Writing Three-Dimensional Characters

Understanding how to write stories that have believable characters (what are often referred to as "three-dimensional" characters) will be one of the most important things when you are getting started as a writer, and while this might seem on the surface as though it would be fairly easy to do, it is often something that writers struggle with - and in fact, it is often one of the main things that stands in the way of a writer stripping the word "aspiring" off the tag of "aspiring author."

When it comes to creating characters who feel three-dimensional to the reader, one of the best ways is to get to know the characters before you ever start writing; some ideas for getting to know characters range from writing short stories with the characters in them to exploring each character's background and upbringing to even having each of your characters answer a "questionnaire" that will help you to get to know them.

Even after you have taken the time to get to know your characters fairly well, it can still be difficult to convey the things you have learned about them in such a way that the characters feel real to the reader; the natural inclination for many writers is to explain things to the reader, but realize that a character will be much more believable when you allow the reader to "see" things instead of explaining things to them - letting the character's personality and composition show through in their actions and in their dialogue, rather than in the things you say about them as the narrator.

And when it comes to creating three-dimensional characters, one of the biggest things is that you allow them to dictate what happens in the story; it is easy to come up with a plot before you start writing, and then to fill in the blanks, but when you instead approach writing with a general idea of what will happen, and then allow the characters to take the story wherever they end up taking it, the characters and the story will become much more believable!

Of course, each writer find that there are different things that help them to create characters who are truly believable - but when you keep these tips in mind, you will be well on your way to creating such characters yourself!

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