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@j-a-penrose

What are three things you know about characters?

1. They should be like real people—flawed, but virtuous in some ways and able to justify their actions. There should be no perfectly good characters and no perfectly evil characters.
2. They should be consistent. Their actions should match up with their beliefs. They’re shaped by their past and their fears. They shouldn’t act out of character. Their change should be gradual, caused by pivotal events that challenge them.
3. They should have their own personality—their own voice. They have quirks. Not all dramatic ones, and they don’t need to come out in very minor characters. But all of us have some thing about us that makes us different and memorable, so characters will have that too. It makes them more human, and less generic.

What are three things you’d like to know about characters?

1. How to practically choose the best possible villain for your protagonist. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out exactly what aspect of the protag’s Experiment should be challenged by the main antagonist. I think I created a pretty good protag and villain pair once, but it was mostly an accident. xD So I’d like to learn how to be more intentional with that.
2. How do you know if your characters will immediately seem real and gripping to readers? I understand in theory how to do this, and they definitely seem real and compelling to me (I mean…they’re practically my children :P), but how do I know if others will feel the same?
3. This might be more related to prose, but how do you choose the most fitting narrative technique? In other words, how do you decide how many characters (and which ones) are narrators and when they should be given a scene from their POV? Sometimes it’s only the protagonist, sometimes it’s only another character’s POV if the protagonist isn’t present, and sometimes other characters get a scene from their POV even if the protagonist is present. I’m guessing this has to do with genre and length, but I wasn’t sure. It’s been tripping me up for a while as I’ve been starting drafts of my WIPs.

What do you believe the crafting of characters has to do with powerful writing?

EVERYTHING.

They drive the plot. They’re the embodiment of the theme. They connect to readers and then tear their hearts apart when bad things happen to them. They cause readers to see themselves in them and can move readers towards making changes in their own lives.

And they’re all so precious. The good characters I’ve read stick with me forever, as if they’re real people I’ve met. They leave a lasting impact on readers that a thrilling plot line can’t.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being appalling, 10 being stunning) how well do you think you write characters?

Oh dear. I really don’t know. Can I just blurt out I random number? xD Um… let’s go with six and a half.

Haha, I’m slightly ashamed to admit it, but it took me all day to figure out the pun. *hides* Please don’t ask how I missed that when you literally said what it was. xD

This time is great, but it doesn’t really matter to me when you do it. *thumbs up*