How do you create a good character?

You might have the best story in mind and already know what the main character Is going to accomplish within it, but who is the main character and what will make them appealing to your readers? A book might form through an interesting plot where you need to build a character to put into it or it might form around a character that you have in mind that you need to build the plot around. Either way your character needs more depth than just their actions and outcome, but where do we start?

  Your characters must be complex enough to carry the plot through action and dialogue but be able to influence the reader in just a few thousand words that describe them and what they are doing. My first piece of advice is don’t overthink creating one. They don’t have to be a perfect fit for the role and creating uncertainty in a plot certainly adds to the drama. Try to avoid creating a stereotype character for the plot whether they are the main or supporting characters. Also avoid creating a character heavily based on yourself or someone you know other than using experiences or traits that can assist in what makes the character unique.

  The key to creating a character is making an entirely new person who may be of different gender, ethnicity, or other traits from yourself and make them convincing and interesting. A reader wants to feel something about that character whether it’s compassion, empathy, a feeling of resonance, or even fear. They should possess depth which includes their personality, things they say during dialogue, their actions during dialogue, as well as their actions beyond the dialogue that makes them unique. A good character should have their flaws, don’t we all? People are all different and unique and everyone has their own quirks, your characters should as well. They will also need some sort of motivation. What good is a plot if the character doesn’t want or need to be there?

  The character should be described by the author so that the reader can visualize them. When someone visualizes your characters, they become real and relatable to them. The real trick to is balance what your description is versus what you allow the reader to use their imagination for. I personally enjoy reading books where the author does not describe every single detail from the color of their clothing to the style of their shoes to everything else in the room. It’s an easy trap to fall into and it seems to make a lot of authors feel confident in their characters by describing every detail about them and the setting. The trick is to purposefully omit certain details either big or small and remember not to mention them later. Why?

  My goal with creating a great character is to balance what I describe and what the reader can imagine for themselves. Your job as the writer is to provide the groundwork and let the reader fill in the details. I find overly heavy descriptions of characters boring since I am not able to conjure my own images in my head other than what I am being told to see. The goal with my characters is to make them real but allow the reader to create their own unique image of aspects of them that may differ completely from someone else’s. Let the reader do the heavy lifting! It’s a balancing act for sure and is just my personal preference for reading and writing.

Observation is one method where one sees how real people act and uses those things to create the traits of their characters. You may have a friend who is annoying or super confident, someone people avoid or gravitate toward without knowing why. Those are great things to cull and add to the personality of your characters. I do a lot of people watching and note how they interact with each other as well as the environment, how they dress, and things they do that make them stand out, and then figure out a way to document those things without being obvious.

  I probably rely more on imagination to create characters than I do observation. Many come from areas that I may or may not have experience in or that I’m willing to spend time researching. They may also be a blend of traits that I imagine or have observed and put together the perfect character for the plot I have in mind. These are not perfect characters, but perfect for that plot due to their imperfections and motivations. We’ve all read books that had loose plots that were saved by great characters and cookie cutter or bland ones that were saved by an amazing plot. The goal is to make them depend on each other to create a fantastic story overall.

  A great deal of creating a good character should focus on what the reader’s perception of that character will be. Generating emotion, whether good or bad, is what will keep your reader flipping pages and believing that these characters could jump off the pages. Many writers tend to create backgrounds or set of skills that help them conquer their setback in a predictable way. Circumstances that happen to the character in the plot may also shape them more than displaying their specific set of skills to easily outwit the bad guy or get themselves out of a tight spot where most people would struggle. Turn a weakness into strength or a strength into a weakness.

  Another key to creating good characters is to understand the roles of each one. One that is only in a couple of scenes in the book does not have to be developed much and should be less dynamic than your main characters. These minor ones should just blend into the background not taking away from your main characters or plot while serving their purpose to move something forward. Everything that is in your book should serve some sort of purpose to drive the plot or characters forward in some way. For the main characters it is important to have an idea of how their arc or growth will go. This can be done in advance or organically while writing, but main characters should evolve as the plot moves forward. 

  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I use a dry erase board to track my characters. I separate the main characters from the minor ones and keep track of all of them to be sure that they should be in the book. When developing main characters, I will spend some time crafting their appearance, general background, and traits, but at times they come alive while I am creating the story, and I will realize that certain traits will make the character stand out from things I have created in the plot. Find what works for you. Many authors prefer to prepare their characters in advance by knowing their favorite color or food vice or what makes them happy or upset. Other writers put their characters in the plot to help define how they will react and create them organically.

  I’ve read a lot of the “become a better writer” books where they have exercises to help create better characters which involves answering a series of questions about their likes and dislikes, temperament, fears, vices, and more. While these might be helpful for some, I generally feel like a character can’t be stamped out from answering a series of the same questions. Each character is specific and the things that make them special are different traits that may not matter for other characters. It is probably not going to affect the plot or the reader if your character’s favorite color is yellow unless this trait led to something specific within the plot like choosing an item of that color.

  You might have heard the terms plot driven or character driven stories. The fact is that all stories have both and rely on a balance of them to move everything forward. Spending time developing both is paramount to entertaining your reader and keeping them going from chapter to chapter.

  I’ll explore more about characters in future posts especially with point of view and dialogue. Feel free to let me know if there is a topic you want me to talk about!