Places Characters Come From

Have a question? Agree, disagree,
with me? Leave me your opinion.

People you know, memory and strangers
are excellent places fictional characters
come from. Let's take a closer look.

People You Know
•Many writers take traits, qualities, from friends or family.
•You know their strengths and weaknesses.
•The key is to pluck away enough information for a starting point.

A character in my mystery has an arthritic knee, limps and have been seen rubbing it. My mother suffered with the condition, same place.

A writer peeling away exact traits, qualities, stands a chance of hurting feelings or a law-suit. Therefore, characters should be the "stuff'" of a writer's creative flow.

Memory
•It holds many possible writing ideas.
•Memories of what happened to you provide an endless source for creating characters.

Begin by selecting an incident, time, from memory.

An incident from your first job is worth exploring. Or, a happy moment at a specific job lends itself to creating characters.

Strangers
•The stranger that gave you an ice-cold stare can twist down paths.
•The character could be a stalker.
•A character is paid to scare someone? Who?
•A character missed a "meet-up" date.

Finally, fictional characters come from various places, and sprinkling in people you know, memory or strangers you've seen can create eye-catching fiction.

Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/places-characters-come-from-11065912.html