Tell us about your characters!

I know that it helps me out a lot to talk about my characters. Usually I like to do this out loud to a patient listener, but the blogosphere and writing forums like these are also very helpful. Tell us about your characters! How are they coming alive? What aspects of their personalities or lives do you find challenging to write? What are they doing for your novel? How do they evolve throughout the narrative? The list goes on... Tell us more!

Laura

Tags: characters, development, narratives

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Permalink Reply by Kimberly Golden Malmgren on March 13, 2011 at 10:06am

I just started working on ideas for a new manuscript so I think I will tell you about those characters instead of the ones from the first draft I just finished.

My main characters are Milo and Erin. Milo is in his early thirties and comes from a suburb of Philadelphia called Chestnut Hill. He lives there with his two young daughters, Lily and Saffy, and a cat called Nusse. Milo is stuck in a rut, though he refuses to admit it. Since his wife died in a traffic accident (she was hit by a car while riding her bike home from the gym) he's focused only on his daughters and tried to come to terms with his grief and the reality of being a single parent. His emotional life came to a standstill when his wife died and, despite the efforts of friends and his well-meaning but meddling younger sister, hasn't thought about dating or getting involved with anyone else. For him, even though three years have passed since Lisette died, he cannot imagine falling in love again and he doesn't think he needs anyone else--he has two little girls who need him.

Enter Erin. She's just turned 30 and is working at a café/catering firm in downtown Philadelphia while she tries to figure out what to do with the rest of her life now that the boyfriend she thought would propose has moved to Boston and broken up with her via text message. Erin doesn't understand how she ended up in this situation. After watching her own mother base her life around a string of different men, Erin said she would never do the same thing. And yet, she moved to Philadephia from Virginia because of the now-ex-boyfriend, she left her dream job--owning and running her own café--to manage someone else's so that she could be with the man who ended up cheating on her with a PA from his office. And now she's become cynical about dating and the compromises she thinks aren't worth it simply to avoid being alone.

Milo and Erin will meet at a speed-dating event the owner of the café (where Erin works) hosts once a month. Milo is there because his sister and his best friend have pushed him to take this step. Erin is there because she has to work.

They will have a meet-cute (just haven't decided exactly how it will happen).

Permalink Reply by Kotsidou Elmira on March 23, 2011 at 11:13pm

I have two main characters, Diana and James. They’re twins and they have a very strong bond that touches the borders of psychic.

Diana is a very sociable and outgoing girl, she likes meeting new people but she has only two real friends. Despite dressing in black all the time, she was joyful and optimistic. That, until her ex boyfriend tried to rape her.

She didn’t tell anyone and she tries to act like nothing has changed inside her. The worst thing is that she has to face him every day at school.

In the book, she starts dating John, mostly to prove to herself that she’s “perfectly fine”. But as their relationship develops, problems occur. She realizes she even dislikes being touched and she slowly pulls away from him.

James, on the other hand, is one of those people who can stay at home for a week without talking to anyone and be at peace. He plays the guitar but he only does so when no one else is home. He broke his little rule of secrecy when he played a song to Georgia, his girlfriend and Diana’s best friend.

During a party at the forest, he was attacked by a beast. The next day, he starts shifting in a beast too whenever he gets angry. James hates what his condition does to him, he’s more aggressive and if he ever gets out of control, he may kill someone with this uncontrollable strength of his. However, he is determined not to give up on his normal life, which only causes him new troubles.

Permalink Reply by Michelle Gwynn Jones on March 24, 2011 at 12:38am

Diane and James seem like interesting characters.

I have a book in mind that also has to do with a set of twins, boy and girl. Granted they are not close and no one turns into a beast.

Permalink Reply by Kotsidou Elmira on March 25, 2011 at 1:23pm

Thnx.

Well, I have a thing for fantasy so beasts are a given. :)

Permalink Reply by Catrina Barton on March 26, 2012 at 10:30pm

In my current WIP {which has gone through 3 complete revamps thus far, including plot and characters {only the basic plot has stayed the same} I have two Main characters.

Kaitlin is a Seventeen years old girl who loves being outdoors and taking pictures. She's free spirited and enjoys swimming. She's also a bit of a rebel and has very blunt manners. She lost her mother to cancer when she was Fourteen, after taking care of her ailing mother when not in school. At her father's funeral {he just died saving the rest of his platoon.} she meets an uncle she never knew she had and is forced to fly halfway around the world to live with him because he pulled strings and became her legal guardian. When she hears about the legends concerning the local natives, she takes her camera and hikes into the rainforest hoping to discover if the rumors are true. What she didn’t expect was to discover how she ties in to the local legends.

Enter Cadmon a dominant Tiger Shifter who recently returned to his native homelands after his peoples' leader passed away, leaving him the new leader. He's spent the last five years traveling around the world, dealing with some personnel issues. {He blames himself for his sister's death and traveled the world trying to find something he has yet to find.} and returned out of duty to his people because there is a war brewing between them and her uncles' people. When he discovers Kaitlin traipsing around his peoples' lands, saying he's not happy is an understatement. What he didn't expect was for Kaitlin's curious nature to arouse in him such a fierce need to protect her from his people , her uncle, and her own lack of personal safety.

Permalink Reply by T. S. Johnson on March 28, 2012 at 5:46pm

Although the novel focuses on a trio of women who have come together to support one another by gathering once a week, the main character is KIMMIE SADOW(not sure if I will keep that name or not), a southerner by birth migrated to NYC. She has had a hard childhood filled with separation and death. At 9, her father left her mother and sister, ANNA, for another woman, which leaves them homeless; at 11 her mother overdoses, at 12 she and her sister are sent to live with her aunt and ex-convict uncle who subsequently murders 8 year old Anna. Kimmie has developed armor to deal with her past. She's tough, moody, bookish and hyper-sexual with no qualms about going after any man she wants. Conflicts and crises that arise, as a result of her character, eventually force a transformation, though her present life crumbles as a result.