#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.

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♡

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

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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.