If you want to write a novel, you will need well rounded and believable characters to pull your readers along with the story.  For readers to care what happens at the end of a book, you will need to forge a connection between them and your characters. Different authors will have a variety of different approaches to constructing characters for their novels.  Some will take a more ad-hoc approach, and develop them along the way.  But for myself, if I am going to create realistic characters, it is important to map out their characteristics at the planning stage of a novel – after all, you wouldn’t start writing a book without knowing what your plot is going to be, so why should the characters be any different?  They are just as vital to your novel so it is worthwhile spending some time on character development before you start writing.   These are the stages I go through when putting my characters together – you can play around with the order, nothing here is set in stone. picture from …

picture from en.wikipedia.org What do I love about writing most? Well, it’s the same things that made me such an avid reader in the first place.  Books have the ability to transport us to new worlds, or periods of time that are otherwise completely locked away from us.  The immersion can be so deep from a novel that we can imagine every step that any given character makes, and it is bringing those same characters to life that is the greatest joy for me as a writer. A book needs to be well written and full of descriptive passages, as they play an essential part in setting a scene and giving the writer’s world depth.  But it is the characters within that world, their hopes, wishes, loves, and desires that will make the story come to life.  When constructing a character for a novel, you want to be able to really get under their skin, understand all their passions and frustrations, their strengths but equally their weaknesses.  Only then can you understand how they will …