Sometimes, to let the story unfold naturally, a writer needs to take a breath and listen to what the characters are saying.
Developing your story’s characters is critical to the success of what you are writing. If you have a weak or wishy-washy character, readers won’t like them or will find your story unbelievable. This can mean disaster for any writer.
Characters need to feel real, credible and readers must be convinced of who they are and where they come from. There is nothing like a good story where characters are easy to fall in love with; even the characters that readers love to hate make a good story great.
Clear Vision
Developing a character can be easy, as long as you have a clear vision on what you want to achieve. Below are a few steps on how to bond with your characters and make them your own.
1) Establish who your characters are, what they do in life, their personalities, and their responsibilities. In the beginning, you don’t need to fully understand who they are, but at least get a good sense of them. When you are able to understand what your characters are all about, the story easily unfolds.
2) Prior to writing, sit down to get in touch with your characters. You can do this by slowing down your mind through meditation. Close your eyes and breathe. Begin to picture each character one by one. Have a conversation with him or her. What is this character feeling? Do they have anything in particular to say to you? This is a good time to get a sense of who they are and what they want. Basically, this is like channeling your characters onto the page.
3) If you lose the connection with your characters, just quiet your mind again and reconnect. Your characters are always there, always waiting to be heard.
4) Make sure you understand your characters and how they would handle different types of situations. If your character is doing something that doesn’t seem plausible to your readers because it isn’t your character’s personality type, your readers will be left with a bad taste in their mouths.
5) If you find that you just can’t write anymore because your characters are no longer talking to you, (and you’ve tried to reconnect)—just stop. Get up, go for a walk. It might be time to take a break and let the story settle for a bit.
Connect With Your Characters
It’s easy to connect with your characters and listening to them just takes a moment. All you need to do is stop the chatter in your mind and let the characters take over. Once you do, you will find that they are almost writing the story for you.
