Building Believable Characters - video

Leslie Miller, co-founder of Girl Friday Productions, discusses how to include character development in nonfiction and fiction books. The first rule to create believable characters is authenticity. A reader will be drawn to a character if that character's actions, words, and motives are congruent. Authors should not make a character behave a certain way only to further the plot. Authenticity is key, which can be achieved by knowing your characters well. It's critical that the writer knows what a character would do or say in a specific moment. Characters aren't uniformly bad or good. Darth Vader wasn't one-dimensional. Authors should make inferences through characters' actions. If an author tells the readers everything they need to know, the readers will become bored. To keep readers interested in the characters and plot, make readers do some of the work.