Fictional Characters

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Fictional characters are products of a writer's imagination. The characters are mixed into a make believe setting for entertainment or learning. The character isn't a real person in the sense that he/she really lives, but some fictional characters can seem like actual people. Take a look at how fictional characters become memorable.  

• Fictional characters must be believable and interesting.
• Writers must know their characters to tell attention grabbing stories.
• A major character's trait or quality is the "stuff" that brings him/her to life.  

 The focus of this post is on major characters, because they move the story forward. The choices of main characters are very important. Why? The choices of main characters move secondary characters to action, gossip or more problems. The profile of my character begins. The character hacks into any business computer system at random intervals, in hopes of not being caught.   

• The character stole his/her way into employment.
• He/she gained access to the computer system and stole money.
• This fictional character lived a life-style far beyond his/her means.

A character's profile holds all the information about him/her. The name, his/her mannerisms, flaws and attributes. As with people, my fictional character gets greedy and goes too far. You, too, jot down any feature or trait that you want to dress-up the character with.   

• What will the character's eye color be?
• Will he/she have a limp? 
• The strengths, ambitions or weaknesses of the character?

The above character that stole into his employer's computer system have the weaknesses of hacking and thinking he/she's smarter than most people. This character is always trying to dig information out of people, especially secrets.   

•  The character looks for information to accounts.
•  The character tends to brag about how easy it's to steal credit card information.   
• Social security numbers are a favorite of this character too.

Look-over your character profiles. Is more needed to make a character well rounded? You have too much information which isn't show-casing the character. It's information that can be uttered by his/her actions or secondary characters?

• Character profiles are sprinkled in.
• Memorable characters display a certain flaw or trait.
• Fictional characters grab attention when the flaw or trait is believable.