You decide which characters you want and then do the best you can to bring their humanity to the forefront in the context that you place them in - the crises in which you've placed them.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I guess you could say that no matter what the characters are enduring, I try to make them retain their humanity. Their self-absorbed, grouchy, selfish, aggravating humanity.
The goal is to have every character take on a life of his or her own. Sometimes characters will come into the story that I haven't planned.
The best characters to play are the ones who have deep internal conflict.
Invite characters of surprising and moral character, or at least those who grapple with what is right or those who make decisions that shock.
I don't start with the characters. I start with the series of events that will provide the conflict and how it can be resolved. Characters are incidental.
There are always great deals of humanity in the characters that have been offered to me.
Most people feel that they are the heroes of their own lives and that they're good people. So if they're in a crisis, they feel an understandable urge to set out their own version of events.
I start with an idea or a problem or a conflict, or even a situation that might be pertinent to the lives of young people, then the characters grow from that point. I try to make strong characters that change and develop and learn from their mistakes.
The fundamentals for me are character and conflict. I put character first because readers will be indifferent to conflict if they are indifferent to the character who is experiencing it.
A lot of readers want characters to behave in a responsible way, or they want to understand the characters' dilemma and act, in a way, on their behalf.
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