character creation

Honest and Dishonest Characters

April 25, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

It is ironic that, regardless of whether you create honest or dishonest characters or both, you do have to be honest about how you create them. What do I mean by that?

I mean you create a character who is fully rounded, where readers can see why they are the way they are, even if they disagree with them, and your characters are not set up as cardboard cutouts. They have to seem real and believable, an honest creation if you like.

But you can have fun with honest and dishonest characters and naturally literature abounds with both kinds.

Tags: am writing, character creation, characters, creative writing, fiction, outlining, traits

What You Need to Know About Character Creation

April 18, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos

As I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories, I need to create a lot of characters. I do re-use some but not many compared to the numbers I’ve created in total. My characters often have one story in them, though occasionally one may play a “bit part” role in another tale.

For me, any good story of whatever length is all about what happens and, specifically, what happens to the lead character. I must know what happens to them. I must care about what happens too, even if they’re a villain and I am hoping their evil plans will fail. I also need to know whose story it is.

Tags: am reading, am writing, character attitudes, character creation, characterisation, creating characters, creative writing, dialogue, fiction, flash fiction, positive and negative sides to traits in characters, short stories, situations, what you need to know when creating characters