Creativity is Paradoxical
Creativity is paradoxical. To create, a person must have knowledge but forget the knowledge, must see unexpected connections in things but not have a mental disorder, must work hard but spend time doing nothing as information incubates, must create many ideas yet most of them are useless, must look at the same thing as everyone else, yet see something different, must desire success but embrace failure, must be persistent but not stubborn, and must listen to experts but know how to disregard them.
-MICHAEL MICHALKO
Creativity is the most important part of the novel. Some like to have their novels so close to realism while others just like being creative and making things up. I am one of those writers where I simply like to make things up. Writing a strong character is something that will make your novel different than others. It's important to make the characters unique so that the book can stand out from all the others on the book shelf. You need to think like your character.