Making your character shine

Remember the days of before responsibilities sat upon your shoulders? Before promises that were made had to be kept? That feeling of freedom and independence? I do, I mourn the loss of it. I am a mother of 2 and a wife, not to mention a daughter and a whole slew of other titles. Now that I am older I have to embrace them and carry on and try not to look backwards overly much and wish I could have changed the path I am now set upon. Sometimes I feel as if I have lost little pieces of me along the way. At first I did not notice them, now I can sense that they are missing and cannot be retrieved. It's saddening to me.

I am disappointed in a way of how things turned out for me, I had wanted a much different outcome. Now I am faced with altering that. Sure I could throw all my responsibilities to the wind and savor my new found freedom, but in the end how many lives would that damage? Too many to count. So in small ways I am striving to hang on to the "ME' that is me, not to become a cookie cutter cut out person. That is what makes a person a person and not a clone.

So in our writing we need to remember that a character is not truly real until they have those quirks that makes us all individual and special. Would you love your mom as much if she was like all the mothers on the block? Would your best friend be your best friend if they were the same as everyone else? The world is colored with many hues and shapes, the same goes for people. We all have flaws and strengths, make sure that your characters are the same. No single person is perfect in all ways, even "SUPERMAN" has his flaws. Think about how these traits can help your plot along and how the flaws can too. The key to developing your character is to know them, and I mean know them. Are they a boxers or briefs kind of person, what is their favorite flower, does someone smacking gum drive them crazy? Get inside their head and figure them out and then your story will take off and fly.