Characters

Photo by: Zoltan Tasi unsplash.com/photos/0khu-rgbjzo?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

When readers pick up a novel, they relate to its characters and sometimes even relive their stories. To have these kinds of reactions from the reader, the characters need to follow one simple rule: be believable

Making Sābanto's characters believable was very important when I created them. Here are a few points on the thought process of developing characters:

1. Where did they come from?
   Like everyone, the characters need to be born. They had parents and a childhood. It was very helpful to have a detailed history for my characters. Many of these details have not been revealed to the reader, but contributed to the thought process. This background creates a psychological ovreview of the character, their actions and motives. I also had to do some research to understand how the human mind is shaped, especially after trauma in early life.
   
   
2. Actions and Motives
   The character's mental state and thoughts drive their decisions in the future and dictate their goals. One approach is to have a character make a decision based on the character's history. A different approach is to put a character into a situation and then determine their actions based on their past. While writing Sābanto, I used both approaches, depending on what worked best to move the story forward.
   
   
3. Protagonist or Antagonist?
   ​Characters are usually perceived as either heroes or villains. I find that characters who are clearly black or white are quite boring and I think that every character needs to have some kind of a flaw. They need to be mostly good or mostly bad. People are not perfect and flaws make the characters not only believable but interesting. 
   I wonder if the readers will like the character I chose to be the protagonist in Sābanto.
   
   
4. Growth
   Characters need to show some growth throughout the book. They need to go through some kind of transformation, either in their own minds and actions or being transformed in the eyes of the reader through information that is revealed throughout the book. 
   
   
5. Consistency
   It is important - but often hard-  to keep the character consistent. If the person is put into the same or similar situation again, they should go through the same thought process and decide to take the same action, unless of course there is a reason for them to change it (e.g. because of their growth through the course of the plot). That is why keeping track of the character’s past, their actions and motives is very important.

 
A Character Style Sheet is a separate document when you dump all you know about the characters. Their past, present and future aspirations. There is a process called Character Interviews that can help with writing Character Style Sheets. The character interview format provides a list of questions, helping the author build a detailed overview of the characters based on their answers.
I procrastinated with writing a Character Style Sheet but I found it helpful once it was completed and it helped me find inconsistencies in the book. 

Sābanto tries to portray characters with a lot of history to shape them. I define their actions and motives and allow them to learn and grow. Are they believable and relatable? I hope so and I’m looking for feedback on that from my readers.