Complex characters are the driving force behind your plot. According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Character is plot, plot is character.” Therefore, if your readers are unable to empathize with or even care about your characters, then they will not care about what happens to them.
You should aim to create characters that your readers can engage with on some level. These characters don’t have to be likable, but they need to be interesting enough for your readers to want to see what happens to them. Developing complex, three-dimensional characters is one way to inspire interest from your readers.
1. Describe a Character’s Appearance with Only Important Details
A reader doesn’t need every detail of a character for that character to come to life for them. What is much more important are the little details that are unique to your character. If you provide your readers with just enough information, they can conjure up an accurate image of your character in their mind’s eye.
Example:
Instead of Saying: Kirk has a large head and a small body. He curses everyone lucky enough to cross his path. He wears clothes that are always dirty and loose, and his hair is always unkempt. To top it all off his shoes are huge and always covered in mud.
Try saying: Though Kirk is a small man, he has enough head for two men. He never cared much for people and cares even less about his appearance.
A character’s appearance is not limited to the character’s physical description. The way a character walks, talks, and eats influences their appearance. When describing your characters, you should use details such as the way they carry themselves or the way they smell to show rather than tell that the character is a certain way.
Example:
Instead of saying: Julia is beautiful.
Try saying: Julia’s curly hair rests on top of her shoulders like a Greek goddess. When she smiles it radiates across her entire face and highlights her big brown eyes. Whenever she walks by, she tends to leave a lavender scent in her wake.
Excerpt from chapter one of The Great Gatsby (by F. Scott Fitzgerald) – Description of Jordan Baker: “She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage, which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet.”
2. Allow Your Characters to Experience Internal Conflicts
The plot develops because of who your character is and how that character behaves. A way to get your readers to relate to your character is to give them a glimpse into the character’s mind. A character’s internal struggle is the driving force behind any plot. The more the reader can witness that struggle first-hand, the more they can relate to your character.
In City of Girls (by Elizabeth Gilbert), Vivian Morris struggles with the feeling of shame throughout the novel. Initially, we see her struggle with the shame of not living up to family expectations.
Novel excerpt (Chapter 3): “In truth, I’d accomplished nothing more impressive than first getting kicked out of school, and then getting kicked out of my parents’ house…”
Later we see her struggle with shame from her sexual exploits.
Novel excerpt (Chapter 22): “I had done such a rotten thing to Edna Parker Watson. To betray a person who has helped you and been kind to you—this is the furthest reach of shame.”
Novel excerpt(Chapter 29): “Whatever it was, it was growing out of a trove of shame that I thought I’d buried long ago.”
Then finally we see Vivian arrive at a place of complete liberation from that shame close to the end of the novel.
Vivian’s character is interesting because her struggles are relatable (to some extent). The first-hand access to Vivian’s struggles, through her thoughts, makes it easier to empathize with her character. She isn’t perfect and she doesn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold of what a woman in the mid-1900s should be. Her character has depth, and readers can see that through her internal struggles.
3. Give Your Character Clear Desires or Goals
Your characters must have wants, goals, desires, and fears. These are some things that will help your readers connect and relate to them. Therefore, you need to schedule some “getting to know you” time, for you and your character. Try developing some telling questions to ask them. Questions such as: what scares you? What drives you? And so forth.
Having a question-and-answer session with your character is important. This process can sometimes reveal holes in your story and give you a unique opportunity to implement changes that will make your character more credible. Your character’s goals don’t necessarily have to be spectacular. They can have simple relatable goals, like saving up enough money to buy a car.
Readers do not have to see your characters achieving all the goals that they set out to. Sometimes the journey is much more rewarding than the destination. So, even if your character does not achieve a certain goal, what did they learn from the process of trying to achieve that goal?
Your character’s goals and desires can also change throughout the story. Your character might start out wanting to explore the world and see new places. But then your character has a chance encounter with a homeless child, and that character’s life mission now becomes building homes for the homeless.
4. Make Your Characters Unique/Unpredictable
Your characters will make your story matter. So, if your characters are a generic cardboard version of a troupe, your readers might not be willing to stick around to see what happens to them.
There are generally two types of characters—flat and round. Flat characters are one-dimensional (created around a single idea or quality). Round characters, on the other hand, are multi-dimensional characters. They are more complex and have many unique qualities and ideas.
One way to make your characters unique is to give them individual flaws. Our flaws are one of the things that make us human. So, the characters that we tend to find most compelling are the ones that are flawed like us. Your character can be very quick to judge others, or even have a compulsion to steal things that are of no value or use to them.
In the novel, You (by Caroline Kepnes), Joe Goldberg’s major flaw is his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. First, he finds a woman to fixate on, and then he stalks and manipulates her to gain control over her life. Joe would even go to the extent of murdering to maintain this control over the subject of his obsession.
However, at the same time, Joe is a charming intellect who is somewhat reserved. On the surface, he is very likable to the point where he blends seamlessly into society. What makes Joe’s character so complex is his internal struggle between his desire for love and his destructive impulses.
Joe isn’t all bad, but he is certainly not good either. His character has real depth and challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths about love, obsession, morality, and human nature.
5. Allow Your Characters to Change Throughout the Story
Throughout your novel, you should ensure that your character’s actions and thoughts are consistent with who they are. However, your characters should also grow and develop as the story progresses. Nevertheless, there are a few exceptions to the rule. For stories where the main character is a superhero, personal growth is not always present.
Still, at the beginning of every story, there needs to be an inciting incident, which is the thing that happens to set your character off on their journey. Throughout this journey, your character will do things that they never expected, and they will learn things that should change them forever.
Your characters can embark on a journey that is physical, psychological, or even a combination of both. Throughout these journeys readers should see your characters overcoming their weaknesses and flaws, effectively changing into a new and improved version of themselves. A character’s change is often vital to the development of a plot.
It is important to ensure that what happens at the end of a story, happens because of your character’s motivation. Your characters must make things happen in your story. If your character wins the lotto and that solves all their problems, then that is an ending that has nothing to do with your character.
6. Give Your Character a Back Story
A memorable character has a rich backstory. They should have a convincing life before the reader meets them in the story. Your character should have had different experiences and relationships that have played a role in the person that they are today.
Backstories add layers to your characters, making them appear more realistic. You want to make your readers feel that a character didn’t just show up for their entertainment, but instead has a complete life outside of the pages of a book.
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