𝖶𝗋𝗂𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖳𝗂𝗉𝗌 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖫𝗈𝗌𝖾𝗋𝗌

𝖪𝖾𝖾𝗉𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝖢𝗈𝗇𝗌𝗂𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝗍

Consistency is about understanding your characters well, primarily their sources of motivation, personal tendencies, and effects of their backstory. A character that's truly understood will be naturally consistent, however the most realistic characters have a natural form of inconsistency that comes from layers of personality and immediate environmental influence.

There's a difference between what seems inconsistent, where the inconsistency only exists for those who take the behavior at face value, and actual inconsistency, where the character is poorly written. I've occasionally seen novice writers hound each other about what they think is inconsistent character behavior, when the real problem is that their critique is at a shallow level and/or they don't understand human behaviors. That's not to say that writers can't write inconsistent characters, but rather that it helps to think critically over a critique to make sure it's true.

"Fake inconsistency" (AKA realistic inconsistency of character) can look like:
✎ A character joking around with their friends but being quiet around strangers
✎ A character being very competitive until they're about to lose
✎ A character who normally loves surprises getting upset at their surprise birthday party

Real inconsistency is when the behavior cannot be explained by their motivation or personal history. Let's look at the reasoning behind the behaviors I just mentioned:

"A character joking around with their friends but being quiet around strangers"

This is simply a personality layer. We don't act the same around everyone and realistic character writing will show that, however it helps to keep a clear idea about what causes the personality layer. Is it social anxiety or shyness? Do they recognize that their hobbies aren't well known so they learned to not talk about them with strangers? Do they hate small talk or just not like meeting new people? There are many, many causes to personality layers and it helps if you can identify what they are.

"A character being very competitive until they're about to lose"

This character could be insecure, has "quitter" tendencies, and/or only competes for the glory. The moment they sense that they won't win, they will lose interest and "save face" by not participating or by showing that it's not a big deal. Sometimes that's an act, other times they really do lose all motivation to care if they can't win.

"A character who normally loves surprises getting upset at their surprise birthday party"

This is more situational and is likely based on a group of factors. Maybe they're in a bad mood and was really looking forward to spending some time alone. Maybe they don't like their birthday. Maybe they think the person who set up the party did a terrible job. Etc.

The fun part about all those behaviors is that those aren't the only explanations! Depending on the scene setup, backstory, and a hell of a lot more, there are a vast amount of reasons for characters to display differing behavior in differing situations. What keeps the behavior consistent would be the motivation/personal tendencies/backstory effects behind it, but you have to understand your characters to successfully introduce behavioral nuance well.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that character aren't a bag of traits. Just because someone is generally "brave" doesn't mean they can't be cowardly from time to time. Traits are not umbrellas that always rigidly apply to characters, they're dynamic parts of a personality that react to internal and external influences. Traits are not automatically good or bad, they exist as part of a character and the effect of them changes depending on what's going on. Part of learning to write realistic consistency means avoiding using words to define how a character should "always" act based on generalizations of personality.

And finally, another reason that writers can have trouble with consistency is that their character doesn't actually fit their plot. In a (usually) strong plot, the characters (especially the protagonist) have agency and can make decisions that affect the plot. If the plot is too rigidly conceived and doesn't match the character's personalities, then you can end up with a story where things seem "out of character" because you're forcing the characters to do things to move the plot, rather than giving them actual agency based on who they are. Your characters and your plot need to work together; sometimes character inconsistency can be a symptom of forced reactions or events.

All that said... It's not abnormal to have to fix inconsistencies after the first draft, especially because writers often get to know their characters better the more they work with them. Sometimes you just have to write now and fix it later!

Avoiding informed traits:

This is as simple as making sure your characters actually do things rather than talk about doing things (or are the subject of conversation about the things). If an informed trait is when a character is labeled with a trait but doesn't express it in-story, then simply have them express it in the story. If this trait doesn't naturally come up, then it's not an important part of the character and you either need to let it go or massage your plot to help show it better.

Avoiding informed traits falls back to "show, don't tell", where you let the reader learn about the characters through their actions, choices, voice, expressed personality, etc. rather than telling things about them. While it's common to have to "tell" things like physical description or backstory, personality is best left "shown".

cr; justawritingaid