A request for writing advice

[Bob Schroeck]

Three-dimensional people are complicated. They don't always smile. They're not always grumpy. They express opinions, but may contradict themselves. They may have secrets they never tell anyone. They may have histories that never actually come up in a story but which influence how they react to what happens in your plot. They have irrational -- or perfectly rational -- likes and dislikes.

If you can describe a character in just a sentence or two, they're probably not three-dimensional. If you use a single word, they don't even get as far as two-dimensional.

How do you write anything from someone who isn't you? How do you determine what a character does in a situation?

Have you never played "pretend" or been in a roleplaying game? It doesn't take a lot of imagination to come up with a person who isn't you -- you just think of what you would do in situation "X", and then choose something different for them. If you have to, dip into stereotypes to figure out reactions.

Let's take the simplest of one-dimensional characters, in the simplest of situations: Susie Schoolgirl (whose entire character is that she's a teenaged schoolgirl), and Sam the Soldier (who is a trained infantryman in full gear). Now imagine both of them being assaulted by a mugger. What does each one of them do?

If you can't imagine any response for either of them which isn't what you would do in that situation, maybe you shouldn't be writing.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.