Falling In Love...With a Character

More than once in my life,  I've finished a book and felt like one of the characters was out there somewhere still, if only I could find them. But I never can. And eventually I have to accept that when the book is over, my time with that character is up.

When I read The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, I sat still, alone, for thirty minutes. I was hoping that if I didn't move Susie Salmon didn't cease to exist. And since she didn't exist anymore - since what was in those pages was all I was ever going to know about her and her family - I had to figure out how to go on with my life. It sounds melodramatic, I know, but it's truly what happened. Perhaps, then, it isn't hard to believe that even though I find it nearly impossible to choose a favorite book, that one is definitely high on the list.

Actually, here's something I wrote shortly after reading that book...

A weird feeling usually comes over me when I finish a book. The characters within it are forever frozen in time, and I am left only with reality. My first instinct is to go read another book, become lost in new characters, and travel to a new world. But then I feel somewhat guilty for leaving the last characters behind so quickly. I think, though, that just as there are moments and people in my life I will never forget, there are characters, chapters, and novels that not only changed me but will always remain a part of me, as though they existed beyond mere words placed on a page.

It's obviously happened with other books, too. I kid you not, one night I was praying and thinking through everyone I needed to pray for, and nearly prayed for a character in a book I was reading who was really struggling. Nearly, but just in time I remembered she was fake. 


As an aspiring author, that feeling I've had about characters is one I certainly want to give a reader. And as always, I think the best way to learn how to write that is to look at the books that accomplish it. So how do authors create characters that we can't forget? How do they become so real?


I've thought about it a lot, and I think one of the most important requirements for me is that the character must be relatable. I clearly don't want their life to be just like mine, because half the joy of reading is exploring the unknown I might otherwise never get to see, or perhaps doesn't even exist anywhere (cough cough, Hogwarts). But for me it's important that some aspect of their thoughts, actions, motivations, or personality makes sense to me so that I feel like I am experiencing every thing that doesn't make sense along with them.


Take Susie Salmon, for example. I clearly have not had all my body parts cut up and thrown away. And, believe it or not, I'm not writing this from the afterlife (Shocking, I know!). So how did I become so attached to her? First of all, her voice. She's young and innocent. She's upset. And she's watching her family deal with life in her absence. I couldn't relate to her circumstances, but I was right beside her as she watched life progress on earth. I understood why she had to watch, and that was enough.


So what makes you love a character so much you never want the book to end? And how do we, as writers, go about accomplishing that in our own works?