Well it's been a little while since I did a series on something. I've done a series of posts on romance and a series of posts on women in fiction and now I'm just going to do a series on characters in general.
A little while back I did a post on my favorite characters in books and movies and how predictable they often are. Well now I'm just going to talk about every kind of character. And I mean every type. These posts will be categorized by stereotypes but will also verge into the characters that really go the extra mile to become less of a category and more of a real person.
So as a preface to this series, I'd like to talk about what characters mean to me.
I may have said it already on this blog but characters are my absolute favorite thing about both writing and reading. To create identifiable people who are almost as real as people in real life is a real treat. I like to fall for characters, become obsessed with characters, memorize every iota of the characters back story and rant about it to whoever will listen. When a character doesn't have a back story, I make it up, because I can.
In my own books I take character very seriously, to the point where I will do hundreds of character activities just for fun. I want to get to know my characters beyond what I write about them on a page. I know some things about my characters that most people will never know.
And that is a wonderful thing. Somehow I think characters reach people even better than a plot or a theme. Characters are the things we can relate the most to and the aspects of a novel that pull us the most into the book. They must be carefully constructed or you don't really have a novel.
Take as much care with your characters as you do your world and your theme. Because it's only through people that said plot and theme can really come across.
-Authoress Anonymous
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