Why You Should Have Judgmental Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

For a strong point of view, let your characters have strong opinions.

In real life, being judgmental might cause a few problems, but in fiction, it's something every character should aspire to. How characters—especially the point of view characters—judge the world around them shows readers what that world is like and how it works (and even non-genre writers need to world build, it's just a little different in the details).

Our characters see something, they judge it as it pertains to their personal views. If we write a scene where a girl walks a dog down the street, how our characters judge that will determine how we'll describe it and even how they'll react to it.

Someone afraid of dogs will see details that support that: large size, straining on a leash to bite them, big teeth. The judgment is "dogs are bad" and the reaction will reflect that.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com