Hey Writers:
One of the most important parts of writing a story is writing about characters who seem like real people. Then your readers will enjoy reading your story because they’ll want to know more about who your characters are and what they are going to do next.
A way to help YOU believe your characters are real is to give them a past. What do I mean by that?
Well, write a few super short stories about things that have happened to your characters before your story starts.
Here are five ideas to get you started:
1. Write about the day your character spoke his first word. How old was he? What did he say? Who heard him say the word?
2. Write about your character’s first day of kindergarten. What was his teacher’s name? Was he excited, scared, happy or sad?
3. Write about your character’s 7th birthday. Who was at his party? What gifts did he get? What did his cake taste like?
4. Write about a time your character broke his arm. How old was he? Which arm did he break? What was he doing that caused him to get hurt?
5. Write about your character’s biggest success in the fourth grade. Did he win some sort of contest? Did he learn how to play a new sport? Did he get on the news for rescuing a hurt animal?
You can write about any of the above story ideas or come up with some creative ideas of your own. The purpose is just to give you a chance to get to know your character.
The more you know about his background, the more real he will seem in the main story you want to tell.
It’s ACTION time. Go write something about your character’s past!
To your writing dreams,
Bonnie Jean
[...] Last week we talked about making your characters seem as real as possible. I explained that one way to do that is to give them a past by writing some super short stories about things that have happened to your characters before the story starts. These aren’t stories anyone will read; they’re stories to write so YOU get to know your characters better. [...]