Non-human characters

It's normal do to regular characters. We're all used to thinking of characters as people.

But what about other forms of characters? What about pets? Wild animals? Buildings and countrysides? Anything that interacts with the story can be viewed as a character. Pets have motivations. I can think of two mystery series off the top of my head where cats are main characters, for example.

Anything that is a character has a motivation and interacts with the story. A countryside could be a character if it interacts with the story, causing things as well as being effected by them. The farther something is from human, the more difficult it is to treat something as a character instead of a background. But stories can be greatly enriched by approaching things other than human as characters in their own right and able to interact with the story.

Writing prompt: write a character sketch of something that isn't human. Give a few hints as to how it can interact with the rest of the story.

Families

Everyone has them. That includes story characters.

So, what does your main character think of his family? Do they get along? Are other family members in the story? Are they alive or dead? Even if they don't show up explicitly in the story, your character's feelings towards his family will affect him greatly. And he can feel differently about different members, too: there's no need for a monolithic response to his family.

Writing prompt: write a scene with your character and one of his parents. Make sure the relationship between the parent and child is visible in the scene without coming straight out and saying what's going on. Imply.

Bad Guys

In most stories, there's some form of antagonist. Sometimes the only problem is the circumstances, but often there's someone standing between the characters and their desires.

It's easy to paint the bad guy as just bad for the sake of bad. This is especially easy when dealing with religion and just saying it's an evil god. However, this is a cop-out, and frequently makes the rest of the story bad. People have reasons for what they do - even becoming evil. They may think what they're doing is right. They may want power. They may be insane - but even then, inside their own insanity there's a kind of logic. Even the most alien of all alien creatures has a logic, though it might not seem so at first glance. But if that logic isn't followed, the story doesn't hold together. An unrealistic villain can completely spoil a story.

Writing prompt: Character sketch time! Create a villain. Either use one from your own story or create your own. Come up with why they're doing what they're doing. Give a full-fleshed person - good points and bad. Is this person believable? Why or why not? What can you change to make the person feel real?