Tips on Writing Fiction: How to Create Believable Characters and Scenes

Characters can make or break a story. Making characters real draws the reader in - it makes them identifiable. Here's tips on making your characters REAL.

You might notice things about people around you. Become a people watcher. Take a notebook or, better yet, a tape recorder. Go into different places and take notes about random people who might be incorporated into your character. The waitress at a cafe shop, the driver of a bus, the bum on the street all have stories, habits, backgrounds. You don't need to get people's life stories - you need not even talk to them. This is about observation. Appearances.

Describe someone you meet casually. Imagine there is a blind person in front of you - describe what you see so that the blind person can "see" them also. Then take it a step further - make up why they might be that way. Sharpen your character. Perhaps there's a person sitting alone in a booth - describe their appearance, attitude projected. Why are they there? Are they travelling from somewhere else? Are they meeting someone there (and whom?)? Sharpen your powers of observation. Do they have scars? Tattoos? Describe their eyes or their hands. What habits do they have that might be noticed?

Use these notes in your characters...make a general profile as such. Give them names. Fill out a job application for the character - what has he done for work? Where does he or she live and run a background check on the applicant. What might you find in the report that would be of interest? What would the interview be like with your character?