Daniella Alonso Quotes

When you're building a character, or at least when I'm building a character, you start saying, 'How am I going to make people like him?'

I like to take a character and develop it.

I have a cheat-sheet for each one of my characters about their personality, the way they look, etc. So there is no possible way that I could have writer's block.

Developing characters is a strange thing. In the beginning they are abstract and I wonder how to move on from there.

I usually start with a repulsive character and go on from there.

The main characters for 'The Seer and the Sword' made an appearance one night and then haunted me for over five years before I began to write them down. Does that count as inspiration? For me, characters tend to show up, stay on to help with the work of writing their stories, and then occasionally deign to visit after a book is finished.

I tend to come up with people more than situations - most of my books start with a character.

I try to begin with a strong grasp of my characters. Even if it's schematic, I need it clear in my head who these people are.

I've got to write about my character every day. I've got to find out where he lives, what bus he catches to school, and stuff like that. You've got to know every little thing about him so when you do it, it feels natural.

I'm about my characters.

You establish a technique on how to develop characters. Everyone does it their own way, and that's what makes it fun.

Usually when I'm trying to establish character, I try and find out where they live.

In creating a new character, it's sometimes difficult to find a touchstone, a North Star that will always point you in the direction that character will travel.

A character takes shape in the act of writing. You start with something, and you add or subtract.

I build my characters from the day they're born to the first page of the script.

I like to enter my characters through a physical form first. The first thing I find is the regime of the character - when he wakes up tomorrow, what activities does this person engage in - that's my entry point. Once I get that, then it becomes easy for me.

I don't know quite how a story develops in my head. It is a bit chaotic. If I am working on a series, one of the main characters at least is already in existence as well as some setting and minor characters. Finding the other main character can be a challenge. Sometimes this character already exists in a minor role in another book.

I live intimately with my characters before starting a book. I cut out pictures of them for my wall. I do time lines for each major character and a time line for the entire novel: What is going on in the world as my characters struggle with their problems?

You've got to leave the reader with more than just a name and a costume - they need to know who the character is, what they're like, what kind of attitude they have, what sort of role they play.

To create characters, one must build background. And one of the tools we use is improvisation.

For every book that I write... I develop a history for each person and make sure they are well rounded and flawed. You have to know everything about them from their shoe size, to where they went to school, to what their first pet was, to what they like to eat, to what they want out of life.

Every single film I've done, it's about the character.

Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters.

When you're creating a character out of nothing, you have to make all the guesses as to how they walk, how they talk, how they think. It was all there on the table for us to pick and choose for Murrow.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.