Con Fessing at Ink Slingers

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This week at the Ink Slingers we're all about confessing. Go here to see everyone else's secrets. 

I'll keep this simple. I am fessing to a love of a show about cons, convicts that it.
No, I am not in love with someone in jail.
I am in love with two characters though who happen to be convicts in a show.
Prison Break.
(Sadly, the show ended a few years ago, but this does not detract from it's awesomeness)

Quick Summary:
One guy who has a sketchy past gets set up and convicted of a murder he didn't commit. He has this brother who plots out their escape, tattoos it on his body and then pulls off the biggest jail escape of all fictional time. Through the next part in the television series the brothers are on the run and go through extreme obstacles in their search for the truth, justice, and a normal life.
I am in no way influencing you to take the law into your own hands or do any crime at all.
I am inflewancing (or trying rather) to take another look at your characters.

Here's what I've learned from the show:

• Keep true to what your characters would and wouldn't do.
• Completely flesh out your character's family background. This will tell you the lengths they'll go to help not only family, but also their friends.
• Keep them working. Do not give the characters or yourself the easy way out.
• Make it original. 
• Throw in realistic curve balls.
• Don't forget the love. 
• Get them in some trouble. 
• Don't make them perfect.
• Have your characters make mistakes. 
• Make them real. 

I can't stress that last one enough. Bring a picture of them to your mind. Pause for ten minutes and consider what they'd do in every hard decision you've had to make. Don't make them paper. Make them alive until they jump off the page. I know, easier said than done. It's great to say those things and most of you already know them. I'm holding by the old saying "what practice can't make perfect, experience can."

You can see the series online at Netflix.com or Hulu.com  Also, you get to see Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller (among others). Not a bad thing in my book. Seriously, look at those eyes. If this isn't character inspiration I don't know what is.

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