Tips to help you create dynamic three-dimensional characters that feel real to your readers.
By Megan Amato
A story is nothing without its characters. Even in plot driven novels, readers can feel something lacking when a character isn’t properly developed or fleshed out. Beautiful prose, complex plot and magical world building withstanding, it’s the characters that pull me into the novel and keep me along for the often bumpy ride.
Here, I hope to give you some tips and some not-so-sage advice on how to flesh out those characters and breathe life into them from the page into a readers mind.
My first piece of advice is this: know your characters as well as you know your best friend: Often, we know our friends’ fears, hopes, triumphs and failures much better than those in their own family. You know those secrets they told you in third grade? The whispered shenanigans you promise to take to the grave? Their family history and dynamics? Take all of them, their happiest and proudest moments along with the painful memories and shameful choices and think about how they have all shaped your best friend. All these moments add up to develop their fears and dreams, their ambitions and internal barriers. When fleshing out characters, think about their lives and how it has made them who they are and know them just as well as you know your best friend. Not as well as you know yourself, however. After all, your best friend can still surprise you and we all know that our characters can, too.
Culture Shapes Character: Culture can come from many places. The places we live, the physical geography of the land we inhabit, the religions we adapt, the education we receive, the politics we breathe, the media we ingest, the friends we make and the places we’ve been. All of it shapes us. Some of it is passed down through family connections and ethnicity. Others are leftover from history. Wherever we get this culture from, it guides us into the choices we make and how we navigate the world. Characters are like that too. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a book set on a real island impacted by its violent colonial history or a made up diverse landlocked city run by an authoritarian government, the culture(s) that thrive in those places shape your characters. And more, cultures that intersect with other cultures sculpt out complex people even further in highlighting differences and similarities, and by creating new cultures. When creating your characters, think about how each aspect of their culture shapes them so you can build a holistic picture of who they are and understand their motivations in the world they live in.
Intersectionality: This is where your character’s background and culture meet. No one is one dimensional. No one is just one thing. Our background, traumas, orientation, sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, class and culture all come together to create the people we are. When creating characters, keep this in mind because there is no such thing as a “blank slate” character. Who we are shapes how we move in this world and those with marginations face more barriers than those without. Even if you are creating a world with a monoculture, think about the intersections within it. Think about who are the outliers and why.
Roleplay with your Characters: This is where you get to have some fun. One of the best ways to get to know your characters better are by putting them to the test. You can do this by playing them in D&D campaigns, by asking your friends to ask you random “what would they do” scenarios or playing 21-questions. There are also many character building sheets online that you can fill out to get to know you’re characters’ motivations, reactions and responses in ways you might not in the order of events you’ve outlined for your book. For example:
Your protagonist is at the library, discreetly checking out a book they are embarrassed about. They look up and see that their crush has spotted them. What do they do?
Your antagonist is grocery shopping and see that the last box of their favourite cereal. As they go to grab it, a small child slips in excitedly and grabs it first. What do the do?
Your MC’s mentor is reading a book, they are excitedly reading along until they get to the end and they notice the last page is missing. What do they do?
A character is on a ferry crossing to an island for work, they spot something mysterious in the water but they are the only one who sees it. What do they do?
Your MC’s best friend uses the last of the toilet paper in the public restroom, they notice there is a queue behind them. What do they do?
These might all seem like benign questions, but they add up to show you the values your characters keep and how they respond to the world around them.
Feel free to ask each other role playing questions in the comments! Get to know your characters, it’s a load of fun š
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