Persona 5: Writing real, genuine characters.

Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about what it takes to write characters that resonate with readers. During a session on imposter syndrome with the Author Transformation Alliance, Audrey Hughey brought up the idea of not comparing yourself to another writer and instead vowing to hone your craft until you are at their level. We as writers must not read something and say I wish I could write like that, we must instead change our mind set and say I’m going to get to a point where I can write like that. This struck a chord with me as I was playing through Persona Five on the PlayStation four during the week.

Persona 5 is a JRPG where you play as a high school student framed for a crime he did not commit; you are transferred to a new school in Japan where strange occurrences begin to happen. Over time, seemingly random people suffer complete mental shutdown or sudden unexplained deaths and its up to you to find the cause.

Along the way you meet and befriend various characters to help you on your quest and after 80 plus hours of playing (it’s a LONG game) both you and those new friends have been through so much together that you know everyone would go to bat for everyone else. The group has become so tightly knit that every battle carries that extra weight, characters who start the game as timid or socially awkward develop into the self…