Create your character Biographies

 Create your character Biographies

Outside of fundamental outlining a novel, to give you’re a good foundation of your story, the best part of writing any story to this author, is creating good Eye-catching characters back story that the reader can fall in love with. For example, Stuart Woods characters in his Stone Barrington Series are my favorite set of characters, then it’s J. A. Jance characters in her Beaumont series, oh and let’s not forget David Baldacci’s Camel Club series characters.  Each author designed their characters to be engaging, compelling and who have issues to resolve even though their dealing with a murder, or national security issues to solve. It’s that personal issue that attaches these characters to the reader. Never forget that. The compelling story is what makes the reader love your character. The reader must fall in love with them to the point where they are routing for them to succeed.

No matter what type of writer you are, your characters you create are the key to your storytelling. Their arc in the face of danger or fear has to make a serious difference to the ending of your story. So what is an Arc? The arc in any story is when the main character changes their tune about what they believe, or how they feel about another character. Say your main character hates military personnel, but half way through the story they learn what it’s like to be a soldier from someone who is in the military and they begin to understand things they’ve learned were completely wrong. Probably because they were taught by someone who hated the military for their own political beliefs instead of actually being in the military and having the experience of being in uniform. That change in their thinking is known as an arc in the story. Their belief changes which change the direction of the storyline. They go from hating those in uniform to not only understanding them, but who also now supports them. The arc can either make or break your story in the end. 

Key to character development in your story besides their back story is introducing your character early on in your story, say in the first chapter. You don’t have to introduce them and tell their whole story up front, but bring them into the story quickly. Say they’re a detective so in your first chapter or your second one, bring the detective to the scene of a crime, murder or robbery and introduce their name, race, position and what they look like. Then later bring up the struggle they’re dealing with, either a divorce, relationship problem, family issue from childhood that makes them relate or brings up bad memories at seeing the crime scene. Make him or her human, vulnerable or flawed in some way. Even though you’ve made them human, be sure to make them honorable and willing to be heroic if need be. Bring up his inner life and turmoil while also bringing up his surface problems of wanting to be perfect in life and his job. This is where you can draw upon your own life experiences in character development. Describe the character as if they are you, or a close friend, or business associate. Best form of flattery is to create your characters bio and development on those you know, or who they wish to be. Just don’t use their actual name in the story without their written permission. You can mirror your character on a friend, but it’s best to use only the first letter of their first or last name to protect the guilty. Lol.

As if interviewing someone for their background story, this is what you are doing to each of your characters. Asking them their age, nationality, scars, tattoo’s, deformities. What does their voice sound like, New York Accent, gruff, scratchy, high pitch, low pitch? French accent, Italian, Southern, midwestern accent? Are they from Farm country in the Midwest, or the Low country of South Carolina? The better acquainted you are to your characters, the more you can describe them to your reader. You will also want to know his backstory. What was his parents like? Siblings? Ages and gender? Where does he fall in the children line up? Political Affiliation? Current Occupation or previous one? Income, rich, inherited money, poor as crap, middle class, or just struggling to make ends meet. What are their goals in life? Any specific skills or talents? Religious or not? Are they single, married, divorced, have kids? Anger triggers? Joys, pleasures, fears, and anything else relevant to your story? Can your character cook? Do they garden to relax? What about painting? Mention the hobbies that make them seem vulnerable to other characters.

Give your main character a conflict he or she must solve within the storyline. Doesn’t have to be the main storyline, but a substory to solve or overcome.  No matter what you do, don’t make your character a wimp that can’t think for themselves and have no friends at work or in life. If you can’t imagine your character in my imagination, then neither can your reader. So when developing your characters, picture them in your mind, become that character for a bit so you can see them as you write about them.

Last but not least I should mention that if your character has a flash back to another era, say World War II or even further back like Victorian England or even the American Revolutionary War period, you better be sure to do some serious research on clothing, hierarchy, positions and even location setting.  Research is always good to do to ensure that your readers don’t think you’re an idiot for knowing that a battle didn’t take place where your story is centered around. Get your facts straight before you start to write to save yourself any embarrassment.  Good luck designing your characters, can’t wait to learn about them in your book.

Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, journalist. business professional, and creative artist, and life coach consultant. Ms. Kilbride holds a Masters in Criminology and a BS in Business Management who stepped out of the loop for a while, but who is now back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our economy. As a life coach, she is available to counsel individuals to enjoy their dreams and a better life. Ms. Kilbride loves to travel, photograph her surroundings and is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve food for the winter months.