If you don’t know, how can you write compelling characters? All our characters, in a sense, wear a mask. Some wear many masks and until we can “see” behind those masks, we don’t know who they are. Sure, you can give them a past and all the other “typical” information that goes with creating a character, but you have to step into their shoes, slip into their skin and get inside their head—almost literally.
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he …

In writing the story before you write the story we’re going to discuss a method that some writers use to workout their back story and characters.
Back story is, in a sense, the character’s driving force, the motive for why he/she wants something so badly. Back story should be cleverly injected into the story. No one wants to sit and read pages and pages of back story. For this reason, you should give the reader just enough back story throughout the main story to keep them wondering. Sometimes it will spark …

Stories generally begin with either a plot or a character. Some writers come up with a great plot before they start working on a character. Most writers, however, begin with a character and then follow him/her through the plot. They use a lot of “what if” scenarios. Either way, you can’t have one without the other; building a great, solid character is one of, if not, the most important aspects of a good story.
There are many ways to build characters and each writer develops his/her own style and process for …