Guide to Writing

Writing Tip 15: Portraying characters

Characters are the driving force of any story - their actions, and the resulting consequences, are what control the entire plot. This week, we're giving some tips and tricks on how to portray them.

Make them believable and relatable

In the world of your story, your character is a real person - the reader needs to be able to believe that as well. The main ways to do this are through the dialogue, both internal and external, and their motivations. Even if your reader doesn't totally agree with the choices made by your character, they should be able to understand why a person would react and behave the way your characters do.

Internal dialogue is especially important when your story is written in first person, because the entire story is written from a main character's point of view. Because of this, you have to be careful to tell the story with description - for example, when getting dressed in the morning, do you really think about your entire outfit and describe it to yourself? Or do you really describe your entire appearance when you see it every morning, every day? This is where it becomes important to balance your detailing so that your characters come across as real people. Imagine yourself in that scenario, and then describe it. There are details that you would miss, and ones you would focus on. Depending on how observant your character is, this can easily change between people, but keep the internal thoughts realistic.

For external dialogue, such as a conversation between friends, reading aloud can help. If you're able to, get others to read it with you. Does the conversation sound realistic? With certain genres, such as paranormal and historical, there are going to be parts that don't due to the time period or more fantastical elements, but the characters should still sound like real people.

Regardless of the genre of your story, the motivations of your characters should be relatable. Every action your character makes should be the consequence of something else, and in turn should have consequences - this is the way real people behave, and so should your characters. An example of a villain that does this is Magneto in the X-Men franchise. Although he is the villain of the series, believing mutants are the master race, his hatred of humans stems from the way he was treated in concentration camps as a child. In this case, the character is not a villain for no reason - he believes himself the better person as he can only see the bad in humans. This is an example of a realistic villain - although we as the audience cannot agree with his methods, we can still understand the motives behind his actions. Realistic characters believe themselves to be doing the right thing, even if the rest of the cast does not agree.

We're not saying that you should shove a ton of backstory at your readers, but make sure that you as a writer personally know the backstory and motives for each person so you can portray them as real people.

Don't have more characters than you can handle

It can be easy to want to have a large cast of characters, but there should never be so many that your readers can barely keep track of them. Some writers create character lists and guides to manage this. Try never to info dump with characters - if a character is minor, slowly give out more information each time they're seen, rather than telling us a lot about them.

The point of view can be very important with large casts. In third person, for example, you can potentially jump between characters, making it easier to give out more information to readers. In first person, however, you are limited to the viewpoint of a single character. You can use this to your advantage, however, by focusing on the smaller group of people the character is paying attention to.

If you are using first person with a large cast, try to stick to only a small number of viewpoints. Oftentimes stories become a mess when the writer attempts to use more than three points of view, which gets even more complicated when they do this within the same chapter. Stick to either first or third person, and then structure it so that this is clear to readers.

What others have had to say

KatherineArlene "Don't make your characters perfect. Perfect people are hard for readers to relate to. Giving them flaws, physical and personality-wise, will make them more real, and draw the reader into your story." 

sweetpotato-"Characters are not just names on a page, characters are supposed to be unique. So make sure to give them flaws, let them face problems just like us real people do."

dreamflier "Theoretically, there are so many different types of characters: static, dynamic, round, and flat. Don't think that every character needs to be of one type, but when you do utilize such dynamic and round characters, make sure that they are authentic, not just textbook definitions. Your characters should represent people of the world, not just words on a page. As an author, your ideal goal is to make your characters come to life on the page, so much that your readers identify with them and lead the journey of the book with them."

AaronStone07 "Characters are every story's strength next to plot building. Character dialogue can leave an impact as it highlights a personality type. Decisions made in a conflicting situation will make the character memorable. That is the goal. To have readers connect, understand if not relate, and remember the character independently from the story. Make sure to create a character that you could see yourself meeting in real life: the more real, the better."

As always, feel free to give your advice! What are your tips for creating characters?