Defining your characters will require you to ask and answer a lot of questions: Who are your characters? What do they look like? What makes them tick? What do they want? What are they afraid of? And probably the most important question — why? Why do they want what they want and why are they afraid?

In the beginning, you may find that you are the one who does the asking — and answering — of questions. But before long, if you are doing your job correctly by breathing life into these story people, it will appear as if the characters themselves are answering your questions. What feels like an amazing little phenomenon is actually a needed step to becoming an accomplished writer. Before you can write characters that seem real to your readers, they must feel real to you.

In essence, creating characters that your readers will love and remember long after they put your book down isn't always easy. It requires lots of work and a lot of thought. So roll up your sleeves and get ready to play creator. You are about to craft some amazing human beings.

Most writers say that at some point in a book's process, it feels as though the characters take over and begin to tell them, the author, what they will and will not do. An author may write a line of dialogue, only to have the character say, “Hey, I wouldn't say that. What I would is say is …”

Blond hair, blue eyes. Dark and sensuous. You are the artist; you apply the brush strokes to create your characters' physical appearances. It's important to remember that while this is a romance, and your characters should be attractive, attractive doesn't mean the characters are perfect. As a matter of fact, readers seldom want to read about perfect people — especially people who think of themselves as perfect.

Most people have something they hate about their bodies. Does your heroine want to lose ten pounds? Does your hero wish he was a bit taller? Is his hair receding? If your characters could, what would they change about themselves?

To get an idea of how to use your character's physical appearance, answer the following questions:

• Has your character's appearance affected the outcome of her life?

• Does your character feel her life would be substantially different if she looked differently? How so?

• If your character had to describe herself physically, what would she say?

• Who does your character look like? Her mother? Her father? Is she proud of that?

After you have decided how your characters look, stop and think about how those physical traits have helped mold them into the people they are. For a few minutes, wear the skin you have created for them. How does it feel?

Much like a parent will do when expecting a child, a lot of writers spend hours coming up with their characters' names. And yes, names can be important. But … names are generally given to a person before they are born and even before the parents have a clue about their offspring's personality or appearance.

You, the writer, have more power than a parent. You can choose a name based upon a character's personality and physical traits. Or better yet, you can choose a name that helps mold a person's personality. What would having the name Rene do to a boy? Or how would the name Beatrice affect a girl's personality in the modern age? Names can tell the reader something about the character's ethnic background and age. But clever writers find methods to use names in other ways. Here are some ideas of how you might make a name matter more:

• Names have meanings. Discover the name's meaning and match it to your character's personality.

• Offer nicknames to your characters that hint at their internal makeup, e.g., Sunshine, Flash, Casper.

• Choose a name that contradicts your character's traits and show how trying to live down the image has molded him, e.g., Angel, Damien.

• Give a character the same name as a well-known public figure and use this as a plot device, e.g., Lisa M. Presley, William “Bill” Clinton.

Remember, you are the creator. So the question isn't, Who are your characters? It is, Who do you need your characters to be? Do you need them to be workaholics or beach bums? Does your plot require them to be quiet and shy or outgoing and charismatic? Or, are you looking to create a serial killer?

You can make your characters be anything you want, as long as you make the reader believe. So if it's a serial killer you are creating, you need to research the factors that turn a person into a serial killer. For a workaholic, you need to know what drives someone to put career over everything else. This isn't to say that you need to create stereotypical people. To the contrary, your characters should and need to be unique, but even their eccentricities have to be believable.