Believable, living characters make a story, novel, article live and breathe, too. Several tips can help the writer create a "can't put it down" manuscript that could catch the eye of an agent or publisher and finally readers.
* Know your characters. Create a life, likes, hates, etc. for each characters. Even if most of the information never makes its way into the plot/story. The more real a character is to you, the writer, the more believable he or she will be to others.
Personally, I make a chart for my characters, listing even unimportant aspects such as favorite color, food likes and dislikes, as well as major components of their personalities and physical appearances.
* Characters needs strengths and weaknesses. Whether characters are likable or unlikable, they need good traits or strengths and bad traits or weaknesses. No living person is one dimensional, so neither should fictitious ones be. Even Superman had one weakness, even if an external one.
One sub-point - characters can be unlikable, protagonists, or evil without being excessively vulgar or profane.
* Flaws and passions should be revealed in layers. This idea ties into "show, don't tell." A writer can write a paragraph or more explaining the personality traits, feelings, strengths, and/or weaknesses of a character, boring a reader to tears, or the author can reveal layer by layer of the character through the plot and storyline - showing the reader the character rather than telling about the character.
* Be able to "show" your characters' intentions. Thomas Mullen, author of The Last Town on Earth, stated when interviewed for the January 2008 The Writer: "I wanted to create a novel in which all the characters are motivated by good intentions, so I could play with the conflicts that would nevertheless result."
Yes, some characters in some stories or novels have evil intentions; but sometimes bad things can happen even if a character has good intentions. Knowing your characters intentions and revealing them through the plot helps make living breathing characters.
If you, the writer, know the whys and hows of your characters actions, thoughts, and words, then you can help the reader know, too.
* Observe and listen to people around you, or use your memory. Watch how people act and react. Listen to how they talk. Remember people you knew and how they acted and reacted, their foibles. Use those ideas in developing characters.
Those are a few tips for developing characters that breathe, that live for anyone who reads your work.
After teaching composition for twenty-five years and becoming an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ a site for Stories, Vivian Gilbert Zabel produced Hidden Lies and Other Stores, Walking the Earth:, The Base Stealers Club, and Case of the Missing Coach, found on Amazon.com.
Source: www.articlesbase.com