Fiction Thursday: Creating New Characters

Now that I have Bean, I've been thinking a lot about how amazing it is to have new life around. I love seeing him grow and change every day, and being such a major part of his life.

Having Bean has also got me to thinking about the creation of characters in fiction.

Writers can be very protective of their characters. It's understandable; you create a person from nothing, direct his or her actions, and then send that person out into the world to connect with other people. It's not unlike raising a child, really, although with fictional characters, you have quite a bit more control over the end result.

There is a big difference between raising a child and creating a character, though. Well, besides the obvious.

With a child, you are witness to the development, involved in it, but acting more as a shepherd. Your job is to give your child the tools to make good decisions, then let him or her make the decisions, good or bad, and love the child no matter what decisions are made. You influence your child, but ultimately, he or she is separate from you.

With a character, on the other hand, you create a fully-formed individual (particularly if your character is an adult). There is no guidance, or giving him or her tools to make decisions. Every single aspect of a characters life is crafted by the author. From looks to personality to character flaws to clothing "choices". Everything is created and carefully chosen. With characters, there's no need to worry about how they'll "turn out," because it's up to you as the writer.

I have created characters, and I'm in the beginning stages of raising a child. I think it's too early to tell which is easier.