How to Create Convincing Heroes in a Novel

Two Techniques to Bring Paper People to Life

Oct 22, 2008 Inka Piegsa-Quischotte

A novel writer is in the unique position to create a set of people at will. If they are wooden, the reader won't be able to identify with them.

There are two elements which make a story: the plot and the characters. It's the writer's art to create believable, life-like people who live through the conflicts and adventures which make a good story line. The same principle applies to short stories, but naturally, the character development of a novel's hero and heroine requires more ample fazettes. The following two techniques will help you to avoid wooden and artificial characters who wouldn't arouse a reader's passion, leave alone a publisher's interest.

Help With Physical Appearance of the Character

Except when you write science fiction, the characters, be they heroes or heroines or minor players, will be inspired by real people you know, or rather a mixture of them. The reader must know what they look like. It's a good and helpful idea to either draw a sketch or else blow up a color photograph of a person resembling as closely as possible the character you want to create. Throughout the writing of your novel, have that picture pinned above your computer and frequently look at it. Your own creation will stay alive with you and you will avoid such errors as giving them brown eyes in one chapter and blue ones in the next. Such mistakes can be edited out later, but it's best to avoid them in the first place.

Create Plenty of Individual Scenes

Before even starting to write the first chapter of your novel, create five to ten scenes of every day life for your main players. These situations or "flashes" may have nothing to do with the plot of your novel and never appear in the final version of your book, but they help to fashion paper people who act like real people. It's important, that you take the time and trouble to write these scenes in detail.

Imagine your heroe or heroine getting up in the morning. Would they jump out of bed, ready to tackle the day or are they rather slow getting started? What would be their routine? What are they having for breakfast? Let them drive a car. Let them meet a friend. How would they react to being told that they have lost their job? Let them have emotional encounters. Let them laugh, let them cry, even let them swear or be angry. Although you want to write a novel, apply screen play techniques to your individual scenes.

The more contrasting situations you let them experience, the more realistically will they act when they finally take their intended place in your novel.

The copyright of the article How to Create Convincing Heroes in a Novel in Writing Fiction is owned by Inka Piegsa-Quischotte. Permission to republish How to Create Convincing Heroes in a Novel in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

The Author as Model for Her Own Novel