How to Write a Book: Developing Believable Characters 

You'd think it'd be easy enough to create characters for your books/stories that your readers could relate to, identify with, and accept as REAL PEOPLE, right? Unfortunately, some writers have a fair amount of trouble with this. 
 
The key to creating believable characters is to not think of them AS characters, but instead, as actual people.  In my experience, it has helped to model the folks in your story after people you know, whose personalities you find to be interesting, intriguing, and maybe just a tad eccentric. (Of course, you have to be wary of making your character EXACTLY like someone you know, lest they take offense and file a lawsuit...) An example: my first book, "Virtually Incredible," has four main characters who are all around twelve years old. Two of them - Sammi and Frito - were created as amalgamations of several people I've known, but also from my imagination. The other two, Darcy and Jim, were modeled from two specific people I know very well: my daughter and my best friend. Neither character is exactly like the actual person they represent, of course, but instead they contain certain behavioral or physical traits that mirror these folks. Darcy, for instance, is portrayed in the book as an animal and nature lover. My daughter does indeed love animals; but nature, not quite as much.
 
The point is, borrowing traits you admire from people in your life for the people in your book can help make the characters more real; thus, more believable.
 
Another aspect of making your characters seem real has to do with the way they speak. Too often, I've read books in which the conversations sound stilted, overly formal, and not very believable. Example: Joe says, "Oh Beverly, my dearest love, your hair sparkles in the sunshine like twenty-carat diamonds!" Um...yeah. Kinda romantic, maybe...but do people really talk like that? What about something more like: "Wow, Bev, you've got great hair!"

Also, it's important to consider the age of your character, and have them speak accordingly. A fifty-something person has more life experience, and thus, a fairly decent vocabulary, so they can get away with more eloquent speech. But if your characters are kids, you don't want them saying things like "I've been feeling rather nauseated since early morning." Instead, wouldn't they be more likely to say "Man, I barfed up a storm this morning!"?
 
As well, be wary of using current slang terms. Just as words like "rad" and "psychedelic" had their moments in the spotlight, say them now and you'll either get a quizzical look or a derisive one. Keep it simple, and don't "date" your story by using the latest terminology, or ten years from now, people might dismiss your book as being outdated or old-fashioned...or worse yet, "quaint."
 
To sum up, have fun creating the people in your book! Keep them simple, honest, and believable. Forget looking to the thesaurus for fancy adjectives or adverbs...just make your characters as REAL as you can, and your readers will be all the more likely to truly get "into" your stories!
 
Suzanne Grace
Author of "Virtually Incredible"
www.thevirtualbooks.com