Creating Compelling Characters for Your Story

Ever thought about

bringing characters to life,

born from your very being?

I'll let you in on

what kind of flavour to use.

It's like being absent,

feeling nothing at all,

while you’re implanting your own feelings

into someone else.

Characters in your book:

They exist independently, not as extensions of you.

They experience life and death, and feel fear.

They yearn for things.

They do all the things you dream of doing.

Curled up on the floor, terrified,

I realized

people never quite

lived up to my expectations.

So, I began inventing them,

building new lives from fragments of reality,

carefully crafting each detail

to tell a different story.

Each time I wrote, I felt alive.

I inhabited the lives

of my characters, paper-thin yet vibrant,

doing impossible things,

soaring through lands and moods.

A simple trade occurred

within these walls,

over passaging time.

The more I engaged, the more I lost sight

of the things in my life.

There is nothing much more than this.

I live a life

that isn't mine.

Unbidden, I chose this path.

That impulse drove me there,

a longing to be on display,

popular and admired,

for once.

But if it ever happens,

it'll be my characters, not me.

The curtain's lifted, so we'll see.