Whatever you do, love your characters
Characters are essential. They drive the plot. You have to know your characters in order to see their motivations-i.e, why they do what they do. While writing, you have to love your characters.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t have them go through bad things. Writing is all about conflict. However, it means that the bad things make sense. They grow the character and they change them. The conflict is supposed to mean something to them, to match their weaknesses. The conflict moves the story to where the characters need to be. The impact is not watered down or contrived, but working towards a purpose for the character.
Then you get to bring your character back out. You get to watch them rage and cry and mourn, and then you get to bring them to happiness, light, and love. Love your characters. Make their conflicts count. Don’t drown them in an endless pit of sorrow-that will make it all meaningless. They need range to feel real.
Love your characters. Love their flaws, their conflicts, their emotions. If you love your characters, you write them how they are meant to be written-no personality changes, but natural growth.If you love your characters, you can write every shade of them as needed. If you love your characters, you’re going to make their feelings matter and that is going to be an essential core of whatever you are writing.
Love your characters. They’re made by you, anyways.
