Have you ever finished a good book, closed
the cover and then felt a sense of loss? Does it sometimes feel like a friend
or family member has moved away when the story is over? I feel that way
sometimes. And when I do, I know that the author did a great job of creating
the characters. These characters weren’t just a collection of character traits,
and descriptions. They were real, living, breathing people whose live mattered.
Setting, plot and pacing are all essential elements in any good story. But the
one thing that really makes a story come alive, is having realistic, memorable
characters.
Writing compelling fiction is like a magic
trick. It is an illusion. Readers are reading words on a page, but when it all
comes together, it clicks, and the world seems real. Like with magicians, there
are some tricks to the craft which can help you round out your characters, and
make them real. In my new novel, Summer on Earth, my two main characters
are a young boy, and a space alien stranded on Earth. These characters are so
different, and for the story to work, I needed to make them, as well as the
other characters, feel real. In Booklist’s review, they said, “The unique,
fablelike story with gentle charm and strongly drawn characters - human and
otherwise - will satisfy with its quiet aura of resilience and hopefulness.”
Here are a few things that I do with my
writing that helps to breathe life into my characters.
·
Physical description and identifying characteristics – When you first
introduce a character in a story, you describe them. Personally, I believe that
less is more. Rather than giving a very detailed rundown of how the character
looks, I give a brief physical description, and let the reader fill in the rest
with their own imagination. The character is revealed more by their actions,
what they do and what they say.
·
Give them a goal – Every character, even minor ones, should have a goal in
the story. What is the one thing they want more than anything else in the world?
What drives and motivates them? If you know what your characters want, that
determines how they will act, and that makes them more real.
·
Emotion – This is the secret sauce. As humans, we identify and respond to
emotions. If someone smiles at us, we smile back. If someone around us is in a
bad mood, that can be contagious. The same thing goes with your characters. If
they lack emotion, they come off as flat. When you give them real emotions, we
identify with that and they will seem more authentic.
·
Everyone is the hero in their own movie – It’s easy to make your hero
likable, but in the villain or antagonists mind, they are the hero. From
the view of your story, they might be evil and nasty and stupid, but not in
their own mind. While writing, think of what the world looks like from each
character’s perspective. It will add depth and fullness to your characters.
·
Dialogue – What your characters say to each other is a way to move the
story forward, to reveal information the reader needs to know, and a great way
to reveal who that character really is. Everyone talks differently. They use
different vocabulary, different phrases and everyone has their own vocal tics.
A professor will talk differently than a cowboy, and a teenager will speak
differently than a young mother. The way your characters talk will let you know
if they have power, or not, their level of education, how they feel about the
person they are talking with, their level of confidence and so much more. This
can be a great way to build a character who is memorable.
These are just a few things that work for
me. Think of your characters as real people and they will take on their own
life on the page.
About the Author
Peter
Thompson grew up in Illinois, and lives near Chicago. He remembers how excited he was when the first astronaut
stepped on to the moon. He has had an appreciation of space, and all its
possibilities ever since. His love of children’s books developed while
reading to his three sons. His first
novel, Living Proof, was a thriller
published by Berkeley Books. Summer
on Earth is his first book for younger readers. It will
be released in August of this year.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:
WEBSITE | TWITTER
About the Book:
The night
that eleven-year-old Grady Johnson looked out his window and wished upon a
shooting star, his life changed forever.
Grady,
his Ma, and younger sister Luanne are having a hard summer. Dad has died and the
family
isn’t the same. Though Ma is trying her best, Grady knows they don’t
have enough money to get by.
The
shooting star he saw was a space craft plunging to Earth, and landing at the
back of their farm. Extraterrestrial engineer Ralwil Turth has one goal, to fix
his power drive and go back home. But things don’t go as planned. Stuck in
human form, he gets to know Grady and his family as he works on their farm. He
starts to learn about what it means to be human, and the exotic charms of this
planet like the taste of potatoes, and how amazing bugs are.
Ralwil
grows to care for Grady and his family. On a trip to town, he realizes that
money is what matters to humans, and is the cause of the family’s trouble. That
night, he uses his technology to combine a twenty-dollar bill with an oak twig.
Over the next week this grows to a towering tree, every leaf a twenty-dollar
bill. This, Ralwil is sure, will solve all the family’s problems.
But
the family’s wealth raises suspicion in this small town, and this soon leads to
more trouble. With the family’s fate, and Ralwil’s life, on the line, Grady has
to find the courage to help his family and save his friend.
Summer
on Earth
blends humor, adventure and poignancy to create an unforgettable story
about finding home.
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