Mining Your Inner World to Create Characters
Creating compelling characters can feel like an impossible task, especially when writing characters whose experiences and personalities seem far removed from our own. In both this blog and my next subscriber-only Monday Writing Motivation mailer, I explore how writers can tap into their own emotional experiences to create authentic, complex characters – even those whose actions we’d never dream of committing ourselves.
Writing tips
- Start with emotional recall: Before writing a scene, take a moment to remember a time when you felt a similar emotion to what your character is experiencing, even if the situation was completely different. This should help you make your character’s reactions more authentic.
- Build complex characters through contradictions: Give your characters opposing traits or desires in order to create internal conflict. Even your villains should have some positive attributes, just as your heros your heroes should have flaws.
- Mine your own “multitudes”: Keep a journal of your feelings, emotional states, reactions and impulses. You can use these observations of your own complexity as raw material for character development.
Writing prompt
Think of a character that seems completely opposite to you. Now, spend 15 minutes writing about a time in your life when you exhibited a tiny seed of that character’s dominant trait. For example, if you’re writing a manipulative character, recall a time when you influenced someone to get what you wanted. Then write a scene from your character’s perspective.
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) – Walt Whitman
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