When the characters are really alive before their author, the latter does nothing but follow them in their action, in their words, in the situations which they suggest to him.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The reader is going to imprint on the characters he sees first. He is going to expect to see these people often, to have them figure largely into the story, possibly to care about them. Usually, this will be the protagonist.
It's hard to know whether certain characters come to life or not, they either come to have their own life or they don't. I've written many things in which the characters just remain inert.
In a lot of cases, writers discover that the novel needs to begin later in the action than they'd first thought.
Novels attempt to render human experience; that's really all they are. They are meant to convey empathy for the character.
The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters.
I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.
I think the idea is to try and understand everything about the characters and where the character is coming from, from their point of view, why they say what they do. And not, 'Oh, but I would never say that. Why does the character say that?' But then making it as personal as possible.
The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
In real life, people are constantly saying one thing and doing another, but if you write your characters that way, the story becomes too hard to follow.
An author's characters do what he wants them to do.