Fictional Characters

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I have been writing short stories lately and really enjoying the exploration that takes place and the almost aliveness of the characters. They are both me and not me ...


I came across this the other day in an essay by a writer I really like (Marilynne Robinson) and it describes well the creation of fictional characters from my experience:

For me, at least, writing consists very largely of exploring intuition. A character is really the sense of a character, embodied, attired, and given voice as he or she seems to require. Where does this creature come from? From watching, I suppose. From reading emotional significance in gestures and inflections, as we all do all the time. These moments of intuitive recognition float free from their particular occasions and recombine themselves into nonexistent people the writer and, if all goes well, the reader feel they know.
There is a great difference, in fiction and in life, between knowing someone and knowing about someone. When a writer knows about his character, he is writing for plot. When he knows his character, he is writing to explore, to feel reality on a set of nerves somehow not quite his own. 
I think the only think I would add is what we were discussing, that it is from paying attention to your own story and personal histories.

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