The following are some notes I took at a previous life universe and everything symposium.

• Fantasy and SF traditionally has characters doing unbelievable things. To make them believable, they must be normal. They must have strengths and weaknesses.
• The process of creating the character is the same no matter what kind of fiction you are writing.
• The character must grow by confronting their worst fears. The most memorable characters often are the ones with the most interesting flaws (a very flawed character that the reader can feel sympathy for).
• A believable character shows people what they expect. A memorable character goes a step further.
• Unsympathetic characters must have some interesting traits to keep the reader going.
• Anti– zero versus villain: anti-hero is probably more easily cared about. (A villain operates from base, personal motives; an anti-hero does good in spite of himself). An anti-hero is different from the non-traditional hero.
• In creating characters, sometimes it’s good to get up, move around, and acted out a scene.
• It is essential to live inside the character’s skin for time, to see how they react to different things. (Michaelene Pendleton)
• Biographies are excellent sources of raw materials for characters.
• Barbara Hamblee uses the crutch of casting Hollywood actors as her characters.

Have something to add? Please do so in the comment section of this blog. Thanks.