jones
22/05/2014

I think it shows that you have thought about your characters motivations and characteristics. This makes them real in your mind and you can easily visualise what they may say and do, in any given situation.

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Malcolm Richardson
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