Characters

As I mentioned the other day, I am reading the twilight saga: the official illustrated guide. I have now gotten a good deal way through the character bios, and I have to admit: I'm impressed. I'm not surprised, but I am intrigued because it's all character sketch and back story. It's what every (good) writer needs to know about their characters in order to be consistent. As I was writing today, I realized that this was exactly where I am lacking. My lack of taking the time to hash my characters out is getting me confused. However, as I stated to do this, I have come upon a whole new dilemma. I want my characters anchored in today's world. While it is not a historical fiction story by any stretch, I do want it to feel like it happened. I want the reader to look up a fact I use, and realize that it did in fact happen. This is one of the reasons I, along with millions of other people feel so in tune with The Twilight Saga as a whole. No, it's not because we have all had a romantic relationship with a vampire or been imprinted on by a werewolve. It's because Forks, Washington is a real place and the Quileute's are a real Native American Tribe. The more I dig, the more I hash out some of my characters who have not even made it into the narration yet, the harder it is. I know who they are, where they came from and how they did what they did, but I still digging for their cover story. I want that to seem real, be possible.