Writers on Writing is our regular conversation with a writer or industry professional about the writing craft, industry insights, and their own practice. This week, we spoke to Deborah Pike about writing authentic and fresh characters, including her tips for finding inspiration and favourite examples of unforgettable Australian characters.
What do most thoughtful and interesting character arcs have in common?
The best character arcs are both subtle and surprising. I enjoy dramatic character arcs i.e. where a character overcomes significant setbacks through various challenges and hardships, undergoes some sort of moral development, and reaches a degree of self-realisation. But this needs to be deftly handled. I don’t mind the smaller sort of arcs either – quiet shifts in characters’ consciousnesses. Momentary epiphanies or revelations. These are probably truer to life. Both kinds need to be fresh, authentic and convincing.
How do you come up with new ideas for characters, including their motivations and conflicts?
New ideas flow in a variety of ways but one great avenue comes from walking the streets! Observing people on trains. Looking out the window. Just the other evening at my local pub, I saw a middle-aged woman in stilettos tottering through the door. She ordered herself a whole crayfish and a bottle of champagne. She consumed it by herself, all the while scrolling through her phone compulsively. I could not resist writing about her. I imagined her life. Who she might be. Characters come to me as I move into a space of wonder and meditation. See who talks to me. Welcome the new guests as they arrive.
What are some key questions a writer can ask to interrogate their characters if they feel like they’re falling flat?
You could ask yourself – what would happen if I cut out the character altogether? What if I cut half of their scene? Or changed the point of view? How could I introduce conflict or tension? What if I take away something they love? What if I vary the rhythm? Shorten all the sentences? Slow things down? Ruthlessly edit any overwriting? What if I introduce an animal? A phone call? Maybe it’s just a case of needing to vary the emphasis on action, dialogue or exposition. You could also ask, what is the worst thing that could happen to the character in the story? What is the character’s greatest source of strength? How about making the character contradictory or inconsistent in some way? How about changing the context? Or doing something unexpected with the scene or character, without being implausible. I also find trying to embody the character quite helpful. What would it mean for you to inhabit their physicality? Go from there.
What are some examples of excellent, unforgettable characters by Australian authors?
Teresa Hawkins from Christina Stead’s For Love Alone stands out to me as a superbly drawn and memorable character in Australian fiction. Harley Scatt from Kim Scott’s Benang is also distinctive. Rufus Dawes from Marcus Clarke’s For The Term of His Natural Life is striking. I adored Pei Xing from Gail Jones’ Five Bells. Gina Haxby from Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Haxby’s Circus is a finely wrought character. Kerry Salter from Melissa Luckashenko’s Too Much Lip is quite remarkable. Ravi Mendis from Michelle de Kretser’s Questions of Travel charmed me. I also quite like Polly Mahony from Henry Handel Richardson’s The Fortunes of Richard Mahony. I really identified when she freaked out at seeing flying insects for the first time. More recently, I loved Honoured, an old Greek woman in Peter Polites’ God Forgets About the Poor.
Deborah Pike is a writer and academic based in Sydney. She is the author of The Subversive Art of Zelda Fitzgerald, shortlisted for the AUHE literary criticism award. She lived in Paris for several years, immersed in the literary scene and working at Shakespeare and Company bookstore. An award-winning teacher, her research focuses on modernist literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her debut novel, The Players, was published in 2024, and was chosen as fiction pick of the week by SMH reviewer Cameron Woodhead.
Join Deborah for her course, Creating Unforgettable Characters, Saturday 29 November 2025, 10am-4pm at Writing NSW, Lilyfield.
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