I saw this clip this morning and thought, “Wow, this is cool. I need to make sure I write my characters as if actors will be performing them.” In the video, Tom talks about how actors (and, by assumption, readers) connect with a character, and how compassion is the key.  Applied to writing, it means (to me) connecting in the same way and then loading my pages with a character’s root motivation as well as their reactionary emotions so that my reader feels what the character feels and makes a genuine emotional connection based on understanding where that character is coming from.

I always feel my characters as I’m writing them, but then they live IN my head until I get them out in words. My job is to make them come alive in yours. The way he puts it  made some dots connect for me in a new way. Very thought-provoking.

…And it’s Tom Freaking Hiddleston.