Or do you? Look around you. Maybe not right now as you might be sitting on your computer in your own home. But next time you're out for a walk or on your way to work, glance around. There are people. More people if you live in the city, but there are still people out in the country. People going to work, people you live with, extended family. We all know some people. And we can observe more still. With so many people around, how can any writer claim to run out of characters for a book?
So this week I looked around. I watched friends and family, I watched people at the grocery store, and I watched families as I took my own children sledding this past weekend. Some of these people probably thought I was pretty strange with my notepad and pen, but that's okay. I watched and I listened. And I had a lot of fun as I realized once again that people are just plain weird. "Truth is stranger than fiction" has never been more real than it was this past week.
But all these people will make great characters. And I had a lot of fun imagining what they'd do in the situations in my novels. It was exciting and entertaining and certainly useful. There are so many different people in the world that I quickly found myself with more characters than I needed. Some of them are neatly written down and stored in my filing cabinet for future use in whatever story I come up with next.
So if you're having trouble creating well rounded characters, look to your neighbors. And your family. And whoever else you happen to encounter. Then insert them into a fictional situation and see what happens. Just remember to change everyone's name so they don't recognize themselves!
