Programme Five: Creating character

Actors start their characters with appearance - so do writers

Characters are people too

An exercise about a person you know well can help bring your characters to life.

The fifth visit to Ian McMillan’s Writing Lab will explore an area of prose fiction that often seems shrouded in mystery: creating character.

Ian and his guide, the novelist Susan Elderkin, cut through the mystical notion that characters simply "come to you" when you're writing, exploring practical techniques to create believable, living characters.

They hear from the novelists Rose Tremain, Howard Jacobson and Bali Rai about how they people their novels, and the programme offers advice on:

Starting with a character's physical appearance
Why exaggerating characters' traits can be useful - and not just in comic writing
The importance of where characters come from
How to show how a character is feeling visually rather than trying to describe their emotional state

Plus: why you shouldn't necessarily start writing straight away...

Content last updated: 14/12/2006