This is where we talk about writing romance. Everyone is welcome!
Tips Corner is an interactive learning format rather than teaching. We all love to read or write romance and whether we realise it or not, are experts and have ideas to offer.
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Characters make up a story.
Characters are the life of a story.
Every character in a story has something to say. They have a goal they want to achieve. Believe it or not, great characters help compensate for a weak plot. If readers don't care about your characters, they won't care about your story.
The secondary characters are just as important as the primary characters, and sometimes, we might prefer them more than the primary characters and only because of how they are written, or we might find ourselves loving them just as equally.
So, how do we write compelling characters? How do we make our readers fall in love?
Let's start with the secondary characters aka side characters.
Don't hold them in captivity. Let them soar. They aren't there as an accessory to the main characters. Give them goals. Give them ambition. Give them a little romance, but try to limit it in the story so readers would crave to know what would happen next and demand their own book. Give them a quirk. Let them stand out from the crowd by giving them a quirk or two of their own.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way. How do you write compelling characters? It's really easy. Put your characters in your shoes. You have desires. You have goals. You have flaws. Something motivates you. Right? Right. So, let me break it down for you.
- Give them goals. A character goal is the basis of their journey, and it helps you plot your story with clarity and purpose. Without a goal, your character is bland. If your character doesn't have a goal, why are you writing the book?
- Give them motivation. It's the why. Motivation is the salt in your food. It's the sugar in your tea or coffee. Do food or drink taste good without a little of those? No. Knowing the reason why your character chooses to pursue their goal helps readers invest their stories.
- Give them a purpose. It adds value to your story. If there's no purpose, you might as well let them sink.
- Give them fear. No. My character is a badass, she/he doesn't have fears. Great. But what if they do? What if there's someone who stumbles upon it? Let's say, the love interest. What if they're the only ones who feel your characters fear, and who are there to offer their comfort? Protection? Can you see the deliciousness of that? That aside, having a little fear in a character isn't a big deal. It's realism. Everyone has fears. It's necessary for your character to be a little realistic. Unless they're a robot.
- Give them a flaw. Nobody is perfect. Being human means imperfection. Let your characters flaws play into their relationships, fears, and disappointments.
- Give them a history. A past shape out who a person becomes. Did they have a good past of a bad past? Either way, it has to affect both the person they are when your story begins and how they will handle the journey to come.
- Give them personality, interests, and desires. Don't let your character be a flat character. Don't let them be dull. Personality is one of the biggest things that helps make readers fall for characters. And having desires sometimes tempts characters to take action they will regret, which in turn will get the readers to gasp or cuddle with their pillow. Either way, it will make them turn the next page.
- Give them love. There's nothing a reader loves more than love. Make them complex. Put them in as many diverse situations as possible. There's nothing sexier than a character who is struggling to make the right choices or struggling to stay true to themselves. Let them have multiple traits and different sides to their personality. Make them fail and suffer. Don't let them reach their goals so easily. Let them have an obstacle. Let them cry and scream. Crush them if you have to. A character can only achieve great development if they face failure. It helps them learn from their mistakes and grow from them.
Just remember that there's no character if there's no story. Make sure you know your story before you start writing. And a little tip that can help is; write down everything about your characters before you start writing. Create a character profile and dump all your information there. Trust me, that can come in handy.
