In Jhumpa Lahiri’s wonderful novel The Namesake, a young Indian girl stands outside the doorway of her living room. Inside is the family discussing her arranged marriage to their son. The son has been living in America for many years, and has experience in a world she has never known. Before stepping into the room, the girl curiously steps into the young man’s shoes, trying on a different world. It’s just this sort of step you need to take in your own fiction.

Many great works of fiction work so well because they so completely and skillfully immerse readers — not in another world, but in another person. While it can be fun to travel through different lands, the real crucial leap that must be made is into the life and the mind of another person. There’s no greater leap to be made than into another person’s perspective, and it’s absolutely essential in realistic fiction. So how do you do it? Here are a few simple steps to take to make your character feel both fresh and real.

1. Step into those other shoes.

Experiencing life from another person’s perspective can’t be done halfway. It doesn’t mean thinking about only the big things differently (religion, education, etc.); it also means thinking about the little things differently. What if your character hates a food or a movie that you love? Try thinking about why your character might hate it. Why does your character love to run even if you abhor exercising? What is it about running that is satisfying? You’ve got to really stretch your imaginative muscles and think about the way a different person might think. It means being very observant. Notice the way you do things and think about why you do them, or why your character would do them differently.

After the jump: how to forgive your character.

2. Forgive your character’s faults.

Literatures best characters are flawed human beings, because not only are flawed people more interesting, they’re also more realistic. No one’s perfect, so don’t fall into the trap of making your character perfect, a completely innocent victim or martyr, just because you want to love him or her. Instead, you have to learn to understand your character’s faults, and feel a genuine warmth for him or her anyway. Why is your character a coward? Why won’t he stand up for his friend, or why does she turn her back on people who need her? Why does he or she cheat or lie or steal? Think about the events in their lives that have shaped their behavior. Forgive, but don’t forget. A terrible choice is still a terrible choice, but you as the writer should understand why it had to happen this way.

3. Real people are inconsistent.

One mistake writers make is creating a character with a certain theme behind him (for example — he’s a character who is afraid to commit!) then have him behave according to that one law in every aspect of his life. In reality, people rarely are able to hold to one law in every aspect of their lives. The scrupulous penny-pincher splurges on something from time to time. The conservative religious person won’t tolerate some amoral acts, but turns a blind eye to others. People are bundles of hypocrisy and indecision. To wear your character’s shoes for a day, you’ve got to understand why he holds true to one standard in one world and falls miserably short in another. We all have highly fractured selves; it’s your job to show the mosaic, but to draw the pieces cohesively together.

So walk that mile in your character’s shoes. Be patient. Be observant. Be forgiving. And you’ll end up with a stronger understanding of who your character is.