r/WritingPrompts • u/Lexilogical /r/Lexilogical | /r/DCFU • Sep 25 '15
Off Topic [OT] Ask Lexi #14 - Writing Believable Characters
It’s Friday again! Which means it’s time for another Ask Lexi! A few weeks back, /u/Arpeggias asked for help writing believable characters. That seemed like a topic worth elaborating on, so I thought I’d make that this week’s topic.
Creating Characters
Start with the character’s role in the story.* So, you want to create a new character. Your first question should be “What will they contribute to the plot?” Do you need this character, or can another character fill that role? Do you need an expert in a particular field or just a character to play off the rest of your cast? Identify their role in a few broad strokes. Your next step is to figure out what this character can add to the story. For that, we need to dig a little deeper and start asking questions.
Step outside of the box. Picture your character in your head. Do they seem a little generic? An interesting thought experiment is to consider different characteristics and see how the story changes as a result. Sometimes, it ends up creating an interesting dynamic that you hadn’t thought of. Here’s some qualities that can make a big impact.
Gender: This is my favourite thing to reconsider. There’s a stereotype in fiction of defining men by their role in a party, and the women by their gender. Stop and consider if you’re falling into this. If your male character fills a role (The smart one, the engineer, the athlete) how do other characters react when it’s a female? Does she feel like she has more to prove? Do character’s expectations change? This can work the other way too, if the female was meant to be the sensitive one, or the healer. Or maybe they were meant to be a love interest? If they’re the opposite gender, are they still a love interest? Maybe you end up with a story without a romantic subplot. Or a platonic relationship. Or even a same sex couple. Whatever gender you pick, how does your character display their gender? Is she a girly girl, or a tomboy? Is he hyper masculine or does he like to paint his nails pink?
Ethnicity is another important detail. There’s a world of different skin tones out there. Maybe this character is from a different country. Maybe their parents are. How does that change the way this character interacts with others? Do they have different cultural expectations?
Attractiveness is an interesting concept as well. I have a habit of wanting to create very pretty characters, but a character who is considered ugly by themselves or the people around them can lead to being a low self esteem or harsher expectations. On the other end of the scale, perhaps an extremely attractive character is arrogant or vain.
Name and appearance: Unlike all the other attributes I listed, I try not to overthink these attributes. Unique or excessive appearances often turn off readers as it’s common in bad writing. Avoid comparing your character’s eyes to gems, or giving them unnatural hair colours. Overly appropriate or prophetic names (Like a bad guy named “Mal”) can come across as fake. Most people are named before they exhibit any personality traits, so unless the name was chosen at a late age, they’re more likely to have a common name. If you do chose to give the character something unnatural, take a moment to consider the circumstances around that. Why do they dye their hair blue? Why do they want to be called Rocket? Maybe they’re insecure.
Sexuality: I mentioned this under gender, but it deserves its own header too. Especially if your character’s role was meant to be a love interest, you can add a lot of drama or tension with this trait. The character may even be asexual and completely uninterested in the other characters advances.
The point of this experiment is to help you come up with interesting dynamics you may not have considered from the start. You probably don’t want to cram every one of these traits onto a character either. It’s also worth noting that you can change any of these characteristics without impacting the character’s personality at all. You don’t want to fall into stereotypes and tropes the other way!
Create a backstory. Physical appearance can tell you a lot about a character, but it can also tell you nothing at all. What happened to your character before she met the rest of the cast? What does she do when she goes home? What is he hoping to accomplish by helping/hindering the other characters? What do they do to relax? Make it seem like your character had a life before they came on the scene, and give them desires beyond the basic plot.
Don’t forget to add some flaws! No one is perfect. After you’ve added some traits to your character, make sure some of them are going to turn around and bit them in the ass. Maybe they’re too confident in their own skills. Or maybe they’re hiding insecurities behind a gruff appearance. Or consider other weak spots. Maybe they have a blind spot when it comes to another character. Maybe they’re a hypocrite about a particular topic. You also don’t want them to fit a stereotype perfectly.
Know more about your characters than you share. So hopefully now you have some ideas about what your character is like behind the scenes. Don’t make the mistake of writing it all on the page in one big infodump. Hemingway called this the Iceberg Theory, but the basic idea is that the author should know things about their character that aren’t explicitly stated in the story. This can help you make the characters actions consistent while you’re writing. For instance, if you know your character’s mother walked out on them at a young age, it might make your character react more strongly to being abandoned. If your dark and gloomy goth is overcompensating for a low self esteem, maybe they get embarrassed when someone catches them snuggling a kitten.
If you’re still having trouble, consider other resources. Think about the people you know and their personalities. Do any of their traits stick out? How about your own life or traits? Mix and match them together. Or turn to the internet. The web is full of random character generators and character questionnaires. Go find one and ask yourself some questions.
I think that’s all for me tonight. As always, feel free to ask me some questions in the comments. It’ll help me out in future weeks when I’m struggling to think up topics!
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u/Michael_Darkaito_ Sep 25 '15
What're some of your methods when you create your characters? I found that I'm more of a visual character creator: when I see a picture of someone, anyone, real or fiction based, I'll see a trait of a character that I'm creating. When I have what I need, that's when I truly begin working on a character for a story.
For example, 1 of a select few characters that I've spent quite a few years on, I've searched pretty far and wide and in-between to find suitable characters to help compose the character I was making. For instance, if you took FF7's Zack Fair's hair and changed it just right, and give the character a rectangle face and dark blue eyes and a scar that travels along a part of the characters right eye and runs along his forehead, this character is one of my good guys. His name is Marik Darkaito and I'll share a little bit 'bout him. He's tall, roughly about 6'4", 6'5" and has a somewhat muscled build, one that's more slimmed down and not bulky. Anyways, he's an introvert by nature and it shows in his face. He's also a bit of a loner, not exactly by choice, rather by circumstance and later on he suffers a lot of things. I can't go into specifics as I wish not to spoil it for anyone. Anyways, he becomes an unknown hero in a struggle that began as a feud of race, a race of monstrous proportions.
I think I'll just leave it at that.
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u/Syraphia Sep 25 '15
I don't think I focus on visuals that much when creating a character. I think usually I make my character's personality before I think about what they look like. Unless the appearance is paramount to the story or would come up (race issues), the appearance comes much later. When I start to throw something together, I start to try and picture what they look like without looking at photos or images and I love using bubble-maps for character description.
Though I admit one of my characters for my novel was pretty solely based off of a celebrity. So when I described him originally, I had a solid idea in mind of what he looked like. When I came back to the story later, he became very different but he still (mentally for me) looks similar to that celebrity.
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u/Michael_Darkaito_ Sep 26 '15
That's very interesting. I'm curious about your character and if it's ok with you, would you mind telling me about him?
What's his name? What's his story?
What's his origins and how did he come to be?
Who is the celebrity you based him off of?
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u/DaLastPainguin Sep 25 '15
The iceberg concept is a great tip! Didn't really think of that. Always built the character based on important traits. I think that's a great way to give them a more potent depth. Thanks!
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u/Luna_LoveWell Sep 25 '15
Do you have any advice on making flawed characters? A lot of mine seem to be more blank slates with no significant flaws.
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u/Lexilogical Sep 25 '15
Hm... I think the best way would be to try putting your character into different scenarios and imagine how they'd react. And more importantly, consider a few different options. What's the best way they could react? What's the worst way? Is the worst way more fun to write? What does that say about them?
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Sep 25 '15
Here's a good question that I've thought about for a long time:
I love the idea of a bad-ass female character as the lead in a story. However, I am a man. So my question is this: how would one go about writing from the perspective of someone of the opposite gender to themselves?
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u/Lexilogical Sep 25 '15
The other poster gave some pretty solid advice. When it comes down to it, gender doesn't have to change the story or character at all. Write them the same way you would a male and you're doing fine.
If you want to call more attention to it, think about other characters reaction. Do they have a problem with it? Maybe some characters underestimate her. How does she react to that? What's her opinion on stereotypical "feminine" stuff? Does she love pretty dresses? Think makeup makes no sense? Just play out some scenarios in your head of different social situations and how she might react. There's no wrong way, since women come with all different traits. Just like men.
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u/YDAQ Sep 25 '15
I'm male so this might not give you the perspective you're hoping for.... Fair warning and all that. I am, however, a father to both a son and daughter, so I do have that insight.
I find that in most cases the biggest difference between male and female characters is where they keep their jiggly bits.
Many insecurities are common to both genders and so are many stronger traits. When you really get down to it, appearance is the one thing we don't have in common. If you're dead-set on having a bad-ass female MC I'd work out the core of her personality first, without thinking of her as a female, and use it as a scaffold to build the rest around. Maybe she loved fighting since she was a child, maybe she was always tinkering and making gadgets, etc. Those things can be applied to anyone of any gender. Basically, if you want her to be female just let her be female. The rest will fall into place.
My daughter is very much a bad-ass by the way. One time she got mad I wouldn't let her use a full-grown snake as a jump rope....
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u/Syraphia Sep 25 '15
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Honestly, I write a lot of female characters. I've written some bass-ass ones and some not so bad-ass ones. I've made villans out of them, both petty and large and you hit the nail on the head talking about the biggest difference.
Also,
One time she got mad I wouldn't let her use a full-grown snake as a jump rope....
A...are you in Australia? Because that just sounds Australian.
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u/workraken Sep 25 '15
Didn't see it mentioned, but it's also important to explore a character's morality/ethics. Especially when writing an antagonist. Too often, people just write the bad guys as two dimensional Disney villains. They're bad because they're evil and evil because they're bad. And they will always say they are the villain with enthusiasm.
But antagonists and villains don't think like that for the most part. Serious antagonists generally think what they're doing is right or have very realistic grievances with the protagonist that other characters in the story don't see. Magneto is probably one of the best examples of a character that plays the villain 99% of the time, but he is a very well-developed and believable character. There is ethical logic to his actions that constantly contends with the morals held by the protagonists.
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u/wyldirishman Sep 25 '15
ILike Zod from the new superman movie. His character wasn't evil per se. He wasn't doing what he was doing just because, he had an internally rational idea to rebuild his home planet. He just didn't give a crap about the aliens where he wanted to build it.
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u/Lexilogical Sep 25 '15
Ooo, also a good point! I did mention considering a person's motivation, but morals and ethics are important too.
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u/Azual Sep 25 '15
Very interesting post and a good choice of topic!
Here's a question for anyone who's interested in answering: Are there any examples of characters that you've written who you feel are particularly well developed or received particular praise? If so, what do you think made them so effective?
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u/Mutant_Llama1 Sep 25 '15
My philosophy on writing is that anybody can create characters and settings, but a good writer can create people and places.
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u/Mutant_Llama1 Sep 25 '15
But what if the name's correspondence to their character is something that could've been known when they were young? Then, it could be used.
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u/Lexilogical Sep 25 '15
True enough, but if you stopped to think about that, you're already one step closer to a good character.
Although, do consider that most parents aren't likely to name their newborn child after their hair colour or something like that. ("I'll name them Red! Like their hair!") Or say, if your character has cat ears and that's supposed to be totally normal, they probably aren't going to name her Kat or Catelyn and such, anymore than someone is likely to name their child "Man".
It much more likely that your character was named something that has very little to do with their personality, just based on what their parents thought sounded nice.
Basically what I'm saying is, consider the circumstances that lead to a person being named. Unless their parents can see the future or otherwise have a really good reason, they probably aren't making names that describe their child.
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u/Teslok Sep 25 '15
Here's one I see used a lot.
Think about people you know who have traits similar to the character you're building. A lot of authors just straight out base characters on people they know, but I tend to try and take a step back from that tendency, if only to avoid upsetting people when "Their" character gets injured or does things that the person doesn't find agreeable.
Just think of the people as inspiration for how personalities can determine behaviors. As you're getting to know the character as an individual, think of the people you know with similar personality traits. Then picture situations you expect to put the character in, and try to imagine how those people might react to those situations.
For example, if I had a character with some personality traits drawn from my little sister and my childhood best friend, and that character is going to be attending a party, I'd picture those two people at the party. I see my sister mingling, but latched on to people she knows. I see my childhood friend spending time with the wallflowers, drawing them out of their awkwardness, into conversations and into enjoying themselves.
Then I have to consider, first: Do either of those actions makes sense given the character's own particular background? Does the most likely action make sense given the scene's intended purpose in the story?
One thing I find difficult is shaping events to suit the character's "natural" reactions. If I'm writing a shy character without much self-esteem or confidence, they aren't likely to take charge in a crisis--they might, at most, jump in to help where they do have experience. All too often, I want them to seize control of a situation, and hit a roadblock because it doesn't make sense for it to happen that way, meaning either the character or the situation needs to be restructured.
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u/whoizz Sep 25 '15
A good exercise, I've found, is that when you are outlining, write down what characters are going to be in the story first. You should already have a good idea of what the story is going to be, so it should be easy to come up with the characters that you need. I don't start by naming them directly, but what their role in the story is.
For example if you're creating a story based on the African slave trade, you would name your characters thusly: The Captain, The Wrangler, The Defiant, The Warlord, The Warrior, things like that, so you don't get too caught up in who they are, but focus on the role they play in the story. Then when you finish your outline you can go in and create a backstory for your characters, so while you're writing, you can pull from that so you don't have to worry about inconsistencies.
Cheers and great post Lexi!
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u/Lexilogical Sep 25 '15
Great idea! I've done something similar myself, just because I hadn't come up with names yet.
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u/nafoozie Sep 27 '15
I'm trying to write a romance between two female characters in one of my stories right now. I want to make it seem like a real romance, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing this. Do you have any suggestions on how to write believable romance?