How to Create a Believable Fictional Character

This article is mainly geared toward fiction writers who already have characters in mind or created. It is a checklist of ideas to keep in mind that will help you create realistic characters or slightly alter existing ones.

1) When you start brainstorming the traits of your character, you want to look more at how those traits impact your character than the really the traits themselves.

Too many times I've seen writers give a detailed list of traits when they begin to describe a character--this can make the character seem flat if you're not careful. The advice of many writing books of "show, don't tell" is very important in characterization as well as plot. If your character is intelligent, show them doing something intelligent. Don't just have it listed.

2) You need to have some background information on your characters that is specifically for you as the writer--it doesn't have to be something that the reader even knows directly.

This can be information about the characters personality, general reactions when they have a certain emotion, etc. You can keep this stored in notebooks or even in a computer database if you're more technically oriented.

3) It's helpful sometimes to mentally put your characters in situations that aren't related to your plot.

Playing with ideas may help you create a more solid character, even when the ideas themselves don't make it into your book or short story.

4) Do your homework.

If your main character is a pilot, you may possibly have readers who are pilots. If little details are off, your drama may suddenly become a comedy to them. You don't have to go overboard, but either do enough research or have a friend who's an authority review it for you.

5) Be observant of people in general.

This is especially helpful in studying mannerisms, such as people running their hands through their hair if they're frustrated or nervous. Sometimes this is also helpful for coming up with conflict ideas as well. Just don't creep people out by following them around with a notebook in public.

Tips:

• Take the time to look through some books on psychology and personality-types. When you study real people, it makes creating fictional people a lot easier.
• There are also a lot of free online resources on personality-types as well.

How to Write Natural Dialogue in Fiction Stories

In creating novels and short stories, it can sometimes be difficult to create natural and realistic dialogue. In this article, I'll show you ways you can solve this problem.

1) The first step involves taking a look at your characters.

Keep in mind traits such as personality, where they are from, their ages, and their education. Dialogue is a tool that you can use to show these traits to your reader without directly telling them. Taking the time to do this will help you determine not only what a character might say, but how they would say it.

2) Second, mentally picture your characters interacting as if they were on a TV show or a play.

Is there anything about what they're saying to each other that seems odd or out of place? Sometimes a sentence may be correct from a grammar standpoint, but you may have to reword it for dialogue because of how people speak in reality.

3) Third, read the dialogue out loud.

This will help your pacing. If you feel like you're out of breath after a string of dialogue, you may want to shorten your sentences. Likewise, if you feel like the dialogue is too short for the situation, you can smooth it out.

4) Last, do a check of your overall story.

Do you have a lot of "he said" and "she replied" after each sentence? You can eliminate a lot of those after you've established who is talking. This makes the story as a whole flow a lot better.

Additional Tips:

• Try paying attention to the conversations of people. You'll begin to pick up on patterns such as rapid subject changes.
• Think of ways you can show your character's personality by how much they speak and how much they listen.
• On the other extreme, you don't necessarily want your dialogue to completely reflect how people talk--especially filler words such as "um."
• Avoid phonetically spelling out accents of characters if at all possible. This can annoy your readers after a certain point. Mention the accent, but make the words themselves easy to read.
• Also avoid modern slang if you intend for the story to be longer-lasting.