Welcome to the first post in what I am hoping will be a series of blog posts about various writing subjects. Seeing as this is my first entry, I think it makes sense to begin with the topic of “Getting Started”. Essentially, I want to dive into how I approach fitting together the various pieces of a story when I am planning a new project.

So then, since this is the first post, I have to start with the one aspect of story creation that I consider absolutely foundational. That is, the characters. After all, think about some of the most universally beloved stories out there. When we talk about Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, the average fan doesn’t typically get excited to discuss the politics of Coruscant or the implications of what a magic society might actually look like if anyone really could apparate anywhere at any time. No, instead we talk about how cool Vader or Gandalf are, or whether Sam was really the hero of middle earth. It’s through these characters that we form our personal connections with a work.

So, given that, I think it’s incredibly important to start any story planning from a character centric point of view. Sure, you do need a hint of a setting at least to ground your character decisions. I’m not advocating that just because you love your alien were-rabbit OC then it belongs in your next romance novel. Even still, you don’t need much more than a basic setting before you can get started here.

Given that, here are five things I think are most important when it comes to crafting strong, memorable characters.  

1.       Main characters need to have a defined role

This is especially important early in the story when the reader is trying to figure out who is who. It gives them something simple to grasp on to. It also gives the reader some base assumptions about the character that you can either lean into or subvert. I’m not necessarily talking about roles like “the smart one” or “the funny one”, but more so what they actually do within the context of your story.

Let’s say for example that you want to tell a medieval fantasy story. One simple way to look at character roles is to examine what they will be doing during action scenes. This might push you towards having a character who is a strong hand to hand fighter, while another of your characters focuses more on magic. Additionally, you might find additional roles like a sneaky thief, an artillery expert, or a smooth-talking spy. Of course, you don’t have to look at it from an action perspective. You could just as easily examine the political structure of the entity you are working with. Whether that’s a country or a small company, you will have people on top who are in charge, and those working for or against them in manners that could range from direct to indirect.

One important thing to note is that a character role should not define who a character is, but it should at least inform your character in some sense. While a role gives your character a reason to exist in the story, their personality should become their reason why they exist in your story. Defining this up front can help you to understand where a character fits into the larger narrative as you start to form it around them.

When crafting main characters, you need to be careful about this.

2.       Your character’s personality needs to be grounded

I find that some characters are more believable and convincing than others in stories. That’s not unusual, but the question I’ve had is why? What makes me connect more with one particular character over another?

I usually get attached to characters that feel the most real to me. This means that their personality cannot be a caricature or cliché. Instead, you need to think more deeply. All characters should have some kind of nuance to them.

The trap here is when your characters are too simple, then they become boring. I should have a decent idea how they will respond to various situations they find themselves in, but I shouldn’t feel like I can predict all of their thoughts and actions before they occur. Real people are more complicated than that, and you should embrace that when you are creating your characters.

Back to our generic fantasy example from the point above. Let’s say you wanted to move ahead with creating your hand-to-hand fighter character. The first thing to do is give them a few different personality traits. Let’s just pick a few at random. Talented, subordinate, kind of lazy, loud. From there, we can take these traits and begin molding them into the outlines of a character’s personality.

Maybe this is someone who fights with the sword. They have been gifted with magic power, but in this universe, it takes extensive practice to even be considered a beginner mage, and this character never followed through with their training. So, while they know a lot about magic, and can sense it around them, they primarily fight with their sword and are deployed in battle as a counter against enemy mages. They’re also brash and take risks both on and off the battlefield. They’re a bit rough around the edges, but at the end of the day they will stand by their companions.

There, that’s a basic outline grounded in your world. Notice I haven’t talked about gender yet. I don’t believe in defining that up front if I can help it. I find that as the outline of my character takes shape, the character’s gender just asserts itself in my mind. I am lucky in the regard that I naturally tend to have a pretty even split of character genders. I believe that if you are writing things like fantasy or science fiction, there’s no reason why you can’t have an even gender split, and you should strive for that if you find yourself with an imbalance.

3.       “But” is your strongest tool

As you start to get an outline of your character, you can make things more compelling by constantly using the word “but” to dig deeper. The word “but” can lead you to discover things that are hidden beneath the surfaces of your character’s personality. It exposes contradictions or dichotomies that feel organic and can lead to a more well-rounded character.

This is where you start iterating. Let’s again take our swords(wo)man from above and see what we can discover about them. One thing that stands out is they are lazy. So, let’s ask “but why?” Maybe this character is very naturally talented. They mastered the sword at a young age and grew up surrounded by praise. When confronted with something they couldn’t easily master, in magic, they instead gave up on it. They never learned how to work hard; things always came easily to them.

“But if that’s true, then what? How did they react when things didn’t come easy?” Well, maybe they blame that challenge itself for their hardships. This character takes great satisfaction in fighting against and beating powerful mages, since perhaps they see magic as a whole as the challenge they couldn’t surmount. They also can’t escape the deep-seated shame that they feel for themselves, knowing they had the capacity to master this skill but instead have let themselves down, leading to an outspoken brashness about them to cover up any form of weakness. This all leads to them regularly throwing caution to the wind and exposing themselves recklessly to danger at times, as they don’t believe deep down, they are worthy of what they have.

In order for this character to be part of your story, as we have defined them, they will probably need support from your other characters. They would need someone else to keep them in check, to remind them of their good parts. They are a bit of a wildcard.

I feel like we have a good outline now, but you can keep this exercise going for as long as you’d like. Asking yourself “but if it is true that they take dangerous risks, what does that mean for their personal life? For their interpersonal connections? For their ambitions or future plans?”

4.       Where did your character come from?

We’ve already touched a bit on that above, but if you haven’t thought about this yet, this is definitely the time to do so. Characters don’t just spring into being the first time you write a line of dialogue for them in your story. They have their entire lives behind them, and where they come from can be a great way of rounding them out.

Think about their childhood. Maybe it was relatively normal. They grew up with a middle-class family and were trained to inherit the family business, or left to learn a trade. Maybe they were well educated from an early age. Maybe they struggled, and went through periods of homelessness or hardship on the streets. These are just some examples of how we can help build out their past.

If you get stuck, just like the “but” exercise above, there are questions you can ask yourself that can help guide you. For instance: “Did they grow up with both their parents? Just one? Or did extended family or some other institution take them in? What were their friends like? Did they have any dreams? What are their goals, short term and long term? When they are introduced in your story, are they happy with where they are at in life?”

All of these questions can help to give depth to your characters, and make them feel more real. You, as an author, are in a constant fight to get buy in from your readers. If you are writing something fantastical like fantasy or sci-fi, that task becomes even more difficult. One way you can fight back is by having relatable, complex characters that your reader can latch onto and identify with.

One thing you might have realized is that the deeper we dive into the past, the more there seems to be a limit to what we can do without a plot or developed setting to guide us. When we define the backstory of our characters, we are also somewhat defining the backstory of our world, which should in turn inform our plot.

I’ll be returning more to this point in a later blog post as I examine how plot and character can influence each other.

5.       Identify the fun

The last, and probably most important point. You have to personally enjoy the characters you are writing. If they are boring or annoying to you, that feeling will definitely come across to the reader. I’m not saying you can’t write characters who are annoying, just that you should be at least somewhat excited about them.

If you are struggling to write one of your characters, often times the best way I’ve found to break through is to really dig deep into what about them is compelling. When I do this, I find that characters I’m tired of are usually missing something fundamental. They don’t have that spark that makes them more than a cardboard cutout.

Hopefully if you’ve started with the first four points above, then you have a pretty well-rounded character. But sometimes for whatever reason it just doesn’t work. If you’ve lost the fun of the character, then it might be time to return to the drawing board and reimagine who they are and their place in the story.

It’s a scary concept, rethinking a character who you may have already written in, but I’ve done it more than once and I’m always happier in the end. Go with your gut. Your characters are the most important connection you make with your reader. If you don’t believe in them yourself, then how is the reader supposed to?

Well, there you have it. Five things to keep in mind when constructing characters for your stories. I don’t always go point by point like a checklist when brainstorming characters, but these things can help me when I’m stuck or looking for inspiration, and hopefully it can do the same for you.

This won’t be the last time I discuss character by a long shot, but I’ll be leaving this topic behind to discuss getting started with plotting next week. Hopefully you’ll join me then! See ya!