One of my students, Tammy S, has asked to see this article again. It appeared first in Learning Curve's 'Becoming a Writer' Guide last year. Hope it is of interest to others too...

You want to know about people. You want to know what makes them tick. You've spent most of your life listening to the way people talk, watching how they behave. They intrigue you, they madden you, they fascinate you.

Somebody Else's Shoes, Paul Magrs.

Characters are a key aspect of any piece of fiction. They are often the reason a reader picks up a story - as well as what a story is about, we want to know who it is about.

perspective on the world

We each have our own, unique perspective on the world and this is as true for your characters as it is for real people. In addition, we each relate to other people in our own, quite unique, way.

Select one of the main characters from a story you are working on at the moment. How do other people see your chosen character? What do they see as his/her strengths and limitations?

For example, do they see him/her as warm, friendly and approachable or does he/she often come across as critical, cross or distant?

To what extent is your character aware of how others see him/her?

Often, just as in real-life, your characters will be oblivious to the way other people see them. This is because there are often parts of ourselves that we are unaware of. We may not realise just what messages we are giving out to people through our body language, facial expression, tone of voice or attitude.

where it all began

The way your characters choose to present themselves to other people gives some important clues about how they see their inner world.

Each one of us consciously has to create an understanding of the life in which we find ourselves. This process has been compared to making a map or a model which we can use as an aid to making decisions about what we should do to survive. This representation determines to a large degree how we perceive the choices available to us as we go through life.

No two people have exactly the same map. Even people born into the same family often have very different perceptions of what happens to them during childhood. Your characters will have their own, unique perception of their life and experiences. The next exercise aims to demonstrate this.

Stand by an open window and look at the view. If you don't have a window handy, imagine that you are looking at a beautiful landscape through an open window. Now close the window and notice the differences. The change might be significant, for instance the window might be dirty, or the glass distorted, or it might be subtle, perhaps with a small mark on the glass or part of the view cut off by the frame.

Collect different types of spectacles and sunglasses and experiment with each of them, noticing how they change the view you have. Write down some of the differences you have noticed.

You might think of each of your characters as having their own, unique 'lens' through which they look at life.

Just as our sight is affected by different filters, our perceptions are affected by mental filters like:

- individual genetic inheritance which, as we have seen predisposes us in certain ways

- the time and place of our birth, the family into which we were born and the way we are brought up

- our unique personality, the collection of likes, dislikes, moral values, habits and so on which go to make up our individual response.

For instance, two brothers growing up in the same family might develop very different perceptions of their world. One might say 'My parents were caring but I knew that they really preferred my brother. They tried to be fair, but they definitely liked him better.' The other might say, 'I was unhappy as a child. My parents didn't love me as much as they loved my brother and they never hid the fact.' The parents' point of view is that they were trying their hardest not to show either child any favoured treatment! Each of the brothers has created her own model of the world they shared.

The influential nature of these models can be seen in the way your characters manage crisis points in their life. Some have little difficulty, experiencing them as times of challenge, while others, faced with the same situations, experience fear, anxiety and pain. One way of explaining such different responses to similar situations is that everyone is making choices out of their own particular model. It is not so much that people are making bad choices; rather their model does not offer enough options.

It follows from all this that the way we each see ourselves is crucial to the way we respond to life experiences and stress. As an author, if you wish to bring a character's perspective to life effectively you need to be able to share his or her 'model' or perception of the world - to have empathy with him or her - even if you do not necessarily agree with them.