#rounded characters

If you want more repensation then let the characters be rounded with wants and desires beyond their sexuality or disability.

Yes it's there and a part of them but me being a bisexual doesn't automatically define every little thing I do or my whole personality. Just means I'm attracted to more than one gender. My brother has autism. He still does what he wants with his life. Does he live life a little bit differently because of the autism? Yes but he still lives.

Humans are complex and you can't just tick them off in a box. If you really want that repensation then you need to let the characters be complex too.

(via Common Character Mistakes | Tucker Tales Writing Blog)

We have all run into that moment when you’re writing has something missing. You feel you’ve made an interesting world, or set up, or back story. But your character seems lacking. In this post we will cover common character mistakes and lots of strategies you can use to fix them.

One problem I continually run into is that I make all my characters interesting and dynamic except my main character. I play it too safe. I want them to be likable and don’t want them to take chances. And then, guess what? They turn out bland. I am constantly finding myself having to re-amp my main character so that they aren’t boring. Because who wants to read about a boring character?

Now, I’m guessing that not all of you have the same problem as me so I’m going to list just a few things that could be causing your ‘boring character’ problem. Because, once you identify the problem, you can go on your way to fixing it.

THEY ARE FLAT

Flat characters mean they are not round (haha). Which basically means that they don’t seem like a real human because they only have 1 or 2 characteristics that define them. Basically, the jokester is just a jokester, the evil guy is just evil. No one is justevil, they have a reason. And, they have other personality traits.

This also happens when you make a character that is ‘too good’. We have all met those select few people who you interact with and are like ‘I bet they’ve never had a bad thought in their life.’ WRONG. Good people have bad thoughts too, they have just practiced pushing them away. Good people have temptations and good people have flaws. Please give them flaws.

As a writer, you can’t only know the surface personality of your characters, you need to know them in depth. Characters will react to things differently based on their instincts, their past experiences, and the pros and cons of a situation. Know them and all of a sudden your scenes are much easier to write cause you’re not making up their responses. You’re listening to the character you’ve created, the whole of their experiences and emotions, and seeing what they make of it.

THEY DON’T STICK TO CHARACTER

There’s a difference between a character that can surprise you by their actions and one that acts out of character. If they do something seemingly out of character, there better be a very in character reason for them to have done it. You cannot simply make your character do anything that is convenient in your story at any point in time. There must be a set up and a reason that the reader can understand either in the moment, or later on.

THEY ARE GENERIC

This is often the problem I run into. I make my character too agreeable, too go-with-the-flow, too reactive. And that does not make a good main character. Often, the problem here is that the character is driven by the plot instead the plot being driven by the character. If the character is simply floating through an interesting plot letting things happen to them, that is a boring character. Your character needs to influence the plot. There should be a problem that they are trying to fix, a goal they are struggling to reach. Which leads us to our next point:

THEY DON’T HAVE A GOAL

Your character needs to have drive. Whether they are the main character or a side character, if they are floating through the story with no purpose then there is no tension and, therefore, no interest. Readers keep reading (and watchers keep watching) because of hope and fear. And this hope and fear stems from a character that they care about working hard towards what they want. You want your reader to be invested and they need something more than a meandering character to invest in.

This counts for the entire book and individual scenes. When your character takes action, the reader wants to understand what is driving them emotionally to do said action. And I don’t mean why they chose a banana for breakfast instead of an apple. I’m talking about why Harry Potter turned back to save Cedric Diggory instead of going for the Goblet and winning the Tri-Wizard tournament.

PLOT IS LACKING

It is possible that your character isn’t boring, but your plot is lacking. You could have very interesting characters but a flimsy plot. Granted, great characters can pull you through some pretty lacking plot sometimes. But you don’t want to have to rely on that. You want your story to be well-rounded. And that includes having a main tension which creates hope and fear in the audience.

HOW TO FIX YOUR CHARACTER MISTAKES:

Create a backstory for them – If you know them better, their personality will come out more naturally in your writing. People gain personality traits from how they grew up and different experiences they’ve had. (Remember that just because you know everything about the, doesn’t mean your audience needs too).

Fill out a character chart – There are loads of them online. They typically ask questions about your character that you can answer to help you better get to know them. Sometimes they’ll ask questions like ‘What is something that would make your character totally break down?’ And that is good to know. You want to break down your character. You need to know what situations they can blow off and what’s going to make them cry. If you know how they grew up and what situations they have been through, you can better know how they’ll react in situations, even if your readers don’t.

Get into their heads – What I will do is write from one perspective (main character) first. Then, I will go back through the scene in a second character’s head to see if their reactions/actions match their character or if i was just having them conveniently react to the main character so that the scene went how I wanted it to.

Use MBTI to Strengthen your Characters – Myers-Briggs is a in-depth personality test. It can very helpful in figuring out traits for you characters to help them be more rounded.

Don’t make them do something simply because it fits your plot – People sometimes say that their ‘characters take over the story’ because often you’ll have a plot in mind, try to write it, and realize that your characters don’t want to cooperate.

Give them drive – Often when I’m struggling with a reactive character, it is because I haven’t given them enough purpose in the story. They are just there to be funny, or are simply ‘eyes’ for the reader to see the story through. Don’t be afraid to make them rough, give them issues, give them wants, give them drive.

Make their main goal important – To make the goal strong, make it something that they can’t ignore. Without some sort of consequence, readers will not feel the fear inside wondering if they will fail. (This is how you create tension)

Look at your story structure – Maybe your plot is a mess because your structure is a mess. Stories have a rise and fall, an inciting incident and a conclusion (and so much in between). Sometimes your ideas are good, but your structure muddles it all up.

Check out my editing services – Not to pat my own back, but I was literally trained to help make structure and plot stronger. Having another set of eyes take a look at your tangled yarn ball of a story (no offense, I’ve been there) can be immensely helpful. I can help you work through any problems that you’re having and point out anything that I notice as well.

Ways to Connect to Your Characters

Ah, see, character sheets have never worked for me. I view character development as something active, something that needs a hands-on approach. You need to get in there and push your comfort zone to discover your character’s limits.

I would suggest that you try a few different methods of getting to know your characters. My personal favourites are pretending to have a conversation with my character over something random, and collecting a bunch of images on Pinterest based on a gut instinct until I build up an aesthetic.

You could also try taking your characters out of the world of your story. This helps to seperate their nature from their environment. Maybe drop them in the middle of the Hunger Games or throw em headfirst into a crashing spaceship. See how they react.

But how does this help with writing scenes?

Once you’ve got a better grip on how your characters act, you’ll know how they interact–and interaction is what helps you write a good scene. Every scene in a story depends on conflict. This can be conflict between the character and their surroundings, conflicting thoughts, character-character dialogue conflict, battles, tension etc etc. There are a lot of options; the only constant is the way your character interacts with the rest of the stuff around them. Other ways that you can use your knowledge of a character to drive scenes are:

You now know what your character is afraid of? Bring that in.

Whatever will really inconvenience your character, make it happen.

What do they really want, more than anything? Offer it to them and then take it away

Or make them choose between that and another character, test their relationship

Use it as an opportunity to learn more about character B as well

see how far they can go before the situation is hopeless

and most of all, don’t worry about making mistakes

Short answer: hell yes this character is realistic.

Better answer: Human nature is very complex, which is why I’m wary of using archetypes as anything other than a base. Most people are bundles of conflicting traits, and these traits are in turn influenced by past events, mental health, memories, hopes, dreams, fears and so on.

Sometimes a character fits an archetype - not because they have all of the right traits - but because they have precisely the opposite. They may appear to be a Ruler, when in fact they’re so scared of what people think and desperate to fit in that they become expert liars until everyone else is fooled (ie, The Wizard of Oz). Therefore, your character could still be the Ruler, but also be easily influenced by others

On the other hand, your character could have all the “correct” traits of a Ruler, but they’re very easily influenced. In Macbeth, Macbeth has ambition, greed, strength, nobility, skill on the battlefield, respect… basically, everything you’d expect from someone who had just been hailed a war hero and given a new honour by the king. But the problem is, Macbeth is also reliant on what other people say because the traits that make him perfect for a Ruler - particularly his ambition - also make him absolutely bloody awful for the role. He’s so ambitious that he becomes gullible, foolish and blind.

In short, rather than worrying about separating the archetype out from his personality traits, experiment with mushing the two together even if they seem incompatible with his psyche, backstory and all the rest. See what you get as a result.

And as for having a powerful job, well. He can have one, but does he have to be good at it? Is he reliant on bribery and trickery to keep that power? Or do the influences of others lead to him stealing a bunch of good ideas? Or a bunch of bad ideas? What happens then? Asking the right questions will get you a very interesting, realistic and well-rounded character, no matter what you use as a base. Go wild!

Happy writing! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔﾉ♡

pauldorset.com

12. Creating Believable and Well Rounded Characters (Writing for Success)

Note: This is part 12 in a series of 25 articles from my upcoming ‘Writing for Success’ series.