E.A. Brady

Probably the most fun in writing for me is working on characters. Coming up with a “new” person out of nothingness is a total blast. Except I don’t really bring them out of nothingness.

When I watch TV or movies, I like to pay attention to the way the characters behave – whether or not their actions match up with what we already know about them. Then I imagine how that character would behave as part of a romance novel couple, or even as a side character.

I find a photo of the actor or actress, save it to a Pinterest board and spend some time thinking about how I could shape that character into someone I could use. It may be as simple as the way he looks at her when she does something silly. Or the way he puts his hand on her back, possessive, and totally hot, when he finally gets his dance (I’m looking at you, Captain America!)

Once I know the basics of who my character is, I pull out the trusty Myers-Briggs personality profiles and start looking through them until one will jump out at me as THE personality for the character.

I sift through the various personality traits, both positive and negative, and I imagine the ones that are strongest in the character. If one of their traits is “shy,” I will start asking questions to learn more about them.

Is he shy around everyone, or only in crowds? Does his shyness ever get mistaken for snobbishness? Has his shyness ever caused hard feelings, or perhaps left a potential lover wondering if he really was interested in her? Are there people, maybe friends or siblings, with whom he is not shy at all?

I pick a few different traits and do the same thing, asking question after question, and writing down my answers so I don’t forget them!

After I have one of my main characters, I know that his lover must be someone with different strengths and weaknesses than he has, in order for them to complement each other.  Then I run through the same personality trait exercise with the love interest.

It takes a while to drill down into the psyches of these new characters, and what happened to them in their pasts that made them the people they are when the story starts. But aside from being necessary to the story, it’s a just a lot of fun.

If you’re a writer, how do you develop your characters?

If you’re a reader, what kinds of characters do you like? What kinds of chemistry keep you reading long past your bedtime?