I was honored to be asked to address the River Valley Writers in Fort Smith/Van Buren, Arkansas on Sunday, June 15 and enjoyed meeting them and chatting with them very much. When I spoke, I confessed to them that I am a “story” guy; learning (after a 30+ year gap in writing fiction) to become a “character” guy.

I can blame watching 1960s-70s episodic TV in part for that. Characters were often just names. We didn’t know why Jim Phelps wanted to work for the Impossible Missions Force or what made Lou Grant pursue journalism as a career. They just did their jobs.

But I’ve learned that characters drive your stories.

So you want your readers/listeners/viewers to care about them. Maybe love them; maybe indentify with them; maybe hate them.

I shared three things I’ve found that can bring your characters home to them (there are many, many more, but three was enough for Sunday afternoon):

You want to write your character(s) authentically, even if they are very different from you — or your audience.

You want your character(s) to make a tough choice at some point in the tale; one that costs and may have to be made among few or no good alternatives.

You want your character(s) to be changed; different at the end of the narrative in a significant way from who they were at the beginning.

What are some of the other things I didn’t share that help your audience get into your characters, and therefore your story?