Every story needs characters your readers can relate to, they
need to read REAL and be believable.
How many times have you read a book or watched a movie and
said to yourself, or somebody watching with you, “Oh yeah, he just happens to
know how to fly a plane, stitch a bullet wound, make electricity, speak 17 languages,
build a working two-way ham radio out of a cigar box, AND make a full three
piece suit out of a bathroom towel!”? Okay, an exaggeration but still we’ve all
had those moments when we KNOW the characters just aren’t real.
How do we make up people that are believable, characters that
our readers will care about? The first thing you have to remember, people are
more than two-dimensional, unless the book opened with their birth, they had
lives before the first page, and even if they were born in the story they were
born into a history — things happened before the first time the character ever
appeared in front of your readers. Think of the education, the training, the
experiences that your character(s) had before the story opened. The environment
your character grew up in will have helped to mold her character. Was there
money, hard times, loss, or anger? This will all leave lasting memories.
Everything that happened before the story opened will affect
each character, guide every decision and action, and will also help to keep
each character consistent. Think back to a frightening event in your own life,
perhaps a strange dog attacked you as a child, now years later you may still
carry a fear about strange dogs and would cross the street just to be safe. This
might be the same thing your character would do, react to an event from his own
past and this might happen every single time. Even if there is some change in the
behavior, a little more ease as the character grows, there will be something
from the even that will forever affect the character’s behavior.
Some authors like to create their characters using a zodiac
sign, a TV character, base someone on people they once knew and that’s okay for
a start, but that is only the skeleton, and remember to build on. Give your
character dreams, goals, desires, fears and memories. Even if the past is never
revealed to your readers, you, as the author, need to know what makes your
character “tick”.
Every story will have a protagonist (hero/heroine) and an
antagonist (villain). Think of the nicest person you have ever known, did they
ever lose their temper, or cause an accident that hurt someone, mistakenly
insult someone by not acknowledging something they did. By the same token,
think of someone who may have bullied other kids in school, or a tyrannical
boss. Really think about that person, did you ever see him cry, or run to his
mother/wife for a hug? Maybe this person once stopped to pet a cat or drop a
few coins into a donation jar? No person is all good or all bad. Even if you
never acted on it, did ever wish someone would have some bad luck? People are
real, they make mistakes. Some people may have more conscience than others but
EVERYONE has feelings and needs.
Make sure that your characters are real, let you readers feel
a tiny bit of sympathy for your villain or want to wag a finger at the hero.
They will be more interested in the story when things aren’t all that
predictable.
Writing Exercise: Choose
any four zodiac signs and find the descriptions for each. Build a character for
each sign using that description; include a brief paragraph detailing some of
each character’s significant history.
Writing Prompt: Make
a list of the nicest teacher and the meanest teacher you ever had; the nicest
and meanest boss? The nicest and meanest girlfriend/boyfriend; and nicest and
meanest neighbor? For EACH person on your list, think of and list the best and
worst thing that person ever did for/to you.
Challenge Assignment:
Write a short scene with both a hero and a villain. They want the same
thing (a love interest? a job they can show their talent with? etc.) Yes, let
the hero win but not without some faltering and make sure there is some
sympathy for the villain.
