What a Character!

There's a few key elements to creating a unique story, and one of those is your characters. Let's face it - without characters, you don't have much of a story!

So how do you create compelling characters?

I think those who are widely read have a huge advantage in this, because creating great characters is all about knowing them.

One of the most common pieces of writing advice is to write what you know. This is how you create characters that your reader can relate to. If you're writing about a mother but you've never been one yourself, how will you understand the mother you create? Speak to mothers, read words written by other mothers ... research motherhood. Find what it is about being a mother that makes this character different from the others you plan to introduce.

Some of the things I get most frustrated about when I'm reading are two-dimensional characters, or stereotypical characters, or characters with flawed continuity.

Firstly, those two-dimensional creatures.

These are the simplistic creatures that do things just because they need to be done for the story to progress. Their descriptions are a basic outline, and we know little about their past, their habits or their motivations. They are characters the reader may like or dislike, but is unlikely to form an attachment to. More often than not, these characters are killed off early, and their lack of detail makes the departure unremarkable. Occasionally, though, they hang around, adding little depth to the story. They'd probably serve better with an early death. Rest in peace, my 2D acquaintances.

Stereotypes are not always bad characters. I roll my eyes almost every time I encounter one, but for those less widely read these characters can be quite popular. They are stereotypes for a reason, after all! These are characters most readers can relate to in some way because they have encountered a similar character before. I'm talking about the big guy who's not particularly intelligent but is always strong, and the blonde bimbo, and the nerd who loves his books and is awkward around females.

These characters have their place, but in order to make them memorable, you have to give them more than their stereotype. The truly great characters go beyond the stereotype. So maybe you have a nerd who's awkward around women, but maybe he's dyslexic and his quest for intelligence has been harder than people realise. Maybe his awkwardness around women is not because he's socially awkward but because he lost a sister and now being around females reminds him of that loss. Suddenly your stereotypes become something more, and your reader finds they want to read on to know more about this complex character who seemed so typical on the surface.

Flawed continuity is not always something an editor can pick up. If your character has brown hair in chapter one but blonde hair in chapter five, most qualified editors are sharp enough to catch it. Sometimes, however, flawed continuity is not always so obvious. Again, it comes back to knowing your character. Take, for example, the nerd who lost his sister.

We know why he's awkward around girls, but as the story develops, he starts to overcome this, perhaps because he meets the 'special one' - the girl who is different, and so allows his character to develop. But then perhaps she reveals that she also had a sister once who passed away. And because he's quite a chivalrous guy, your nerd comforts her upon hearing this sad story.

But wait. This is a guy who couldn't even talk to women for x amount of years because of the loss of his own sister. Do we really think he would be that strong?

In all likelihood, this character would regress. He's not going to be strong. He's going to be as much of a wreck as his new gal pal.

And that is going to make your story powerful.

It's important to really understand your characters. You should know how they would react in most situations, and how they would answer unexpected questions. They should be flawed, but most importantly they should be realistic in how they act and react, based on the character you've created.

Build your characters so that you know them as if they were family. Not only will this help make your story stronger, it will also help with continuity and flow.

Happy writing!