They Walk, They Talk! Tips for Effective Characterization

By Dinty W. Moore

Any novelist with a modicum of craft knowledge or experience on the page understands the importance of bringing fictional characters to life, a necessary step so readers can imagine the invented person and see them moving through fictional space. Even non-writers, if they’ve read Dickens for instance, or Jhumpa Lahiri, have a passing understanding of the importance of vivid characterization.

But in my years of teaching, coaching, and working on developmental edits with...