Do your characters seem real to you?

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Vivian Paschal
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Re: Do your characters seem real to you?

Post by Vivian Paschal »

My characters seem real to me all the time. I try to write how people would react to certain situations if they were real. Sometimes, some characters are based on people I know, with their awareness, of course. I wouldn't want to go on with a book when the characters seem unreal because it would make the entire novel feel unreal.
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ebethina
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Post by ebethina »

I have experienced times in certain books where the characters seem real to me. That to me means good writing.
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Jamjam1111
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Post by Jamjam1111 »

Yes of course, everytime a main character dies, it breaks my heart specially the revealing of the true side of the characters makes it more thrilling
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Penny Lee
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Post by Penny Lee »

My characters seem real to me, and I hope that is conveyed to the reader as well. I love to read novels where the characters seem to come to life, and you almost seem to experience the story with them. That is good character writing! When there isn't much character development, or too much telling and not enough showing, it's difficult to care about the characters and get into the story.
Littera scripta manet -- the written word remains.
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DesireeRose
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Post by DesireeRose »

This is a really interesting question. My characters do seem very real to me, and my biggest goal when I write is to make them feel real to others. I believe I struggle with that, but I'm going to keep on trying until I find the secret recipe.
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aby johnson
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Post by aby johnson »

Not always because some authors don't develop their characters enough and that makes them unreal. On the other hand, Murakami for instance makes his characters so life like that we can relate to them as well as believe them to be real.
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EReid
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Post by EReid »

Some of my characters do seem very real, especially ones that have been living in a world in my head for a long time.
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63tty
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Post by 63tty »

All the books I've read so far do have realistic characters. I cant complain.
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karineyn
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Post by karineyn »

It reminds me of Alice Walker who moves to a specific house because she believes the characters in Color Purple demand it.

When I write fiction, it is at first hard for me to come up with characters who feel real, but after I am done, they definitely do feel real to me.
dennisbragra
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Post by dennisbragra »

My characters are always real in my head. At times i get disappointed when a book is converted to a movie and the characters are different from how i pictured them
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human reader
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Post by human reader »

I love this question. Yes, my characters do feel real to me, as if they are somewhere existing and asking me to tell this world about them. Something that enhances this sensation is when I "know" something about the character that I haven't been able to include yet, or I put in a draft that I took out so it's not in the "canon" at this point. It's like knowing details about a person you haven't told others because it hasn't come up in conversation.
Frank Mutuma
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Post by Frank Mutuma »

The fantasy world created by George Martin seems very real for me. I even got traumatized by the red wedding. I think I had got used so much to the characters
latesummer93
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Post by latesummer93 »

Honestly, I don't even put words down for the first draft until my characters feel real to me. I don't do character questionnaires or anything like that, but I like to sit down with a notebook and a cup of coffee several times and just feel the characters out before I begin writing. It helps me flesh them out and really dive into their personality before the story actually begins. By the time I'm ready to actually start drafting, the characters feel like they could be real people.
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Jen Nghishitende
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Post by Jen Nghishitende »

Yes!!! most fiction I read is mostly based on real life events nd sometimes I get so connected with the characters.
Xylina Graf
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Post by Xylina Graf »

No, I'm generally used to separating fictional characters from real-life people.
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