Characterisation!

 I felt this quote summed up a lot about the importance of creating characters within your novel:

Now, of course, a lot of how "compelling" you make a character is the way in which you write about them, the description, dialogue, their actions and circumstances, etc. For the large part, it is entirely up to you!

However, there are more than enough things to do to help you create your characters, for instance, every character I so much as mention, even as briefly as 

"...There she is! Standing next to that blonde girl, Katie something..." 

is jotted down in a 'mini profile'. 

The easiest way, I find, is to create a spread sheet which then allows you to have a column for information like;


* First name,
* Surname,
* Where the main character first meets/see's them,
* What page they first appear on
* Their importance in the novel, etc.


Bearing in mind this is only a 'mini profile' to keep track of  all the charters you've mentioned there's no need to go into excess detail.

For Example, the profile for "Katie something" would look a little like this:

(click to enlarge)

This creates a brief quick profile of all the basic data from every character mentioned so you never have to scroll back through dozens of pages looking for one persons name if you suddenly want to mention them seven chapters later! 

However, it goes without saying that, that won't 'cut the mustard' when it comes to writing in your main characters.  The good news here is that you can get help with this just about anywhere, all you have to do is google it! A few years ago, when myspace was still king of social networks and barely anyone had heard of facebook I found another writers myspace blog. She posted lots of advice of her own and hints and tips for writing main characters, as well as sharing a Character Profile which she, and now I, liked to use to create a basis.

 So, here it is :
 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZCYT_UMpTZRtAcqAbLbamDKkm41-1rvPlPBJP1cVTFg/edit?authkey=CLe7qOwO&hl=en

This will help you create a more vivid image of your character and the more idea you have about the things your character likes the better your reader will understand them. This profile still only provides the basics of your character and will probably change considerably throughout writing your novel as you learn more about them through the situations you create. 

There's always more you can add to the profile if you decide you want to or there's other thing you''ll need to consider, such as;


* Food preferences - (but only really relevant if the character is vegetarian or vegan, has an allergy or some dieting problem which plays a role within the plot line).


* Genre of books and music they enjoy, - (which is only really relevant if the story revolves around them being a book worm or continually attending places like Reading Festival).


However, as a whole, these are very rarely of any interest to the reader...unless you're trying to draw some sort of comparison - such as Stephanie Meyer did by continually mentioning Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet in several of the 'Twilight Saga' books, (and even they didn't really affect the storyline either way) - then you're probably best to leave inconsequential stuff out!

So,

* Keep a running chart of all the characters you mention with brief information - you'll thank yourself for it later!

*  Feel free to add in extra information to your main character's profile that you want to feed into your story  -that will in some way affect one of other of your characters. - Otherwise the profile above pretty much has you covered. 

*  Make sure you believe in your characters! - If you don't why would anyone else?!

*  Be open to altering aspects of your character throughout the novel writing process. - Character grow and learn as much throughout the novel as you do through life, no one stays the same forever!

*  And just in case you're worried your character isn't "compelling" enough try out the "MarySue Litmus Test"  - It gives you an idea why your character might seem so flat or un-original and the questions it asks might spark some new ideas to help you spice things up! 

Both these MarySue tests are good indicators, have fun! 
* http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html
* http://www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html