When it comes to writing fiction, it’s all about character. Even in genre fiction, where plot may be seen to rule, it’s still all about character. As my editor, Pete Wolverton of Minotaur/ St. Martin’s Press, and the recipient of the prestigious Ellery Queen Award, likes to remind me, “Readers come for the mystery, but they stay for the characters.”
Amen to that. Here’s a round-up of some our best writers, past and present, sharing their tips on creating iconic characters that endear themselves to readers.
“Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
“Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.”
— Isabel Allende
“The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.”
― Raymond Chandler
“Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.”
― John Banville
“Action is character.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
“When I write a screenplay, I create an emotional map, where the characters are, where they’re going and where they’ve been.”
― Ava DuVernay
“The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.”
― Milan Kundera
“If you’re silent for a long time, people just arrive in your mind.”
― Alice Walker
“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”
― Stephen King
“Once I learned to value and respect my characters, I could really hear them. I let them start talking.”
― August Wilson
“Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters’ stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist’s.”
― Sarah Waters
“One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.”
― Chuck Palahniuk
“Don’t write about a character. Become that character, and then write your story.”
― Ethan Canin
“Characters are not created by writers. They pre-exist and have to be found.”
― Elizabeth Bowen
“In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations!”
― Anton Chekhov
“For me, writing always starts with character. The big picture ideas stem from them. I dig into what made my character and how that translates into their world. When I am trying to figure out what motivates character, I am digging further down into them. I am trying to get closer and closer to who they are.”
― Celeste Ng
“You are not your characters, but your characters are you.”
― Raymond Carver
“You can never know enough about your characters.”
― W. Somerset Maugham
“I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can’t do anything anyway.”
― Toni Morrison
This post originally appeared on Career Authors