- Do you really know your character? And remember your character has to be their own person - yes, you can use yourself as a starting point but you need to add on to that or your character will be restricted by how you feel, what you’ve experienced.
- It pays to read history, biographies and autobiographies. It’s a good way of “gaining” other experiences on which to build your character/story. Stories which have echoes in the past linger in the memory - or at least they do mine! You may find inspiration for stories - after all what, for example, did drive Isambard Kingdom Brunel in his wonderful engineering works? How did his family/employees cope with him? What were their lives like with Brunel as a huge catalyst around them? Dig deep. Emotions can kick-start stories - someone resents another person for being a “slave driver”. Where could that tale go?
- Make sure your characters have flaws and that these are things readers can identify with. Make sure your characters have virtues which most readers can flatter themselves they have too. You want a well balanced character and that goes for the villains too. The only villains where it is expected hamming up will take place are Mr Toad for Wind in the Willows and Cruella de Ville in 101 Dalmatians.
- Can you visualize where your world is? Mine’s loosely based on scenic Scotland without the midges but with fire breathing dragons. I’d rather put up with the midges (you can use Jungle Formula on them for one thing, just try doing that with a dragon and see where it gets you!).
- I allow for the use of magical energy to drain my characters. The fairies especially have to top up regularly from the Fountain of Youth. Do your characters get tired? Perform magically worse? Can they get diseases? Can they die? What makes them vulnerable?