Your Guide to Writing the Perfect Story

Developing 3D Characters

Yay! The chapter we've all been waiting for!

That's right, I'm here to talk to you about writing three-dimensional characters. I covered some of planning your character under the chapter for that, but I purposefully didn't get too into detail. Why? Because I'm going to cover some of that under here! Remember that in the end, how you shape your character is completely up to you and my suggestions for you today are just a bit more in depth than what you may have heard. However, no person writing a guide like myself would ever be able to give you the exact formula to an awesome character. It's up to you to give it your special touch and make the words breathe.

Having good characters is important because they are the ones in charge of the story. They control how it goes and a boring character inevitably creates boring plot lines. On the other hand, an interesting character will carry the story a long way. Plus, readers like to connect with the characters. In real life, 2D people just don't exist. We are not confined to one trait, we have separate parts, sometimes even identities it seems. For this reason, readers just cannot relate to a two-dimensional character. They have to be 3D.

On that note, let me give you some tips and knowledge to help you on your journey as a writer.

Part One:

I actually found this in "WRITE YOUR NOVEL: Tips from a NYT Bestseller" by CJLyons. She is a brilliant author and I really encourage you to read her book on Wattpad if you are seeking more help in writing. One thing that she said for creating character profiles was that it is absolutely necessary that you can fill the following out.

Outer Goal: What your character wants.

Inner Goal: What your character needs (but doesn't necessarily know it).

Outer Conflict: The person or thing that prevents them from achieving their goal. It should be fairly obvious.

Inner Conflict: A moral line, flaw, or hesitancy that prevents them from achieving their goal. They might not be aware of it, but something about achieving their goal makes them feel dirty.

Motivation: This is the reason that they need to achieve their goal. What happened in their past that makes them want to win so badly. Maybe a murderer killed their father and they want revenge.

Default Action: What their automatic reaction to all problems is. They might not think about it before they do it. Often, they are unaware of their default action. Ex. Violence, retaliation, obedience etc.

Those six things are absolutely necessary and if you can't fill it out for all of your main characters, you need to rethink things. What I have above is what makes your character human and in-depth. Not everything about them is black and white and that's a really important concept to grasp.

Part Two:

For part two, I'll just be covering what wasn't above. These are all still important things to consider that I haven't talked about just yet.

1. Flaws

Have you ever hated a person so much, but had no real reason to? Was it just because you saw everything in them that you wish you were yourself? Is the word you are looking for to describe them "perfect"?

The thing is, we can't help but dislike the people we know in our hearts are better in every way than ourselves. Perfect people only accentuate our own flaws and after a while we start to grow spiteful. The same goes for fictional characters, even if they aren't real. Readers despise character's that are flawless, even if they don't realize that's why they dislike them so much.