Character Inspiration Part One

Wassup, everyone? Sarah Twilight here!

So It Begins

So you got an idea for a story. You are so flipping excited about the stroke of inspiration and brilliance! The world, the concept, the plot, maybe even the theme are forming in your mind. But something needs to tie it all together. But what? You feel like you’re forgetting something! Hmmm….. Oh wait! The characters! The lifeblood of the story. But how do you make a character? Your mind is drawing a blank on character inspiration. Have no fear!

Importance of Characters

So what’s the big deal with characters anyway? 

Characters are what bring a story to life! They are the vessel from which we can experience the world and story. I don’t care how much thought you’ve put into the plot or how much detail you’ve put into the setting, if the character isn’t good I’m not staying. One time my friend lent me a book, it was dystopian and I LOVE dystopias, so I thought I’d have no problem reading it. I was wrong. I couldn’t connect with the character, the side characters came and went, without time for me to appreciate them. Finally I put the book down. In contrast, I devoured a contemporary novel. Sure it was set in our time and world, but the characters drew me in. I love those characters! I even have Pinterest boards for them! (If you want to check them out go to my Sarah Twilight Pinterest and look for my XOXO by Axie Oh board.)  Without characters how are we supposed to learn the lesson you want to teach? Why do we care? Make good characters, kids!

The Problem

We can now agree that characters are important! But how do you get ideas for a good character? How do you make a character you can love while keeping it original? Well, my little human, that is why I am here today!

Using Characters

So you need a character. Not just that, you need a good character! So where do you go find inspiration? One way I can come up with a good character is basing it off an existing character that I love. I don’t create a carbon copy, but the character starts out imitating a different character. This used to worry me. What if my character is compared to this other character? What I’ve learned is that you’re character will become their own person given time, story, backstory, etc… I’ve used this in my book ideas that started out as fan-fiction before turning into something new.

Using People

This might just be my extroverted self, but I love people! People are their own characters with their own stories and personalities! I love meeting people and getting to know people. Can you tell I’m a people person? Anyway. A great pool of inspiration for characters is basing them off the people around you. In time they develop into their own character, but I find getting character ideas off my friends really helpful. Am I the only one that goes through a list of my friends names or last names when having to come up with a quick character name?

Using Story

A way to make good and fitting character is to look at your story idea. If you want to add more characters, try finding different angles of your story. Say you’re writing a book starring a rebel in a dystopia, maybe to add depth you can make a character who works for the evil government. Characters are how we see the world so it’s a good idea to use them to show more depth and angles in your story.

How To Connect

How do you write characters we can connect to? By creating good internal conflict. Show us who the character is. Tell how the character thinks and why the character is the person he or she is. Have us learn what you want us to learn by having the character learn it throughout the whole story. Good internal conflict makes good and relatable characters. Keep this in mind when coming up with characters.

Conclusion

 In the crazy writer reality that we live in there is character inspiration EVERYWHERE! You just got to know how to look for it and have the LORD open you up to the waves of uncontrollable inspiration that will hit you!