Forms & Techniques: Kicking life into your characters

This month marks the 22nd year of the Simpsons. I remember when the cartoon family first made their appearance on the Tracy Ulman Show in a cameo spot. At that time, the illustrations were even more crudely drawn and the characters vanilla. Two decades later, the illustrations are consistent and smooth. But even more refined, amazingly so, are the characters. So much so, that their personalities have become like real people, cementing themselves in pop culture. When you hear the line, "Don't have a cow, man," you associate it immediately with a mischievous, disrespectful, razor-haired renegade named, Bart Simpson.

How do we as writers, kick this kind of life into the characters in our stories? Most of us don't have 20 years to develop our characters. But we can learn from the Simpsons. Sometimes it is helpful to let your characters take on their personality naturally instead of forcing it upon them. This can be done by finishing your story/novel first, and then going back to flesh out your characters. This allows for unexpected twists and turns to unfold, often bringing out personality traits that you would have never thought of giving your characters in the outline stages of your story.

At least, this is what I have found works for me. How about you? What techniques have you found helpful in creating memorable characters?



Carolyn Frank lives in Kaysvile, Utah with her husband and teenage daughter Danielle, her other four children having fled the nest, but still live close by (thank heavens).
She has been writing seriously for the past six years and will be self-publishing her first book, Promises this year. Promises is a middle-grade historical fiction about a timid girl who learns to stand up for herself.

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