The Writing Post

Writing a believable character is difficult, and as readers we want that believability to be right there on the page. There is nothing worse than wasting your time on writing boring characters. As writers, you should know that if you do not want to read boring characters then you should not want to write boring characters. There are in fact some strategies to employ as a writer, and there are a few things to avoid when writing fictional characters.

How to Create or “Discover” Character Interests

We’ve discussed characterization before on the blog. But, there are many ways to write good characters. For example, a good strategy to figure out your fictional characters interests is to try to interview them formally. Simply put, get out a sheet of paper and write down a list of questions for your character to answer. Then, respond to the questions from your character’s perspective.

However, we must be a little careful with this piece of advice because it could enable some odd writing behavior. Answering questions on your character’s behalf simply changes your frame of reference. Chances are, as a beginning writer, you will respond by using generalizations and stereotypes. Of course, this does more harm than good. Without decent research, thorough planning, and prior knowledge, we are likely to fall back on tropes and archetypes. This can be poison for original fiction.  

Giving Your Characters Likes and Dislikes

You have probably heard this a few times as you have scoured the internet for decent writing advice:

Your fictional characters must have likes and dislikes to be believable (verisimilitude).

As Purdue University states: “When writers talk about believability, they talk about whether the constituent parts of a character make sense and feel cohesive.”

Likes and dislikes, much like desires and ambitions, simply adds nuance to your characters. These opposing traits help reveal how your character responds qualities to particular situations. If their responses seem real, then you have done your job as a fiction author.

Using Constructive Imagination

What you should do instead is think constructively about your characters. These characters include a protagonist, antagonist, or any ancillary people, animals, or monsters that appear in your story. This is regardless if they are static, dynamic, or just hanging out in a coffee shop in the background. Think about where they came from and how they ended up where they are now. What elements informed their decisions and reasons for their lifestyle?

For example, if you know your fictional character grew up poor and lived in a house with a bunch of siblings, what do you think would be their favorite food? We can probably rule out cheap food and ready-made meals. Or, maybe they actually love that type of food for nostalgic reasons. Because of this, maybe that sense of nostalgia has caused them to open a curiosity shop, which led them to find that mummified hand that helps your character discover some power they didn’t realize they possessed.

As such, we are building a character’s background by using real prior knowledge and personal experiences to inform the character. Whether you know it or not, that creates an interesting background for your character and helps the audience understand their goals in a more nuanced way.

Researching What You Don’t Know   

Understanding your character’s background also implies that you might have to conduct some research if you are unsure about the specifics. That is, if they grew up in a metro area, which you are clueless about, then you should seek resources that help you understand that lifestyle in a more vivid way. As a writer of fiction, part of your job is being an expert on many things. That only comes from studying. The best characters in the history of literature are really either mirrors of authors themselves or are characters they were able to create from other researched materials. A realized character is going to have more of an impact on your reader and your story.

Consider Judge Holden, from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Judge Holden is arguably one of the most evil, complex characters ever put to page. However, he also is like a spark that jumps from the book when you read about him. He’s evil and does evil things. Yet, he’s also nuanced and real. If you did not know, McCarthy developed this character from a real-life scalp hunter in New Mexico. By exploring this reality, McCarthy is able to deliver us a truly volatile antagonist, but that’s because he knows this character deep down.

What to Avoid when Writing Fictional Characters

There are many things we have to try to avoid when writing fictional characters. Considering this, there are two main ideas to tackle here. As writers, we should avoid generalizations and cardboard characters.

Generalizations

Generalizations are stereotypes that use broad traits and assumptions to characterize a person. These are often characters we see far too often. For instance, a nerdy kid with glasses, a dumb jock, or a bubbleheaded cheerleader. You can also look at typical characters like damsels in distress, wise mentors, and tough, intelligent soldiers.

Generalizations often create harmful stereotypes as well, including people of different races and religions. Sometimes, our gut is to go with a villain who hails from a strange, exotic land far away. Yet, this generalization seems to imply that people from far away are villains, or are evil in some way. This can’t be true, especially if their stories similarly imply that we are the villains.

Horror film director John Carpenter once discussed the idea of internal and external conflict when describing his philosophy of storytelling. In a 2011 interview with Vulture, he stated, “There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don’t understand. Internal is the human heart.”

While generalizations can simplify characters, it can also lead to hateful stereotypes.

Cardboard/Static Characters

Static characters do happen, but they shouldn’t happen to main characters (or even some secondary characters). Essentially, your character should change by the end of the story. They should grow and mature. If your character is a super-intelligent, impervious hero in the beginning, they should at least learn something by the end. Otherwise, you are going to bore your reader to tears.

Remember that your main character should always change by the end of the novel. This is a classic trope that work. Characters must learn through conflict and evolve as a person. If they do not change, then what is your book about? The humdrum nature of everyday life?

In the film Adaptation (2002), protagonist Charlie Kaufman visits a lecture by writer Charlie McKee, who chastises him for his story’s premise in which “nothing much happens.”

McKee states: “First of all, you write a screenplay without conflict or crisis, you’ll bore your audience to tears. Secondly, nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your f****** mind? People are murdered every day. There’s genocide, war, corruption. Every f****** day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save somebody else. Every f****** day, someone somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love. People lose it. Christ, a child watches his mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can’t find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don’t know crap about life.”

Conclusion

Learning what to avoid when writing fictional characters is a tricky business, but there are strategies to conquering how you craft them in your own writing. While this is only one piece to the puzzle, developing likes and dislikes through interview and research can immediately make clear your character’s preferences in a variety of situations. They go from one-dimensional to three-dimensional quickly. If real people are shaped by what they love and what they loathe, then so too must your characters.