Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop ✒ Writing Tips

Lesson 12: How to come up with intriguing characters?

This lesson may seem a bit similar to Lesson 8 in which we discussed Character Development, but both chapters are rather different. While in that lesson I had focused on exploring personality and aspects of characters which have already been formed, in this lesson I will be elaborating on ideas that help in creating intriguing characters.

I suppose I should have covered this lesson first but well. Development comes after formation, and this lesson deals entirely with the building or formation of characters.

Since we mostly deal with fanfiction here on Wattpad, I guess I will be covering techniques that would help fanfiction authors slightly more than other authors. Even though everything else in this book is generalized, there are some lessons (such as this one) which fanfic authors might find easier to implement.

So without further ado, let's get started!

***

When we are creating something, be it a marketing product or a story character, we consider two basic ways: starting from a scratch or using preset standards.

[Keep in mind that by preset standards I am in no way referring to clichés or stereotypes, it's an entirely different but interesting approach which will be shortly discussed here.]

Starting From A Scratch

Just like the title clearly suggests, starting a character from scratch is similar to having a blank sheet of paper on which you later compose a painting or write a chapter.

You have nothing on that sheet to help you and you just have to use your brain to formulate whatever end product you wish to create. For that, a lot of brainstorming is required and you have to carefully consider the following questions:

a. What is the status of that character (protagonist/antagonist/side character) in your story?

Trust me, you have to know this before you expand on your character. A character's status defines his/her role in the story and should be selected first of all.

If the character you're working on is the main protagonist/antagonist then you will have to pay it more attention as compared to side characters. I'm not asking you to abandon side characters entirely but main characters are designed specifically so that the readers feel more connected to them.

But there's not any hard and fast rule for you to simply focus more on main characters, it is just a general notion that authors usually follow. I have read stories in which there are multiple main characters and also some stories in which there are significant side characters as well so it all depends on whether you want your book to simply focus on one or two characters or do you want it to cover three to four stories all at once within a single plot.

The second option mentioned above is difficult and has to be handled with caution, but when done correctly, it results in an intriguing and suspenseful story. [Maybe we'll do a chapter on this too.]

b. Why and how is this certain character important for your story?

Keep in mind that this question focuses solely on those characters which play some significant role in your story. Through this question you can easily filter out the extras (you don't want to waste your time thinking a lot about Sally the librarian, who plays no other role in your story instead of just being there in the library).

If any of your characters are plot devices, then those are included in here as well. [Plot devices are characters that are used as catalysts to propel the story into motion, induce a plot twist or enhance the plot through their presence.]

While going through these questions, you can keep a notebook with one or two pages for each character and jot down the answers in bullet points. If later on in the story you get stuck somewhere, you can always come back to your character notebook for help or reference.