: Re: How to make characters more than the words on the page? At the time of writing this question there are 5337 Harry Potter questions on SciFi and a further 165 on Movies. Many of these questions

Simple answer is that characters are more than the words on the page.

The Masters course in Creative Writing that I'm half way through gives us a Character Map that we're encouraged to fill for each major character in the story. We're encouraged to fill this in before attempting to write the tale. The template contains question after question about every aspect of the character you could possibly think of (and some that you wouldn't want to).

The point of doing this is not to create a list of everything that will be in your story, but to bring the character to life in your own mind. Indeed, it's probably not even possible to use every single piece of information in a character sketch.

A well written character will therefore be more than the words in the story. They will have, in the mind of the author, a rich inner-life of their own; a history; a physical description; a catalogue of good and bad habits; a slew of partners with whom they have experienced either heartbreak, love (or both); an emotional, social, physical and spiritual life; and all sorts of other stuff that fan-boys/girls will obsess about for decades to come.

This page contains a template and some further advice on how to create the above: How to Create a Character profile.

Good luck with your writing.

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: Re: How to make characters more than the words on the page? At the time of writing this question there are 5337 Harry Potter questions on SciFi and a further 165 on Movies. Many of these questions

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: How to write a story without conflict, like "My Neighbour Totoro"? We are used to stories being about conflict. There can be an antagonist, or a hostile environment, or even an internal problem

: Writing a Satisfying Ending It strikes me that the last chapter (or so) of any story needs to make the reader feel that reading the book has been a worthwhile experience. An exceptional ending

: Well, there's always Savi Sharma, whose inspirational romance Everyone Has A Story made her India's youngest self-published successful female author. And all it took was a little (electronic)

: Static Scenes that still Move the Story Forward I've just read a tutorial about scenic techniques in novel-writing that recommends that a story should have a rhythm of static scenes and dramatic

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