All About Characters

[Andy]

Today's structured rant is about:

Characters

Characters are one of the most important parts of a fictional story. A story without characters is not a story. A story without well-designed characters is unrealistic. You get the idea. Good characters are necessary for a good story.

A good writer will create a sense that his/her characters are real people, with hopes, dreams, pet peeves, bad habits, and personalities all their own. The better you can create a real character, the more likely that the reader will fall into your story.

So what makes a good character? Lots of things. But they're no different from things actual people have.

Characters Need Desires

Every major character in your story needs a desire. Something to want, or work towards. Why? Desire is something that drives humans to do things. In fiction, it is something that drives a story, and keeps it going. A story with characters who do not want to do or have anything is a boring story.

For example, you might have an interesting character who is amazing at basketball and has a great sense of humor, but if he has no desires, then the countless games of basketball and jokes will probably get stale before your "story" is over. Then again, if he wants to become a professional b-ball player that makes his fans burst their sides laughing whenever he sees them, then you have a character who deserves a story. And your readers will be far more likely to identify and sympathize with that character.

The other benefit of building a story around a character with desires, is that a story will naturally grow around that character. For example, Mike absolutely loves Jill, and she loves him, but Jill is moving to another state. How far is Mike willing to go in order to stay with his love? A story will naturally grow out of his desire.

Writing Exercise:
Make up a character. Any age, gender...any character. Then think of something this character desires. It can be anything: money, love, glory, power, and write them down. Keep it handy; this character will be used for future exercises.

Characters Are Complex

You're heard of character stereotypes, right? A wise old mentor, a bratty cheerleader? These characters have been portrayed hundreds of times. They're not original. They're bland. Boring! These are the kinds of characters you should avoid writing about.

Unless you make them complex. :eek:

Picture this: Ryan owns a business monopoly. He likes money, and does whatever he can to get more money. He's a stereotype that should be avoided.

But what if Ryan also wants to fix up a local neighborhood, so that it's a better place for kids to grow up? All of a sudden, Ryan isn't a stereotype anymore. He's unique. And for that reason, readers will find him interesting, and he'll be remembered longer than any other bland "evil" monopoly owner. :D

How else can you make characters complex and different? Just think about other people you've met in your life. Do they have strange accents? An unusual political point of view? Unique talents or dreams? These are all ways in which you can make your characters more realistic, and more memorable.

There's something else: realistic characters also have flaws. They are not perfect. Even though the idea of a person with no problems sounds like a good thing, it is unrealistic; your readers might stop believing that your characters can actually exist. Not good!

Even "bad guys" can have flaws. Besides making them more realistic, antagonists (like all characters) with flaws can appeal to the reader because of the flaws. Does your bad guy have a long-lost love whom he/she often cries about? This could cause some readers to actually sympathize with the antagonist :eek: , drawing them even further into the story.

Writing Exercise:
Think of the worst person you ever met. Nasty, cruel, backstabbing, just plain bad! Then give this villian one good quality. Maybe he's sympathetic to the elderly. Maybe she can't bear to walk past a homeless person without giving some money. Then, write a short passage where the character displays his/her good quality. With this, you'll create a multi-dimensional villian, and a truly unique character.

Characters Should Be Able To Change

Something else that makes characters realistic is their ability to change. In order to show this in a book, the readers must see that a character has the potential to change. The changes will happen over the course of the book, during which the character will see and do things which affect the way he/she acts and thinks in the future. Every event in a story will affect what a character decides to do. For example:

Matt is going to market, but his wallet gets stolen. Hopefully he now wants to get his wallet back. He will take action that he would not have taken if his wallet were not stolen. He's changed.

Why is change good? It makes characters more unpredictable - they can keep changing - and therefore more interesting to read about. Predictable characters are far more likely to make the reader lose interest. Example:

Joey gets picked on at school day after day after day...

Versus:

Joey gets picked on at school. But because of this, he's created more and more ingenious plans in order to avoid getting picked on.

Joey's plans change because he gets picked on. Thus, Joey changes by getting smarter, so readers will be more interested to see how his changes will affect him in the future.

Writing Exercise:
Remember the character with a desire you created? Write a short passage where that character is pursiung the desire. In this passage, show that the character is capable of change. For example: do the ways in which he/she tries to reach the desire change? Does he become more/less obsessed with the desire? Think about it, and write it!


Getting to Know Characters

Since your character(s) should feel like a living, breathing person, it's important to get to know him. Taking time to realize exactly how a particular characters acts will allow you to write about him mroe effectively.

One way to do this is to thrust your character into many different situations and think about how he will respond. For example: if a stranger ran up to him, begging for help, what would he do? What would he do if he somehow ended up in a completely unfamiliar place?

It's important to get to know your characters well. That way, you will be able to write about them well. And then your readers will be able to get to know them well, too.

While doing this, it's important to keep these things in mind:

Appearance: The way your character dresses will say a lot about his attitude and personality. It might also determine what other characters think about him.

Background: A person who grew up as a single child in an apartment will have a very different outlook on life than a person who grew up with thirteen siblings in a mansion. Ask: where did my character come from? Where did he grow up? Are there any things about his past that can affect his decisions?

Personality: :rolleyes: How will your character act in different situations? Towards different people? What are his talents, hopes, fears, dreams?

Primary Identity: If someone asked your character, "Who are you?" how would he respond? There can be many possible answers, but the one he gives will probably be more important to him than the other answers; a person who says, "I'm a scientist" will have a different primary identity than someone who says, "I'm a mess." They both might be scientists, and a mess, but they identify with different parts of their identity.


Interview Your Characters!

One great way to learn more about your characters is to ask questions. for example, how would your characters answer these? Note that these are just to help you understand or create your character. All of them do not need to be answered. Some might actually give you story ideas. (condensed from here (http://skitten.best.vwh.net/100questions.html))

Personal Questions

1. What is your real, birth name? What name do you use?
2. Do you have a nickname? What is it, and where did you get it?
3. What do you look like? (Include height, weight, hair, eyes, skin, apparent age)
4. How do you dress most of the time?
5. What's your real birth date?
6. Where do you live? Describe it: Is it messy, neat, avant-garde, sparse, etc.?
7. What is your most prized mundane possession? Why do you value it so much?
8. What one word best describes you?

Familial Questions

1. What was your family like?
2. Who was your father, and what was he like?
3. Who was your mother, and what was she like?
4. What was your parents marriage like? Were they married? Did they remain married?
5. What were your siblings names? What were they like?
6. What's the worst thing one of your siblings ever did to you? What's the worst thing you've done to one of your siblings?
7. When's the last time you saw any member of your family? Where are they now?

Childhood Questions

1. What is your first memory?
2. Any non-family member adults stick out in your mind? Who were they, and how did you know them? Why do they stick out?
3. Who was your best friend when you were growing up?
4. What is your fondest, childhood memory?
5. What is your worst childhood memory?

Adolescent Questions

1. How old were you when you went on your first date?
2. What were you like in high school? What "clique" did you best fit in with?
3. What were your high school goals?
4. Who was your idol when you were growing up? Who did you first fantasize about in your life?
5. What is your favorite memory from adolescence?
6. What is your worst memory from adolescence?

Occupational Questions

1. Do you have a job? What is it? Do you like it?
2. What is something you had to learn that you hated?
3. Do you tend to save or spend your money?

Likes & Dislikes Questions

1. What hobbies do you have?
2. Who is your closest friend?
3. Who is your worst enemy?
4. What type of places do you hang out in with your friends?
5. What annoys you more than anything else?
6. What would be the perfect gift for you?
7. What habit that others have annoys you most?
8. What kind of things embarrass you? Why?
9. What don't you like about yourself?

Morality Questions

1. What one act in your past are you most ashamed of?
2. What one act in your past are you most proud of?
3. What do you feel most strongly about?
4. What trait do you find most admirable, and how often do you find it?
5. Do you have any feelings in general that you are disturbed by? What are they? Why do they disturb you?
6. What is your religious view of things? What religion-if any-do you have?
7. Are you a better leader or follower? Why do you think that?
8. What is your responsibility to the world, if any? Why do you think that?

Miscellaneous Questions

1. What is the thing that has frightened you most?
2. Has anyone or anything you've ever cared about died? How did you feel about it? What happened?
3. What is your current long term goal?
4. What is your current short term goal?
5. Do you have any bad habits? If so, what are they, and do you plan to get rid of them?
6. If you were to gain an obscenely large sum of money (via an inhertiance, a lawsuit, a lottery, or anything else) what would you do with it?
7. What would you wish for if you found a genie?
8. What do you do when you are bored?



Types of Characters

Not all characters need to be developed in great depth. Basically, the more important characters in your story should be developed much more than, say, passersby.

This is especially important for the protagonist, the main character of the story. All of the things mentioned so far, like desires, complexity, and changes should be prominent in the protagonist because if he doesn't seem real, the story will fall apart.

Some stories also have an antagonist, someone who is either trying to stop (or is a big obstacle for) the protagonist. The bad guy. Usually, the antagonist should also be a greatly developed character.

Other major characters should also be developed to a great extent. These are the characters your reader will see the most in the story; it is important that they seem realistic and believable.

Secondary characters are not as important. Some of them will be developed a little, but not as much as the main characters. With lesser characters, a good trick is to give them one main trait (or hobby, or style) that says a lot about them. If your reader thinks of that character, they'll think of the trait. Like Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter series. In Book 1, he was a secondary character, and there was one thing that best described him: very unlucky. *Wink*

Finally, there are extra characters. Passersby. People who appear and are never seen again. Like a reporter who arrives and then leaves. Extras should exist in your world solely to make it real, but they won't have a significant impact in the story. In Harry Potter, this means all those names of students who you forget soon after hearing them. They're there because it's a school; they should be there, but they're not important to the story.

It is important to not make extras seem unique or fully developed. If you do, you waste time making them stand out in the readers' minds. And they'll steal the focus from what is important in the story. Bad!


Finally, there are two main ways to describe characters. Round characters are the fully developed, lifelike ones. They're round because there's a lot to say about them. Flat characters are the ones characterized only by their role or a single action. They're flat. Dull, boring. Easy to forget about. Make sure your main characters are not flat.