Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Theresa Meyers | Getting Into Character
Author Guest / November 11, 2011

You know the funny thing about writing, is you get into your characters far more than you think. For a good story to grab you by the throat and hold on until you gasp, it’s critical that the characters aren’t just two-dimensional constructs. They need to have fears and weaknesses, strengths and motivations just as real as any living person. Now this is not to say that some of those fears, weaknesses, strengths and motivations aren’t just as weird as real life. Take this guy for instance. He’s passing by a funeral procession at age 12 and is forced by the people in the procession to kiss the face of the 11 year old dead girl. It changes his life. He becomes obsessed with death and becomes a leading expert in Russian on Moscow’s cemetaries. He also turns out to be the man who’s stealing young women’s corpses and has them dressed up around his home. Creepy, yes. But look at how that one singular moment changed the direction of his life. And this isn’t fiction, it’s a true story! The characters in our stories aren’t any different if they are well-developed. They have reasons for what they do, even…