: Re: Getting Inside Someone Else's Head A common problem for novice fiction writers, and one that I feel that I myself haven't quite graduated from, is always writing characters who are like the

@Karen856

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You've heard of this thing called imagination, right? It always surprises me when people are surprised at a writer's ability to "get inside" someone else. You're making up the rules, so you get to be or do or see whatever you want.

Getting to know you:

Pretend you're on a first date with your character. Ask questions.
Think about where your characters came from. How will this influence their speech? Do all your characters talk the same way? Have the same vocabulary?
Wind them up and let them go. Once you know who they are, a lot of what you see will be reaction to events.
Leave room for surprises. You can't really know everything about someone.

Caveats:

Don't get caught up in this. It's easy to spend all your time with your characters and never get to your story.
Just because you know something about your character doesn't mean it has to come out in your writing.
Writing about your friends isn't any better than writing about yourself (and could probably get you in more trouble).

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