Writing: Creating Your Main Character
Ah, the main character. If your story were a ship, theyâd be the pilot. Itâs their job to incite, propel, and solve the plot, all while making the readers laugh and smile and cry and get frustrated, and oftentimes they carry with them the moral lesson. This is a pretty tall order for one character, and deciding what kind of main character youâre going to have can be very stressful. Hopefully this list will help you with this process.
The main character can determine the audience.
This isnât always true, but usually the age, gender, moral compass, and sometimes even physical appearance of the main character decides what kind of people are going to read the book. A book about a 14-year-old female fashionista usually attracts different readers than a 50-year-old FBI director. Donât let this scare you, because there are outliers depending on how the character is written, but bear in mind that people of like-minded interests usually read books with main characters that share some of those traits, so plan accordingly.
The main characterâs personality traits should coincide with the plot and theme of the novel.
High-fantasy and adventure novels are usually headed by strong-willed, talented, reckless characters. (Think Luke Skywalker or the Winchesters from Supernatural.) Realistic fiction, however, are usually home to goofier, more human characters (such as Greg and Earl in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). While your main character doesnât have to be the cookie-cutter model of the ânormalâ protagonist for genre and theme, they should exhibit at least some of the traits. Give some of the entertaining, off-color traits to supporting characters if you canât live without them.
Real people are complicated. Their emotions and actions are driven by complex, sometimes misguided desires. Real people make mistakes for much the same reason. Real people doubt themselves, and they have low and high points. Real people change over time based on the people and circumstances they surround themselves with. Real people sometimes lie to others and themselves about their true motivations. Real people need help and support from others to reach their goals. Sometimes, real people never reach their goals at all. Characters should reflect all of this in their stories, especially main characters, with whom your readers should identify with and root for the most.
This doesnât mean they have to be perfect by any means, nor do they have to be friendly and sweet 100% of the time. Your main character can actually be a total asshole but still have readers like them or be entertained by them. The main thing is that you have to make sure that the reader roots for them, because if the reader is hoping the main character will fail or loses interest in them completely, you havenât done your job as a writer. Beta readers can help you by telling you whether or not they like the main character and agree with their actions.
Make them fit their story.
Characters are TOOLS, just like every other story element. They are there to ad to the readerâs experience, and whatever triumph or turmoil they go through is so that the reader can be entertained and enlightened by their story. Thatâs why itâs important for them to be treated as such, and NOT like friends or ways for the author to live vicariously through their own story. We have fanfiction for that. When youâre writing, if it seems like your story is revolving around amking your main character happy, or that theyâre becoming just too perfect to be entertaining, you may need to step back and re-evaluate their score on the Mary Sue litmus test and see if youâre writing a character or a mannequin doll.
Some helpful links I found.
Fuck Yeah Character Developmentâs masterpost of character creation and development templates and websites.
My personal favorite character template sheet, written by Dehydromon on Deviantart. Itâs the first link on FYCDâs post and has 370+ questions to answer about your character. (For a shorter version, go here.)
Writerswriteâs how-to-create-a-character guide. (Itâs basically another template, but I thought Iâd include it in case someone didnât like the others I provided, and also because it comes from a more professional source than Deviantart and Tumblr.)
Wikihowâs tips on creating a fictional character from scratch. Their tips are very broad, but they leave a lot of room for interpretation as well, if you prefer that.
Thecreativepennâs 5 tips for creating interesting characters. This article seems to be geared towards screenwriters, but the tips apply to all forms of creative writing.
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