In a post on CrimeReads, J.A. Jance offers advice on creating believable characters. “As writers, it’s our responsibility to bring our characters, both major and minor—to life outside the lines of the manuscript,” he says. “Don’t just slap a name on new characters—think about them long enough to get to know them before ever putting fingers on my keyboard.”
That sounds easy but it’s not. “Coming to terms with who characters are and how they’ll behave under certain conditions is a process that often entails countless nights of wrestling with who they are, where they came from, and what makes them tick,” Vance writes. “In that regard, the devil is in the details, because it’s those tiny pieces of a character’s history and background that will create someone who’s a living, breathing entity as opposed to a flat and lifeless paper doll.”
