Creating Characters

Creating believable characters takes a lot of work. There are so many resources to help a writer that choosing a method borders on a brain drain.

Still, I have to wonder: did Thomas Hardy know Tess of the D’Ubervilles’ astrological sign?

Did Charles Dickens plot Oliver Twist‘s archetype before he penned the novel?

I’m pretty sure Jane Austin didn’t read Elizabeth Bennet’s tarot cards before she wrote Pride and Prejudice.

And Charlotte Bronte certainly didn’t define Jane Eyre by her Enneagram type or her Myers-Briggs classification.

So why am I surrounded by books, decks of cards, and charts?