What inspires you to create a new character? Ideas, images, conversations we hear bring new characters of all genres to life
Tayari Jones overheard an intimate moment between a man and a woman at Atlanta’s Lenox Square Mall. The woman asked the man if he’d have waited for her if she’d been away for 7 years. He responds by telling the woman she’d never have been sent away that long.
This interaction led to the creation of Roy Hamilton Jr. and Celestial Davenport of An American Marriage, a complicated story of a couple who learn what a relationship means when you’re torn apart by an unjust system.
My current work in progress began with a road trip I took to Brazil a few years ago. We drove through a massive butterfly migration. They were everywhere. It was overwhelming and the butterflies seemed to take on a life of their own. I imagined my daughter traveling through this on her own with friends. Thus my character Parvaneh — meaning butterfly in Farsi — was born. She lives ten thousand years in the future in a world where plants and animals talk.
But no character arrives fully formed. It’s our job as writers to flesh them out and give them reasons to act and feel as they move their way from the beginning of your story to the end.
Here are nine guidelines you can follow to build compelling and unforgettable characters. Along with each rule, you’ll find examples from popular books as well as writing prompts you can use to deepen the characters in your writing.
Build a life that exists beyond the book.
While you may not write beyond the confines of your story, your characters must give the impression they have a rich and full life beyond what you tell us.
They have childhood fears, dreams and secrets. They’re shaped by their previous relationships and their lives continue after we finish reading. These details appear in your writing as hints and shadows letting us know your character is multi-faceted and has more dimensions than just the flat page.
Examples:
In Harry Potter, Newt Scamander clearly has a past related to Leta Lestrange, whose photo he keeps in his office. He was also expelled from Hogwarts. We don’t know what happened, and we don’t find out during the course of Fantastic Beasts, but these details make him a more wholly fleshed out character and leave us wanting to know more.
Mrs. Richardson in Little Fires Everywhere has a past brought up throughout the book. She’s presented as Elena in earlier memories, creating a clear difference between the person she used to be and the person she is during the book.
Writing prompts to build your character’s life story:
Check out these 9 character writing prompts to move your story forward
It includes the 16 personality type tests based on the MMPI psychology test.
Interview your character. Ask them anything you want then answer. You can include questions about their childhoods, their favorite color, who they voted for or anything else. For some interview question inspiration check here, here and here.
Allow your characters to make mistakes and they become more real and well-rounded. Click To TweetThey are flawed.
No one likes a perfect character because no one is perfect. When your character is just good at everything and handles everything well, we can’t relate as readers. Allow your characters to make mistakes and they become more real and well-rounded. You know, kind of like us.
Examples:
Tony Soprano is an awful psychopathic murderer. As we get to know him, though, we see his family, friends, fears and forgive his flaws (mostly).
Celestial Davenport is self-absorbed in the beginning of An American Marriage. She worries more about her life, her needs and her pain more than anyone else in the book. This leads her to make some questionable choices. It’s easy to forgive her, because she’s funny, fun and ends up in such a difficult situation. You can only empathize with her.
Writing prompts to add flaws to your characters:
Write a monologue from your character’s point of view. Let their biggest flaws shine through, whether or not they’re aware of them.
Write a list of the worst things about your character. Are these negative characteristics enough to tip your character to the side of dislike? How do you balance the flaw so that it presents as sympathetic and human?
They have a problem to solve.
Every character has something that’s not working in their lives, and they seek to fix it. They may figure it out. They might fail spectacularly. Your readers may want to see them win. Your readers might want them to fall on their faces and lose.
It doesn’t matter if your character solves their problem, but they do need to have one to solve.
Examples:
In Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen had to survive in an awful state-run game to save her sister.
Tony Soprano had to figure out how to be a mob boss with crippling anxiety and emotions that made him softer.
Izzy Richardson from Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere doesn’t subscribe to the kind of justice the rest of her family follows. She wants to do something to create justice but doesn’t know how.
Darth Vader wants to overthrow the Dark Lord and find a Paduan of his own.
Writing prompts to understand your character’s problems:
Explore your character’s problem.
What is the problem? How will they solve it? Can it be solved at all? And what happens if they never solve it? What does solving the problem show your readers?
They must have an arc.
Your characters must have a story with a beginning middle and end. They want something and as they work toward reaching their goal, they will change and learn. They are not the same person as when they began. This is the character arc.
Examples:
In An American Marriage, Celestial begins the book as a young newlywed. She’s naive and sees the world through a prism of right and wrong. By the end of the book, she has much more world experience and thus the world separates into shades of responsibility. Life and relationships are complicated and usually, everyone is right and wrong at the same time.
Writing Exercises to create a full story arc for your character:
Do characters know what your story is about?
The lessons your characters learn over the course of the book convey the core message or lesson your readers understand from your story. You can connect your character’s arc to the core message of your book with this writing prompt.
Also, follow this character arc progression tool.
They must be likable or at the very least sympathetic.
“We don’t really understand an antagonist until you understand why he’s a protagonist in his own version of the world.”
John Rogers
Some characters are just awful, but no matter how terrible they may be, readers still have to like at least something about them. They can’t be so egregious we can’t stand reading about them.
The only exception to this is an antagonist who is so awful, we’re rooting for them to lose. Then we need enough access to their inner lives to know what they want, thoroughly despise them and root for the antagonist to win.
Readers also find one-dimensional characters to be unlikable. They’re flat, unreal and therefore, we can’t attach to them. In which case, you must do the work to make them more complex and varied. Go deep into who they are, what they want and why they do the shitty things they do.
Examples:
In The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling. She’s got rough edges and isn’t someone you could see sitting down to have a beer; however, we know about her losses, her desires and why it’s so important to her to find the murderer and prove herself.
Hannibal Lecter is too smart and interesting to be locked up, except for the fact he’d rip our faces off if we saw him in real life. He also has a code of conduct in his murder choices and styles.
James Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill, who is the serial killer Clarice and Hannibal track, has no redeeming characteristics at all. He’s thoroughly disgusting, and we want nothing more than for him to be caught.
Writing prompts to make your characters more likable:
Choose your three most unlikable characters and list the things you don’t like about them. Now dig deep and explain why the way they are. What got them to be that way? Do they have the capability to change and what will you think of them if they don’t. Or have you simply not drawn them deeply enough yet? If not, then what do we need to know about your character to make us want to know more about them?
They must have a psychological compulsion.
I don’t mean mental illness, although it could be. Your character must have something in their past that has made them the way they are today. It’s a wound that leads them to want the things they want and act the way they act.
Examples:
Harry Potter wants a family. The loss of his parents leads him to all kinds of dark corners, compels him to be brave like his father and live up to what he believes would make his parents proud. His early loss also leaves him searching for family and to fill the void they left behind when they died.
Clarice Starling went to live on a sheep farm with her uncle after her father died. The sound of lambs screaming as they went to slaughter haunts her. This murder of innocents leads her to work for the FBI to protect the innocent, and at the end of the book, when she has indeed saved the innocent, Hannibal Lecter asks her if the lambs have finally stopped screaming.
Writing prompts to develop your characters’ psychology:
The Muse offers a list of 14 of psychology and personality tests you can take online, from measuring emotional intelligence to the “Who Am I” test to an employability test and more.
Have your characters take one or all of these tests. They’ll help you flesh out details about your character’s psychology that can help fill in blanks as you work out what early wounds and psychology lead your characters to act as they do.
You must know what they want.
We can’t get where we’re going unless we know what we want. It’s no different for our characters. In order to take their journey through your story, you must know where they’re headed.
Based on their history, their psychological background and the conflict in the book, you have to know what your character wants in order to find your way out.
Sometimes they get what they want. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes as they change through the arc of the book, they realize they didn’t want what they thought they wanted after all.
The caveat? Your characters might not actually know what they want. Often, their job is to learn over the course of the story. When you are clear in what they want, you help them get there.
Examples:
Hermione from Harry Potter wants to bridge the gap between her muggle origins and her real world. She wants to be accepted and does so by learning as much as she can.
River, the grandfather in Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, wants to be a good role model and guide his grandchildren and children. Even when the recipient of his guidance refuses to hear him, he remains steadfast and solid, providing a home for any character who chooses to embrace him.
Writing prompts to know what your character wants:
Write a dialogue between two of your characters in which they try to explain to each other what they want and why they want it. But remember, they may not know clearly what they want. They may stumble over their words. Do they help each other figure themselves out or drive each other farther away from their goals?
William Faulkner said, ”once a character stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.”
When you go deep into your character, you breathe life into your them. Their wants and needs shape the story you write. Your scenes fall into place more easily, because you are simply following your characters around and writing down what they do. When you believe in them, when you’re emotionally connected, your readers will, too.
