Have More ____ Characters in Your Story

We all have habits that we cling to in our everyday routines. We might brush our teeth a certain way or always put the left sock on before the right. We might have a nightly ritual of checking certain sites or watching television shows. In the same way, we tend to fall into ruts in our creative lives. We develop habits of what kind of stories we should write and who should populate them. This is especially true with regard to the characters that are similar to ourselves; if you're me, you might find a lot of college-aged white female New Englanders filling your stories.

So this week, try looking back at your stories and figuring out what they're lacking. What sort of characters have been under-represented? What races, genders, classes or professions of people have you been neglecting to write about? Try filling in the blank in this post's title with whatever kind of people you've been missing out on. It doesn't have to be some sort of a demographic; it could be "have more imaginative characters in your story" or "have more emotional characters." Whatever it is, try shaking it up in your next story and incorporating a type of person you normally shy away from.

Comments

[Anita Simpson]

This is a great idea! I do worry though if the characters will be realistic, since I know little about being that character. How important is research here? What type of research is best?
Thank you,
Anita