Character Connection

Remember my post Starting Your Character? Well this is all about the connection that he or she has to the story. When writing every character has a purpose. As reader I try to figure out how everything will tie together before the ending of the book. You don't want to just place a random character in your book that does nothing. I never really thought much about the connection a character has until I watch a video on YouTube about it. I guess the fact that I have been reading for a very long time that everything came natural, but once you start to think about it everything makes sense. To make it easy look at like watching a movie or a t.v show.

The main character of the show is the most important by far. Everything about his or her past affects them today which will cause things to happen in the story. The reason they act uptight is because something probably happen in their past. There has to be something that connects the character to everything in the story. For example if it is the Villain of the story why does the villain hate them and want them dead? Most likely he or she is in the way of the Villain preventing them from getting them what they want.

So we just discussed how the villain and main character are connected. The love interest of the story will have some sort of connection to the plot and the main character. Whether if he or she is their next door neighbor or a friend of a friend's the choices are endless, but they will be connected. Something in their past will connect them to future self.

I can go on and on about connections to characters, but I would just be saying the same thing. I think this is an important second step into writing a character. This will make them feel real.  As a writer you have to think about it. I will get into more detail about the backgrounds of the characters in another post because this is third step into having a character. For me this is the hardest. Please watch the videos in my last post about Starting Your Character because my ideas flow with theirs and they sparked these posts.

Starting Your Characters

    For me this is the hardest part of writing is coming up with the characters.  After all they are one of the most important part of the story. Without characters we wouldn't have a plot, a story. I'm more of a person who has tons of ideas just not characters. The hardest part for me is making them seem like an actual person. Making them easy to relate to. I see in so many young adult fiction the characters are perfect and aren't easy to relate to. When I'm coming up with characters I want to make sure I don't make those same mistakes. I want them to be real.   I will be doing a number of posts talking about making characters in this post I will be discussing the forming of them. A disclaimer I'm not a professional I'm in the very beginning of writing my book and I have no clue where it would take me. Let's get to it. 

     Everyone says they need a voice separate from your own. That you need to know them as well as your best friend. I will be linking the two people who I found the most helpful during this process. A lot of the things I say may come up off of what they say and they might be different. After all everyone has a different way of doing things. Of course they are right they need a voice and you need to know everything about them. The very first thing I do is write down what I want each character to be like. I did this twice so far and they have evolved into something amazing.

   Depending on your story idea the characters will be different. You will want something out of them. The list doesn't have to be perfect because you are writing down ideas and thoughts. For example mine are more of a person than they were when I start. Heck I added more characters to the mix. This was one of the easiest things I did. In the end you have a rough idea what they are going to be like which is one step in getting your book done.  There is still tons of things you have to in order to make the character work. If you know your character really well he or she will become a baby to you. You will feel for them just like you do with a best friend and that's my goal.