Create a Character the Readers Won't Forget

Which of us doesn't want to create a character that will live on in a reader's imagination long after they have turned the final page?

The trouble is, even if you follow all of the advice up to this point in the Creating Characters section, there is still the danger that you could create a character who is - well, a little on the boring side!

• Just because you have taken the trouble to get to know your fictional characters by writing mini-biographies for them, it doesn't mean that they will shine brightly on the page. They will be believable, yes, but not necessarily memorable.

• Just because you have created characters the readers are sure to care about, it doesn't mean that they will continue to care about them - or even remember them - after they have finished the novel.

• Just because you have made the major characters fully rounded by furnishing them with a complexity of traits and motives, it won't stop them from being three-dimensionally dull!

What I am talking about here is providing all of your characters - both the Major and Minor Characters - with a kind of "X Factor," or an indefinable quality which makes them shine like stars from their very first appearance until long after the reader has turned the novel's final page.

And you know what? I happen to have the perfect recipe to create a character the readers won't forget. It involves two stages...

• First, you must make the characters memorable, and I will tell you precisely how to do this in a moment.

• Second, you need to prevent the character's memorability from becoming just plain annoying (we all know people like that!) - and I will show you precisely how to do that, too.