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Write A Novel And Get It Published: Characters

by Nigel Watts

To create believable characters you need both empathy and sympathy, but do bear in mind that fictional characters are less complex than real people. Readers need to identify with characters so use both empathy and sympathy in their creation. Empathy is recognizing something of yourself in a character; sympathy is liking what you see in a character.

You will need to include a degree of characterization, which is the external visible attributes of the character – keep this limited and specific. Character itself is internal and is revealed through the choices made under pressure. You can convey character through physical description, narrator’s statements, action, association with setting or other physical aspects, revelation of thoughts, speech and other’s thoughts or comments.

Internal conflict makes a character more interesting. Characters’ reactions under pressure come from their motivation, so you need to know what this is. Get to know your characters in detail, but don’t expect to put all that knowledge into the novel – learn to edit and only tell the reader what they need to know. Don’t draw all your characters to the same degree – subsidiary characters can be flat, main characters should be fully rounded.


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