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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42625
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42625
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I guess I do this analytically, and naturally. Naturally because we all know other people that are unlike us, yet we have mental models of what they like, don't like, would do, and wouldn't do. I have mental models of my siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces, my parents, my friends, my professors in college, my co-workers, my neighbors and other random people I know. They aren't like me. My neighbor (a woman) cries very easily and openly, even just watching an awards show like the Oscars that isn't all that emotional. That is far from being like me, but I can tell you what she will likely cry over.

My characters are not me. I try to think about them a lot, give them traits I have seen before, and develop the same kind of mental model of another person in my mind for them. There's plenty of room up there! I think about my MC for at least a week before I write the first word of a new book, and that first word is nearly always her name. In the course of that week, for nearly all the situations I encounter, I am imagining how **she** would feel, react, or talk in an analogous situation for her and her world, and I'm building a model of her mind. Whatever I might be doing; what is she looking for in the grocery store and why? Does she pay her bills as they come in, or does she stack them up and pay them all on Sunday? Does she spend money frivolously (like me) or is she thrifty even when she doesn't have to be? Is she a good tipper or stingy? Either way, why? (I am, my mother was a waitress for 20 years, and even though she is gone I tip 25% so she won't be embarrassed by me.)

I'd say pretend each of your characters is an actual person, think about them in various situations, and build up a mental model of them, enough for you to start with. You don't have to spend more than a day or two with most characters to figure out who they are. If, while writing the story, they encounter a new situation, actually stop and think, how would THIS person deal with THIS situation, and Why? You may have to make up a new trait for them, some new history for them, but make it fit with what you already know about that character.

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