How Do You Make Your Characters Come Alive?

I wanted to love my characters but I didn’t know how to make them real, to make them come alive.

My editor suggested using The Emotion Thesaurus by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman to physically show what a character is doing in various situations. As I read through my story before the final proofread I realized that is exactly how you make your story come alive and your characters real.

For example.

“I haven’t slept that good in years,” she said.

becomes

“I haven’t slept that good in years,” she said, contentedly running if her fingers through her curly blonde hair.

Like in life, it’s the little things that make all the difference!

— Cindy