When writing a book, keep in mind that literature as a whole mirrors society. Whatever genre you choose to write should have believable, relatable and interesting characters who have consistent behavioral patterns, patterns that don’t change unless there is a believable and relatable cause for change.
Your audience has expectations; as they get to know your characters, they expect to relate to your character’s personality and story. When your character responds unnaturally to important events, there should be a convincing reason or explanation/exposition as to why.
If not, your reader starts to lose interest in the book because your characters are not realistic. People don’t fall in love with story plots; they fall in love with the three dimensional characters that bring the plot to life.
Here are steps to help you create strong characters:
CREATE YOUR CHARACTER’S BIO:
This will be reference material that helps you create organic responses specific to each character:
Start with basic attributes and build towards behavioral patterns:
i) NAME:
Sometimes the name you give your character can play an important role in his personality development. It could be a sharp contrast with his personality; it could also be a true reflection of who he is. It could be a name borne from circumstance, a name that the reader comes to understand later in the course of the story. Eg. Eleven from Stranger things
The name a character bears can also reveal his origin or descent. Names have a way of suggesting the setting of a story. You cannot have a traditional setting and then give foreign names to your characters. A foreign name in a traditional setting can raise eyebrows.
Also, in naming your characters, stick to one name which they can be identified with, and remain consistent throughout the book; if this name should change, an understandable reason should show why.
Too many nicknames and titles for one person can cause confusion for readers. No one wants to spend time thinking about who exactly you are referring to. Changing names and titles and using short forms on every chapter could mess up your work.
Also when choosing names do not choose names that sound alike or are spelt alike for different characters, this will also cause confusion unless the situation is peculiar to say, twins, quadruplets, etc.
ii) Age:
Age does a lot to our personality and our response to situations. When you determine the age of your character, ensure their diction, thought and behavioral pattern suits them, unless the situation is peculiar. In case of a peculiar character, reveal whether over a sequence of events or in exposition why the character is so.
iii) Setting:
Where is the story taking place? Where does your character live? What era are you setting your story in? If you are writing about a woman who lived in the medieval era, her culture, religion and even language should show this, as well as the society around her. Relying on assumptions or bits of info you remember from Tv would be a mistake. Accurate scenarios require proper research. Your research will not be limited to online resources, you can watch videos or visit museums to learn about history from that era; this will help you create an appropriate character.
Without research, you will use contradictory elements to plot your characters and storylines, and that’s not a good look for knowledgeable readers.
iv) Four Important things: Motive, Personality, Flaws & Background:
Motive:
Take time to draw out each character. The driving force behind every story arc should be the Main Character’s motive, i.e, what the main character wants. What builds the story is the conflict that opposes this motive or goal. In some books, you can have a multiple character POV storyline that shows characters aiming towards the same goal in their own ways (this is where the conflict is), or multiple characters aiming towards the same goal together with one sole antagonist.
In the case of a multiple character Pov storyline, what will help you is drawing out each character’s developmental arc, first in isolation, then placing them side by side to create conflict or collaboration between these characters; this is how your story comes together. But before doing this, it is advisable to know the beginning and end of your story to keep you from derailing.
Personality/Behavior:
The character’s personality is something you must put together at the beginning of your plotting. Think of questions like: what values make this character? Likewise, look at yourself as a person, what principles do you uphold? What behavioral patterns can you pinpoint about yourself? Your lifestyle preferences and your social affinity (the way you interact with others). These are the same questions you should answer for your character.
The character’s Personality/behavior does not have to remain the same throughout the book, however, the only reason they can change is because believable events caused them to change. Your character grows throughout the story; there are things they shed off and things they pick up. Be conscious of this as you plot the character’s developmental arc; this is what truly contributes to a realistic and enjoyable story; the fact that your readers can relate to your character’s growth.
Flaws:
The character’s flaw is also important to creating a strong and believable character. No one is perfect, and no one expects to read about perfect characters…unless they are gods. A good way to install a flaw or flaws in your characters is to pick one or two principles they fail to uphold, although they desire to. Perhaps, this could be the glitch in their personality, the skeleton in their closet or something that’s obvious to other characters.
Another way is to give them a value that is philosophically wrong or a trait that becomes a personal weakness to them. The most IMPORTANT thing to note when thinking about your character’s flaw is that these flaws must stem from something important in the character’s life or background/past.
If there is no exposition at the beginning of the story, you can have the storyline slowly reveal the origin of that character’s flaw.
Background:
There is a reason we are addressing Background last. It is because the aforementioned points depend on the character’s background, the same way a human being learns, unlearns and changes as they grow. The character’s background is a crucial factor.
You will realize that some, if not all the important values you uphold as an individual, stems from your upbringing, or some event from your past. It will be the same for your character: e.g, the reason they don’t smoke or they detest people that smoke is because they lost a parent to lung cancer; the reason they don’t leave loose ends is because they’ve lost someone or something to vengeance; the reason they are pessimistic is because their parents were optimists and what did that get them?
The list can go on. Start by drawing out a childhood for them, noting important events that affect their personality, behavior, flaw and even motive.
One thing that defines us is the place we came from. Our past experiences determine our future responses to things. Who were your character’s parents? How was their childhood? What’s their personality? What were their hobbies as kids? How were their parents like? Did they live under the same roof with their parents growing up? Were the parents divorced? Were they rich or poor?
You don’t necessarily have to include all this information in the story for the reader. Some of this information will guide you as you develop your characters, some will be implied in their actions.
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