Learn how to create great characters that will make your horror fiction believable.
When writing horror fiction, believable characters serve to convince readers that monsters do exist and you should always fear the things that go bump in the night. Without making your characters real, speculative fiction is often doomed to failure.
Cheap and Easy Characters
What makes a great character? Is characterization simply a name you spotted in a baby book or an online name generator? Is it a sparkling description so crisp that you can picture the character in your mind’s eye, right down to the constantly askew blonde bangs, steely blue eyes, and that mole shaped like Rhode Island?
No, of course it’s not! Names and descriptions are but a small part of the character equation. Believing they are the sum of a character is a lazy (and very likely unpublished) writer’s way to characterization. You wind up with flat, cardboard characters that will do nothing for your story. There will be time for names and descriptions later, after you know more about your character.
Breathe Life into Your Characters
So, what does it take to write believable characters that your readers will follow to the end of the story?
Well, you have to think of your characters as real people. Get to know them. Give them a past, give them dreams, and give them fears. Bring them to life. Know the little things about them, things that will probably never even make it into your manuscript. This intimate knowledge will transfer to your characters when you write them.
But how do you get this kind of information out of your characters?
Keep a Character Notebook
This doesn’t have to be a notebook necessarily. It could be index cards or a separate file on your computer. This is where you will catalog all the ideas, both quirky and mundane, that you have about your characters.
For example, you may write something along the lines of Mitch hates bologna.
Okay, so the guy doesn’t like lunchmeat. Now delve deeper and ask why he hates bologna. Pretend you’re interviewing him if that helps.
Could it be that a kid on those old Oscar Meyer commercials reminds him of a schoolyard bully? Could it be that his parents were neglectful and fed him gobs of the stuff when he was a child because it was easier than making dinner? And now even the smell of bologna brings up childhood resentment? Or maybe he just doesn’t like the taste. It’s up to Mitch to tell you.
A List of Sample Questions for your Character Notebook
· What makes him get out of bed (or perhaps the coffin) everyday?
· What does he fear most?
· Where did he grow up?
· Who are his friends?
· What does he do for a living?
· What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened in his life?
· What does he want above all else?
Not everything you put into this file will be useful in moving your plot along, but it should help you get a better understanding of all those imaginary people running around in your head. Keep asking your characters new questions and keep logging them down in your notebook.
Read to see how masters of characterization create great characters. Read Stephen King, and Dean Koontz, and read writers outside the horror genre such as J.K. Rowling.
When creating characters for horror fiction, pretend you are Dr. Frankenstein. Take those flat, dead characters and give them a jolt. Before you know it, they will come to life. And your readers will love you for it.
