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- Use your characters to help you express your themes, and to show the reader what could be called the "message" of your novel. If the message is an angry one, take care not to hector the reader.
"Eloquent and sympathetic characters are vital for the reader's enjoyment of the novel. You can lose the reader with anger and the most important thing is the story - more than any message or political idea that you want to get across. You owe the reader an involving story. Then the reader will go away and think about what the story suggests about the world we're all living in."
Elliot Perlman- If your story is being told by a particular character, remember you can play tricks - your character might deliberately lying, for example.
"I don't like the kind of narrator who's a great god-like figure, looking down on everyone and seeing into their hearts and souls. I like telling a story from on the ground, through the eyes of an interesting character. This gives you a squint-eye look at what's happening and it can help you develop plot and story."
Michèle Roberts
- Bring your characters alive by imagining how they feel and think.
"A character has to have a life, and the best way of letting that happen is to hear the character talking in your head. Let them speak using "I": I think…, I feel…, I love… and so on. That's how you capture their reality and genuinely enter into their psyche."
Michèle Roberts
- You might find it helpful to prepare notes on what is sometimes called the "backstory" of a character. This is a short history of the character before they enter the novel, and it will help you legitimise and solidify their existence. But beware of creating every character in your own image! Use your own experience, and your secret desires and fears, as inspiration.
"If you find that a backstory is entirely your own, then you're writing autobiography and perhaps you'd better confess to it! You must make sure that you're not simply writing autobiography because if you are, you're perhaps writing for personal catharsis rather than perfecting your craft as a storyteller."
Elliot Perlman
"I use autobiographical material, I admit it's there, and then I write about something I desire madly but have never let myself do, for example. That way you use the energy of autobiography but avoid writing a journalistic account of something you already know."
Michèle Roberts
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