A Real Character

I think the heart of any good story starts with the characters. And everything else builds around them. The plot follows where they go.
Usually when I start a story it is the main character who comes to me first, then the other ones after that. Then I find the story forms itself based on what drives the characters.
For example, the story I am working on now, Mr. Austen, the character himself, Mr. Austen popped into my head. Then I saw him liking Jane Austen, and becoming a romance writer incognito after a difficult divorce. He's a real character--every pun intended! But he came to mind first before anything else.
I also believe that characters should seem real, in that they can reflect something in human nature that is in all of us. That they could be someone we could actually meet. And by that the story itself could be something we could relate to. And we ourselves can become part of the story.--L.P. Kirkbride