Character development can be a fun activity for those who love to create a story. Some of the best novels are memorable because of the main and even secondary characters that voice their thoughts and opinions. What is the author thinking when they develop unique individuals unlike themselves?
A little creativity can be sparked by a number of things. Sometimes it comes from people you know, but that gets into tricky business. Who wants to find out that their quirks and idiosyncrasies are in print for the world to see? There is a way to develop fictional characters and actually keeping them fictional.
Writing Exercise:
Think about the first time you saw someone. You took in their traits, demeanor, and behaviors and make your own assumption of them. Sometimes these impressions are heightened and quite absurd. Only when you get to know the person do you find out how close or far off your judgement was.
Take the first impression of someone you observed or met. It can be as true or wild as you can dream up. Do you want them to stand out or be relatable to most readers? When you struggle to find someone unique, your first impressions may lead the way to an awesome character.
The following is a variation of a first impression.
He thought he was the son of Satchmo. You could tell by the way he puffs up his cheeks blowing, leaning far, far back to take in all of the air possible and not sharing with the other brass players. It takes balls to gyrate with all of that confidence in the middle of a song. In the entire high school band, you can easily pick him out as the fool in the back dancing and grooving to the music whether it was John Phillip Sousa or Johann Sebastian Bach. He knew he was good, but was he?
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