CREATIVE WRITING BUILDING BLOCKS

Author and tutor Ian Ayris provides you with deep insights into how you can make your characters feel real, using an example story

In the first parts of our examination of the Building Block of Character, we briefly looked at the fundamental aspects of the Main Character – who they are, what they want and why they are in this particular story. In Part Three, we will broaden our study to take a look at how to make our characters feel real.

Our examination of the Building Block of Character is based on a short story I wrote several years ago, called ‘Sundays’. The short story can be found in the previous issue and also online at: https://bit.ly/IanAyrisSundays

Recap

Let us first reintroduce the characters in this story:

Main Character: Unnamed Boy

Antagonist/Nemesis Dad

Secondary character Mum

Secondary secondary characters Auntie Cheryl

Uncle Pete The terminology I have used to describe the function of the characters above is purely optional. Call them whatever you want. But know the function. Their function, as discussed in Part One of our look at Character, are as follows:

Main character the character around whom the story revolves

Antagonist/Nemesis exists to make it difficult for the MC to achieve their goal

Secondary characters important to the story due to their relationship with MC or Antagonist

Secondary secondary characters background characters

First of all, a note on the narration . . .