How do some writers make characters leap off the page and into our hearts? By making us get to know the characters so well that we love them or hate them.

To have a character that takes root in a reader’s heart, first he must take root in the writer’s heart. This can’t happen if we start writing with only a nebulous idea of who the character is or why he acts the way he does. We have to get to know the character almost better than we know ourselves. So how do we get to know our characters well enough to bring them to life?

Characterization worksheets can be found all over the Internet, and almost every writer has heard of them. They are the worksheets that ask for information like hair color, eye color, height, weight, home address. Yet that information gives you a driver’s license, not a character.

How do you describe your best friend? Do you list hair color, weight, and physical traits? Or do you name all the things about that person that make her who she is? For instance, a friend of mine jokes about everything, loves to window shop, loves to travel, and always wears platform shoes to make herself appear taller. That tells you more about her than a mere physical description.

Certainly the worksheet is helpful in creating the initial picture of the person in your mind, and for that reason I use one. But I do more than that. I sit down and have a confidential conversation with my characters. Here is my process.

• First: I find a picture of a person that I think is what my character looks like. I hang this on my corkboard over my desk. Right now, Emmy is smiling back at me with her cocky grin and a hand on her hip. Tate is grinning proudly at me with a scar over his left eyebrow from the time he fell out of a tree when he was six.

• Next: I fill out a characterization worksheet for each main character. Here is where I decide birthday, sun sign, birth order, family dynamics, and childhood traumas and successes.

• Last: I interview my characters, one at a time. I ask what they think of other characters, why they plan on doing certain things, what are their hopes for the future.

This is when I get to know my characters’ voices. This is when hidden motivations are revealed. This is when I get to know the inner workings of each of their hearts and minds.

After I’ve done the interviews, I feel like I know my characters better than they know themselves. At this point, they are like real people to me. Armed with the information revealed through this process, my characters remain true to themselves and their motivations through the entire story or novel.

For information on the Bad Boy Character Archetype, see my Suite 101 page.