Characters

Hello!
Characters are on my mind a lot at the moment. I've recently introduced several new characters into my book, and I'm in the process of "getting to know my characters more deeply." I was able to get a free e-book off of a writing blog I found; it's called Creating Unforgettable Characters (the book is). I'm loving this book so much! The book has amazing tips on how to create characters your readers will immediately fall in love with, and how you can get the most out of your characters. In the first or second chapter it gave a 4 page list of questions for you to answer about each of your characters. I printed off the pages and plan on photocopying more for each of my main characters. I began on my main character, thinking it was going to be a breeze to answer the questions. What really happened was me finding out that I knew very little of my main character! Last night I went through the four pages and attempted to answer each one, but I still have a lot more questions that I have to think about. This exercise is amazing and I'll try to find where I was able to receive this e-book so you can look into it if you want. :)

One thing I get excited about is determining what my characters' physical appearances are. I got the idea from one blog to find pictures of people (she used celebrities) to help your mind envision each of your characters. I thought that was a great idea - plus I just thought it sounded like fun. I've been using google images and imdb.com and have found a lot of faces that match my characters, or come close. My poor main character, however - I've found about seven different people that come close to looking like her, but no one is still "the perfect one." I think it might be that when I think of her, I think of me. So I need to grow my hair out and dye it, get more freckles, and wear contact lenses that are a different color, then take a picture of myself. Simple enough...

Once I decide for certain on who my characters look-a-likes are, I post some names and faces!

"Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in my mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul." --Henrik Ibsen