One of the greatest struggles a writer faces is developing strong and realistic characters. This is achieved when your audience begins to feel emotion or an attachment towards them. They start to feel sad when the character is sad, and feel anger when the character is mistreated. Ultimately, your plot could have the deepest and most unique storyline, but if your characters aren’t fully developed, it has no value. Here are 7 aspects of your character that you must fully understand if you want them to be successful.
- What’s their background?
Your past is what has made you who you are today. Whether we like to admit it or not, our embarrassing moments, trials, and successes are what determine how we react in certain situations. In fact, it is scientifically proven that “emotions drive more than 80 percent of our decision-making.” Your character’s past, and the decisions they make moving forward need to coincide with each other.
Here are some questions you should have answers to in regards to your character’s background:
-What is their family situation like?
-What culture did they grow up in?
-What were their hobbies?
-What were their relationships like with friends and family members?
-Were they treated differently than others?
-What kind of problems did they have on a regular basis?
-What made them excited or happy?
These are just some of the main questions that you should think about while creating your characters. If you can’t answer these questions, then your character needs more depth. Remember, even though you probably won’t go into detail about all of their past experiences, you will need this solid foundation to build other aspects of their personality.
- What are their fears/traumas?
Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have fears and traumas. No matter how strong and powerful you want your character to seem, your audience is attracted to realism. Whether it be a past experience that haunts them or just a fear they were born with, you need this implemented somewhere. Let’s look at some examples you might know of:
- Batman- Fear of losing loved ones(trauma of losing his parents).
- The Joker- Being laughed at or not taken seriously.
- Hermione Granger- Fear of failure.
- Luke Skywalker- Fear of becoming like Darth Vader.
- Indiana Jones- Fear of Snakes.
The ultimate goal is for your audience to feel like they can relate to your characters. If they feel connected to who you are describing, they will be more likely to continue reading.
- Strengths & weaknesses
Just like how your character needs fears, they also need defining strengths and weaknesses. Nobody is perfect, and your characters shouldn’t be either. Have you ever stopped reading a book or watching a TV show because everything is just too unrealistic? Make sure that you know these factors about your characters before you begin writing. Think about some different realistic scenarios that your character could be placed in. How would they react? Would they stay calm, become defensive, fight, or shrink down. Here are some questions to think about while deciding what these factors will be:
-How would your character react if they failed a test at school?
-How would they react to a slow driver in front of them?
-How would they react to having to speak in front of the class?
-How would they react to getting the job they wanted?
-How would they react to getting bullied?
-How would they react at seeing someone else getting bullied?
These are just a few of the many questions you should ask yourself about your character. Even if they are never placed in any of these situations, you should still know the answer to all of these questions for them. Believe it or not, your audience can tell when your character doesn’t stay consistent with themselves. Lets say your character tends to stutter and get panic attacks if they have to publicly speak. However, at the last minute, when it mattered most, they gave a perfect stutterless speech. While this might be semi-relieving to the audience, the character would lose its entire realistic aspect. Your audience might even feel annoyed at how quickly the character overcame their lifelong fear. In the end, make sure that you understand your character’s strengths and weaknesses enough to know their response to any situation.
- What do they look like/unique features?
Knowing how to describe your character’s appearance is extremely important! Readers need to be able to picture who you are describing so that they can watch your story play through in their head. It is crucial that you describe both the standard and unique features of your character. Let’s put this into perspective. Below I have written two character descriptions. Think about how much you learned from this character solely based on the way they were described.
Prompt #1
Taking a deep breath I turned the handle of the door. Upon entering the office I smelled lavender. As I breathed it in, I felt a lot calmer. Unclenching my fists, I looked up. Immediately I made eye contact with someone. It made me shiver and I quickly turned towards the wall.
“Mrs. Jenkins, please take a seat.” A voice reached my ears and I turned back towards the man. He stood up and motioned for me to sit down. As I did so, he turned towards one of his drawers and grabbed a clipboard. We made eye contact again as he sat back up again. I straightened my posture, trying to appear more confident. He then leaned back in his chair, “So Mrs. Jenkins, are you ready to begin?”
How did this prompt make you feel? Did you feel drawn to the man in the chair, or did he seem basic and irrelevant? Compare and contrast what you just read to the excerpt below.
Prompt #2
Taking a deep breath I turned the handle of the door. Upon entering the office a strong scent of lavender filled my nostrils. An immediate calmness came over me as I breathed it in. My clenched fists unlatched from my suit jacket and I finally willed myself to look up. Immediately my golden eyes locked with a set of piercing, emerald green orbs. I shuddered at the immediate eye-contact before quickly turning my gaze to the wall.
“Mrs. Jenkins, please take a seat.” A low, gruff sounding voice reached my ears and I turned back towards him. My eyes felt like they held onto his gaze for forever until he finally reached a standing position. He couldn’t be under 6’5”and I gulped. Realizing that he was motioning me towards a chair, I quickly pulled myself out of my thoughts and sat down. He turned towards one of his drawers and I couldn’t help but notice how his chocolate brown curls perfectly framed his face. In fact his jawline looked as though it had been hand chiseled by god himself. I took a deep breath and when his eyes met mine again I felt small under his gaze. His whole countenance demanded respect and it was almost impossible to not look towards the ground. Nevertheless, I knew I could not give in. Straightening my posture, I didn’t break the contact. I swear I saw amusement in his eyes as he leaned back in his chair, clipboard in hand.
“So Mrs. Jenkins, are you ready to begin?”
How do you feel about the character described now? Do they seem intriguing based on the way they were described? Do you feel like you can picture what he looks like in your head? Well written character descriptions make a huge difference in whether or not your audience feels connected to your book. Putting time and effort into your descriptions will play a large role in your success.
- Nervous ticks/habits
This section of character development is extremely important and is usually only focussed on the main character. To create an effective nervous tick or habit in character, you need to know the cause and effect. When “A” happens, the character does “B.” Here are a few examples that you could use:
-Character is put on the spot ➡ Character begins biting their nails
-Character makes a mistake ➡ Character begins saying sorry repetitively
-Character gets complimented ➡ Character looks at a the floor
-Character gets stressed ➡ Character runs his/her fingers through hair
These are just a few habits and ticks that you can add to your character. I would recommend only focusing on one tick per character or else it might get confusing. However, make sure that if you choose to add a nervous tick to your character that you add it in all the correct situations.
- Realistic Motives/goals
Don’t forget that a strong main character requires purpose. Harry Potter for instance couldn’t’ve just walked up to Voldemort and beat him in a fight. It took him years of learning how Voldemort became who he was and how to destroy each piece of him. This made what Harry did more realistic and believable to readers. Both large and small goals are important. They could be working to conquer something big or even just striving to develop some better quality traits. You don’t even need to actually write out what they’re trying to achieve. Sometimes it makes it more interesting when the readers have to discover it for themselves.
- Likes and dislikes
Everyone has likes, dislikes, and opinions. Whether it be how they prefer to dress, what they like to do, or how they decide to live, your character needs to stand apart from others. You as the author should know what makes your character uncomfortable and what makes them happy. They may like to read books more than interact with others, or play sports rather than lounge around. They may prefer to dine in than do take-out. They may be more of an online shopper than an in-store one.
Think about what a character would do, what chances they would take to avoid doing something they don’t like. Would they hurt someone else in the process? Would they hide? Or would they confront it? It is important that you know the depth of their likes and dislikes.
In conclusion, you’re not just telling someone’s story, but you are trying to connect to those reading it. You want your audience to be able to relate to your character’s issues, successes, and fears. The more you get to know your characters before you begin writing, the more your audience will be able to embrace your story. They will come to feel the emotions your characters are feeling and understand the reasoning behind their reactions to certain situations. It would be a good idea to write down, or type out a document of each main character in your story. Just like what I listed above, describe their background story, fears, strengths, weaknesses, appearance, likes, dislikes, habits, and goals. The more detail you go into, the more your characters will come to life in your stories. Just like how a good movie plot can’t make up for bad actors, a good story will never trump realistic and relatable characters.