Building A Writer's Character; 25 Tips, Prompts and Warnings

Below are 25 ideas around building a better character from my forthcoming book, “Write Advice II; More inspirations, tips and thoughts specifically for writers”


Let me know your favorites.

1. If you know every characters’ internal and external motivation before you start writing, you’ll be less surprised by their actions. 

2. Give your protagonist a nervous tick or habit that reveals their character. Make them fold a napkin, slurp a straw, twirl their hair, check their phone incessantly.

3. To find fictional names, open up a magazine and scan the masthead of editors and contributors, then combine the first or last name with a noun. 

4. Often the best villains are the ones that practically mirror the main character except in one or two areas.

5. Are your characters developing? 

6. If your antagonist showed up in an art gallery what pieces would they gravitate to and how long would they stay?  

7. How would you feel if you were in a cafe and you learned another writer was looking at you, getting inspiration for their villain? 

8. What trait do you personally have that would serve your antagonist well?

9. What would happen if you changed the sex of every character in your story and started over? Would your characters be the same if you changed their race, or age? If not, you might not have enough life in them yet. If you change those identities, your characters should change. If they don't, you’ve got some more work to do. 

10. What would your story's antagonist blog about?

11. Put your characters in conflict. Make them uncomfortable and write them out of a predicament.

12. What would happen if one of your created characters tweeted you?

13. Pick up on a random conversation at a cafe and then imagine the backstory or create a new one.

14. Characters that have at least one thing that others admire about them, and one thing that makes them an ass, gives them realism.  

15. Run your characters through something like a Facebook 20 questions and see what they would answer. 

16. Sit your characters in front of Google. What would they do?

17. Would you like to have dinner with your character, or are you worried that they may think you're too boring? Would they pick up the tab? 

18. What’s an interesting and potentially awkward dinner topic to have with the characters you create?

19. Be careful of developing crushes on your characters, they don't love you nearly as much. 

20. Interview your fictional character. 

21. Open Cosmo or whatever they would read and have them take one of the quizzes.

22. Do you know if your characters are left or right handed or are you just assuming? 

23. Insult your characters and pick a fight with them. See what they do.

24. Your characters will tell you when the words don't feel right. Until then, let them talk. 

25. Give your villains something to love and your heros something to hate.   

Look for more in Karl Bimshas’s forthcoming book, 

“Write Advice II; More inspirations, tips and thoughts specifically for writers”


Can't wait? Click Here for the Original

Creepy Writers

I recall many years ago, when I was in my late teens, watching some Friday night movie on television with my mother. The name and plot escape me, but I remember it involved a young woman finding the man of her dreams, only to learn he was a manipulative writer who used her as a character in his book.

I don’t remember my feelings at the time, though judging by the horror and disgust on the actresses' face I knew I was supposed to empathize with her. At that time I was barely beginning my discovery as a writer, let alone an adult, and I recall being a little torn. Obviously it was a horrific act to use another person solely for the purposes of researching a character, but don’t writer’s do a tame and more socially acceptable version of that all the time?

Every writer has a specialty they are particularly proud of. For some it is plot or character development, for others it’s believable dialogue or concise narration. To perfect this they observe and learn, constantly. Most writer’s are admitted people watchers, turning boring wait time in line into research for potential protagonists or antagonists. There have been more than a few parties I’ve endured in the name of research. I listened to the boasts of guests, watched the body language of couples, and surmised what interaction or conflict was going to occur next.

To the non-writer it’s creepy to learn that someone is probably watching your every move from across the coffee shop and making note of how you twirl your hair or tap your foot. They are brainstorming how to describe the ubiquitous white earbuds dangling from your head like leftover steamers from a birthday celebration in a fresh way.

That’s why some people don’t trust writers, because they are always plotting. Before Facebook and Twitter it used to be more threatening, but now people put themselves out there for examination much more freely.

Sometimes, when deep into a project the writer will immerse themselves into the world they’ve created. This can be great for the reader down the line, but maddening for roommates or spouses, particularly if the writer is working on a murder mystery or suspense thriller and wanting to capture the look of surprise or pain.

It’s equally dangerous when they are writing of love, or lust, or both. I recently wrote about the dangers of a writer falling in love with their character, this can be particularly problematic if the character is based on someone real. That someone could be a paramour from your past, or an innocent bystander trying to enjoy a latte. That’s the chance you take. The danger for the writer is that the character they have created is a perfected version of someone else and will never love them back.

As a writer myself, I don’t advocate making friends with someone with the intent of writing about them. I also know it’s nearly impossible to not put a little of everyone you meet into a little of everything you write. I’m convinced this is what makes some writers irresistible to the social set who are hoping to be written about. I’ve learned that truth is not only stranger than fiction, it’s frequently not as exciting.

If you have writer friends you should assume some trait of yours, however obscure, has the potential to be repurposed in a far different manner. My advice would be to relax, don’t go looking for it, or worse, asking for it, and if you see it in print, feel proud that you were able to contribute something of yourself to an author.

For fellow writers, you’re expected to make magic out of the mundane, to make illiterate dialogue read like poetry and to give voice to things that speak too softly. I believe it’s okay to use what you come across in life in your writing, but it's never okay to use people for the sole purpose of your writing.

Falling In Love With Your Character

Falling in love with one of your characters is treacherous but not unfamiliar territory for a writer. Forget the ego complex of how great you are to have created the perfect character, because if your character is perfect you failed. Forget the fact that falling in love is probably inevitable because of the concentrated time you spent with her/him/it, likely during the cherished late evening hours. You know them better than anyone else. You know what they will say, think or feel, because as the writer you shared intimate thoughts with them first.

You powered through a difficult chapter where your character was not cooperating with you. Perhaps the words didn’t fall effortlessly from your pen and off their lips. Perhaps, it was your first fight together. You compromised, or someone won, but it doesn’t matter now because all is forgiven and they can do no wrong. They speak just the way you want. They dress appropriate to every occasion. They have been transformed into your muse and suddenly you write for them, willingly and madly.

This is natural but difficult. Because, despite all your backstory and character interviews and sketches or magazine collages, this persona you conceived, the love of this part of your life, is not real.

You can argue that they are based on real people, or are the manifestation of imagined experiences. You may go philosophical and ask, “Well, is any of this real?” To which I will probably try to change the subject. 

Your creation is real to you, and if you do a good job, will be real to the majority of people who read your work. And that is where the sweet agony lives. You can not have dinner with your character. You can not wipe away their tears, or dance with them and hear them sing a sultry song softly in your ear. 

What you created exists in your mind and on the page and depending on how well you did that, they will also rest in your reader’s mind. Once in there, your reader may fall smitten with them too. It’s what you want, but it breaks your heart, because you do not want to share your love, but you must.

Your manuscript pages spread out before you like a scrapbook. You reminisce over older drafts and favorite passages. You can probably find the line they spoke that wooed you, standing out like a first kiss. You may weep when you read their final scene. 

No matter how effective you are, no one else will share in that relationship because it’s deeply personal. The relationship between the writer and the character they love is mesmerizing. There is no greater example of unrequited love.