Creating the Main Character of Your Novel

Creating the main character (MC) of your novel is the most critical task you face when starting to write. You have to get him or her right. There are myriad ways to do this. Below are just a few suggestions that might work for you and they are ones I think give you the best chance to create a realistic MC.

Create a main character you want to spend time with

This is so important. A rookie writer will probably take a couple years to finish a novel. Do you want to spend all that time in the company of a MC you don’t really want to be friends with? And if you don’t, how will readers?

In an interview with CBS Sunday morning, author Louise Penny said she based the MC of her mystery series, Inspector Gamache, on her husband because she realized she might be spending a ton of time with this character.

Create a main character based on yourself

Only God, and possibly your mother, knows you better than you do, so basing a character on aspects of yourself will cut down on your research and raise the realism of your MC. Since there’s only one you, drawing from your own history, personality, and beliefs should go a long way toward making your MC unique. That doesn’t mean your MC is simply a reproduction of you. Feel free to add and change elements that are alien to your experience or personality. But if your MC has several things in common with you, that gives you a familiarity and comfort with the character when you start to write.

The MC of YA mystery series is Rae Riley. She’s nineteen going on twenty. She has a similar personality to mine, but not exactly. She’s much braver than I am and doesn’t deal with depression and anxiety. We also have similar interests and beliefs. I’m working on my fourth novel with Rae and she’s a character I love to sit down and work with.

Create main character based on someone you know well

If you’re not comfortable creating a character based on yourself, then let someone you know well inspire you. Again, your MC doesn’t have to be a clone of that person. Just sample a few characteristics so you can build a MC you would like to know.

Once you have the basic ingredients of your MC–physical appearance, core personality, and some backstory–you need to get to know your MC. Your MC is the one character you should understand as well as yourself or your kids. How? There are tons of tips in this area of writing.

Interview your MC. Prepare an interview for your MC. It can be like a job interview — “So you want to be the main character of my novel. What are your qualifications?” Or an interview with a therapist. Or pretend you’ve met a few times at work or school and you’ve decided to have coffee to get to know each other better.
Take a personality test. Some authors swear by this approach for most of their characters, not just the MC. You can use any personality test that makes sense to you, whether its enneagram or 16 personalities (I’ve take this one).
Write a detailed backstory. You write their biography. The fun thing about this approach is you don’t have to write well. No one will see this bio. It’s only to help you get to know your MC. Just write down the facts as they come to you, and you don’t have worry about style or even grammar.

You can also keep your MC in the back of your mind as you go through your day and ask yourself how your MC would react to what’s happening in your life. I like this approach because you can work on getting to know your character in real world situations while still doing your life.

What’s her attitude toward grocery shopping? What would she buy?
How would she handle that difficult co-worker?
How does he spend his time during his lunch break?
How does he react to picking up kids at the elementary school?
What does she usually fix for dinner?
What’s her bedtime routine?

Most of these attitudes and incidents won’t appear in the novel, but they help you see your MC as a real person. And that’s the goal of fiction–to create a world with characters that seem real.

But what about MC’s goals, lies and fears?

Many writers give the advice that you have to understand what your MC’s goal is in the story, what lie she believes at the beginning of the story and how learning it is a lie will change her, and what her greatest fears are. I think this comes after you get to know your MC, and I’ll dive deeper into the MC’s development next week.

What advice to you have for creating the main character for your novel? I love to learn from other writers!

Here are more tips on creating characters.

February 5, 2026 2

How Do You Start Writing Your Novel?

Last month, I discussed ways to get ready to write a novel. This month’s posts are about starting the writing process by creating characters–this is how I often start my novels. But the most common way for me to begin is for the climax to pop into my head and then I write a novel to meet it. But telling rookie writers to start their writing process with inventing a climax is too confusing. So I’ll focus on characters, my favorite aspect of writing. But before we dive into characters, I want to ask other writers–how do you start writing your novel?

There’s no wrong way to begin. Does a specific plot twist inspire you? Or an intriguing setting? Maybe it’s a genre or subgenre. I’m curious to get other writers’ opinions because there are as many approaches as there are writers.

Here are my posts on getting ready to write a novel if you missed them from last month.

February 2, 2026 0

Why Do You Want to Write a Novel?

This month, I’ve been discussing how to get ready to write a novel and forgot to ask the most basic questions–why do you want to write a novel?

There are no wrong answers, except that one where you want to write a novel because you think you’ll get to be rich and famous after publishing one book. Most writers never get wealthy or even write fiction as their full time job. It’s second job or a hobby they do in their spare time.

Now that that myth is dispelled, I’ll tell you my reason. I was born a writer. I have to write. Like exercise, I feel better when I do. If I had never published a single story, I would still be a writer. Writing novels seems to be the best form to tell the stories I want to share.

Now it’s your turn. I’d love to know your reason!

January 26, 2026 1

Three Tips to Discover the Kind of Writer You Are

Discovering what kind of writer you are–meaning what’s your pattern of writing–will go a long way in helping you complete a novel. I mentioned some different patterns for my Monday Spark–the hare writer, the tortoise writer, or somewhere in between. When tackling your first novel, take the time to figure out your pattern so you can be your most productive. Here are three tips to discover the kind of writer you are.

Writing Sprints

If you google writing sprints, you’ll find any number of ways to do them. The point of a writing sprint is to dedicate a relatively short amount of time to writing and to do nothing but writing in that time. No research, no distractions, no leaving your seat until the time is up, and above all else, no editing. Here’s my post on why writing and editing must be two separate activities.

If you find this concentrated time is beneficial, then you can plan writing sprints throughout your day and week. For example, a half hour sprint works for you. Schedule a half hour before you go to work and another half hour after supper. Or doing your lunch hour. Or before bed. Maybe plan three or four sprints on Saturday.

Writing Binges

This one is harder to pull off because it takes a much longer piece of time, but some writers work better when they have a whole day to use for writing. Find a day where you can set aside most of it to write and see how much progress you make. If you can crank out 10,000 words, this is probably your best pattern for writing. If you write about as much as you would with a few sprints a day, then you should stick with the sprints.

Most writers use a combination of short and long sessions, developing habits that work best for each individual. But regardless of what your optimal pattern of writing is, I urge you to also become …

A Flexible Writer

You will get so much more writing done if you learn to write in almost any situation. When I was single, I thought I had to have large chunks of quiet time in order to write. Once I married and had kids, I realized I had to adapt my pattern or I would never complete another story. So I trained myself to write in any situation where I was sitting down. Doctor’s office? Check. Waiting for soccer practice to end? No problem. Riding to a conference? Got it covered.

And if you can’t write in a less than ideal setting, train yourself to edit. I find editing takes less concentration than first draft writing, so I will switch to editing if circumstances are interfering with my concentration to work on a first draft.

How did you develop your writing pattern? What tips would you give newbie writers to discover what kind of writer they are?

January 22, 2026 1

What Kind of a Writer are You?

What kind of a writer are you? And I don’t mean what genre do you write. I mean, what’s your pattern for writing? Are you a weekend writer, writing for a few hours each weekend? Are you more of a tortoise kind of writer. Slow and steady gets the book written, like writing an hour each day unless something major comes up. Are you a hare writer? You block off a weekend to bang out as many words as you can in forty-eight hours.

And your writing pattern can change based on the circumstances of life, if you write long enough. So let me know what kind of a writer you are and if that pattern has changed over the years.

Here are this month’s other tips on what you need before you start your novel.

January 19, 2026 4

Tag: How to write a novel