Creating characters is a complex proposition. So much of what we know about people is intuitive and intangible. Sometimes it’s not until we’ve known someone for many years that we discover their true essence. What makes them tick. And often, it’s not until this moment that we understand them truly and deeply. That kind of understanding is inherently retrospective.

Writing real and believable characters involves injecting this essence of identity in the narrative. But how do you do that effectively? Description can often come across as ‘telling’, and so actions are needed, scenarios. This is a fairly standard writing practice, but doing it well is not easy. The types of scenarios and interactions that are selected to ‘build’ a character’s identity need careful thinking. That can be problematic, seeing that so much of what writers do that is brilliant is intuitive and intangible. In a flash of brilliance, you can put something truly awesome down on the page, and in the aftermath, wonder how it came about. What thought processes, what knowledge, what experience, might have prompted something that is clearly hard to capture when one thinks too much. With over-thinking, the risk is that writing can become clunky and self-conscious.

The answers are not clear cut here, but as I go about building my characters, which must necessarily be in a symbiotic relationship with the narrative, my goal is to keep them metaphorically alive and breathing in my head, and to get to know them as they develop. They are not real people, so my knowing them is guided by my thought processes about their circumstances, their personal features and foibles. The wherefores and whatnots of their fictional realities grow and develop over time, until the moment I feel I’ve nailed them. It’s then that the writing takes on more significance. I know the character’s ‘retrospective’ identity. I feel them, know them intimately. Their secrets are for me to know and to use to inform their actions. Some of these secrets will be revealed through introspection, but others will just be there, guiding me as I bring the character to life and keep them alive.

Thinking deeply about real people helps when building the fictional character, which is often part montage of what we know and part new being.