Characterization

Fictional characters are like any living, breathing members of society, and as such they're as capable of being helpful as they are of being ornery SOBs who block your creative juices at every plot turn and twist. They're the meat, though, the foundation, and you're as likely to have a good story without dynamic characters as you are to have an agreeable meat pie from Mrs. Lovett. A rotten experience all around, folks.

This is likely to be a multi-part post, so I'll start with the basics and build up as we go.

Character inspiration is available literally anywhere. If you have a quirky Grandma Sue you think would be perfect for your character's crazy Nana, by all means, draw from her. But change her up a bit. Drawing complete ideas from works is called plagiarism. Your grandma won't sue you (that's not wishful thinking, I hope), but she may notice something's afoot if crazy Nana also owns six cats and just so happens to attend Line Dancing on Friday nights.

Your stories are the only place where you get to play God (Mother Earth, Yahweh, an ethereal, agnostic presence ... whatever), so why would you stick to the originals? Sims offers the same opportunity, but you can only kill your people in a kitchen fire so many times before the monotony sets in.

If you grew up with a pretty vanilla family, or if no one around you fits the right character label but you want a little foundation, try altering the stereotypes. That blonde cheerleader who's head of the dance team and fills her Marc Jacobs quota each weekend? Give her a gimp leg and a fetish for gerbils and skull jewelry. Now what's she like?

There's a secret, though. Something to make all the time-staking, brutal attention to detail worth it, and it's to write what interests you. If you have an absolutely bitchin' character profile on a dealer from the slums who happens to enjoy a helping of Phish Food and Will & Grace reruns while he cleans his guns at night, but your genre of choice is science fiction, your bitchin' badass might not be the best choice.

Another secret: Be thorough. It's not enough to toss Sara into the desert with brown hair, freckles, and a hefty waistline. What would she do? (Never mind how the hell she got there--I'm tackling plot structure next.)

So she has a dog, a complicated phobia of vegetables, and thinks Bruno Mars is the absolute shizz. Awesome. Now what's her favorite food? Color? What's she like to do in her spare time? Whether it applies or not, it's all the nitty-gritty details that really form a character readers want to read. One of my favorite characterization sheets to use is right here.