You, as a writer, must remember that characters in a story must have strengths as well as weaknesses. There must be something in that character’s background that can bring him/her to their knees. There must also be something within their personalities that makes them strong enough to overcome, even to embrace adversity. I like characters who use adversity to become stronger.

I like tough men with tender hearts. I like a man who’s not afraid to dry. And when the tears finally come, they will always be from emotional relief or pain, rather than a physical one.

I like to remember that my characters see, taste, smell, feel, hear, appreciate and laugh. By the same token, remember that characters will have a breaking point. How they react in these instances is often what makes the reader connect with them the strongest. Use those strengths and weaknesses to build strong, believable, and memorable people within your stories.

Case in point: I recently had the good fortune to be invited to be part of an anthology on homecomings for one of my publishers. I created a wonderful, wild, reckless, rodeo cowboy with a loving heart called Walker Lee. Of course, Walker has all the prerequisites of a serious hunk. Big, strong, good-looking, right down to black hair and blue eyes and an off-center grin. But for me, Walker came alive when the woman he’d come back to claim started remembering the things about Walker Lee she’d tried ten years to forget.

She wanted to hate this man and all she could do was remember stupid little things, like the way he ate chocolate ice cream. Scooping up a giant spoonful, then slipping it into his mouth, one slow bite after another until there was nothing left on the spoon but a shine. And slow dances. Walker Lee could spin her heart into knots with little more than a shift of body to body. She shuddered. Eating ice cream and dancing weren’t the only things he liked to take his time about.

At this point, Walker Lee jumped off the page. I had created a three-dimensional character with something as ordinary as music and chocolate. Also, the subtle reference to the way he made love didn’t hurt.

So, if you want to create memorable characters, just remember what real people do. They laugh. They cry. They hurt. They die. Bring your characters to life by giving them a life in which to live.