Where do you get ideas for your characters?
So, are you planning to write your first fictional piece? Whether it is a short story or novel creating characters for your story is one of the most important requirements. For the new writer, this task is challenging yet it is the most interesting part of creating a believable story. Where do you find your characters and how do you fit them into the story you are creating?
Usually writers develop their characters out of their imagination. This way they are free to create without limitations. Sometimes they will develop their characters through their observations of people around them. They also find their characters through magazines, newspapers and other media they have read and seen. I have found one of the best sources of characters is from personal experience - interacting with the people in my life: be it family, relatives, or friends.
Speaking of friends, I am sure you have made many friends over the course of your life. This is one of the best sources of believable characters. You may have close friends, a friend who is jealous of your success, someone who has their own struggles or the one who’s supported you in some form with every endeavor you undertake. Through your friends you will have the opportunity to mirror your characters based on their own dynamic.
There is a huge advantage to use your real friends and their characteristics to create your fictional characters. One of them is to gain empathy as stated by Joy Cagil in her article titled Creating Characters in Fiction – Empathy is the Key. You know your friend’s good and bad behavior and the reason you became friends is your ability to empathize with them. After all that what friends are for. According to Joy, empathy is the key to create believable characters that your readers can relate to. You understand what your characters are going through and you can write it as it happened to you. This empathy will be transferred to your readers and they can’t wait to turn the page to find out what happened to the characters.
How to turn your friends into fiction characters?
When you choose your own friends to build your characters you need to do some analysis. Use a spreadsheet and list them one by one.
i. Create several columns on your spreadsheet – add your friend’s name, their features, characteristics, what you like about them, what you don’t like about them, friendship level: closest friend, just casual friend, current or ex-boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. You can create as many columns as you want to get all the details into the list.
ii. Don’t forget to give each of your friends a new name. You don’t want to offend them when they find out you have chosen them for your fiction as an antagonist!
iii. Choose friends on your list that best represent your story or theme. You are free to fictionalize it further to suit your theme and plot.
Most established writers will always incorporate the people who they are closest with into their fiction. One popular writer is Nicholas Spark. One of his novels titled True Believer is my favorite. He created the protagonists, Jeremy Marsh and Lexie with so much empathy that when I read it I can’t wait to turn to the next page to find out what happened to both of them. He admitted on his website that Lexie’s characteristics belong to his wife. So, I bet, the male protagonist is him.
In conclusion, your friends and the friendships you have built with them can be one of the great sources for you in developing your fictional characters. You know them best and the empathy is mutual. So, get started and list all your friends. You will amazed you find your own characters through them as well. After all, this is one of the reasons you chose them as friends in the first place…but that would be another article.
