How do you get ideas for your char­ac­ters? Describe the process of cre­at­ing them.

I usually let characters develop themselves, and they almost always change in response to other characters development. Basically, I develop characters through relationships. Dynamics. Hm, what’s the best way to describe this…

For example, let’s take a look at comedy. Comedy duos almost always feature two characters- the funny-man and the straight-man. The contrast is essential to the humor and thus success of the comedy. I treat the development of my characters the same way. They’re not individuals, they’re actually one segment of a larger creature, which is the cast for the story.

 If the cast is missing an element I feel is needed to round out the story’s appeal, one or more of the characters will shift to fill out the requirement. I don’t normally consciously acknowledge this when I’m first starting. The characters develop intuitively, and usually I know who they should be by the time the story is through the first act. This often requires that I go back and re-write the entire beginning, but that’s fine.

After I get the first draft done, beginning to end, then I can re-read it and see if I find any holes or things that don’t feel right. Then -and only then- can I really start applying roles to characters and see what’s going on. With that in mind, I can do the next draft.