Something important MUST be at stake in your story. If not literal life or death, then metaphorical life or death. When there’s nothing at stake, readers don’t care, and they won’t read.
For readers to care, your characters must care.
Let’s look at ways to create killers, saints, and idiots.
1. One-word characterization: “killer”, “saint”, “idiot”…
Here’s an easy trick you can use to plan, plot, and create characters for all fiction.
Start with a one-word characterization: he’s not (undecided name), he’s the killer. She isn’t (undecided name), she’s the saint.
