Musings on Writing: Create a Character That Your Readers Will Love

Now that 'Dreams of the Few' is in the bookstores and online, it is time to publish another installment of 'Musings on Writing'. 

If you are an aspiring author or an author who just wants to validate your process or learn more about writing, you may want to browse our previous posts on the writing process and see what, if anything you can glean from those posts. 

Feel free to share your comments and thoughts with me and with other blog readers!

This time, we're going to talk about creating characters your readers will love. 

Appeal to Your Audience: The foundation of character creation must include an understanding of your audience. If you don't know your target audience; if you aren't speaking to a specific reader; you are probably going to miss the mark with your characters. Someone who buys your book because it is advertised as a crime novel isn't likely to take to a character who is running through a meadow scattering flowers in the wind. 

They might, however, like a quirky detective who also happens to be a bird-watcher. If you are writing in a particular genre, or for a particular audience, craft your characters accordingly. We've talked about writing for genre and audience before, but it bears repeating when it comes to creating characters.

Character Depth: The second consideration in character development is what I refer to as 'depth'. Readers despise cardboard cutouts, one dimensional characters and cliches. Create a character that looks, talks and acts like a real person - one that has strengths and weaknesses. 

Unless you are writing a sci-fi or fantasy novel wherein your characters will fly, display super powers or interact in a way that is superhuman or out of the norm, your readers will expect the characters in your book to behave in a believable fashion. If you are writing about a character who is psychotic or behaving erratically, you will have to put that behavior in context, so that your readers understand the paradigm. 

Back Story: Take the time to give your character a back story. By the time you sit down to write your novel, you may have a detailed outline or a simple 'beginning, middle and end' for the story. You will probably know the identities and maybe even have an image of the character in your head. 

But, if your characters don't have a life story...if they don't have a tale to tell the readers, they will lack gravitas and depth, and you don't want that. What you want is for readers to get attached to a character, to sympathize, empathize and have compassion or understanding for that character. If your readers don't understand the characters in your novel, they will not relate to them or embrace them. 

Actions and Reactions: With your back story in place, you can write scenes and dialogue that depict believable, authentic character actions and reactions. Don't betray the trust your readers have placed in you by establishing behaviors and patterns for a character and then taking a turn wherein a character takes an action that is 'out of character' - unless, of course, that character's behavior can be explained by extreme stress or extraordinary circumstances. Be true to your reader AND your characters. 

Reader Relatability: Yep, 'relatability' IS a word and it is important to character development. 

You KNOW your audience, right? You KNOW the story you want to tell. If you can answer 'yes' to both of those questions, then creating the perfect character should be easier. 

Give your characters the traits and characteristics that will draw your readers in and make them want a sustained relationship with your characters. That means that every character must have SOME redeeming qualities, some flaws, some relationship or life issue that your readers understand based on personal experience. 

While it is always interesting to read about someone who is totally different from you, there must be SOMEONE in your novel that a reader can relate to because they have been in that character's shoes, or because they feel the same way about an issue or problem. Think of it this way: Is there at least one character in your book that your readers might want as a 'best friend' in real life? If so, you've got an anchor!

Ordinary People in Extraordinary Circumstances: The most interesting characters are ordinary people (people your readers could imagine in their everyday lives). Again, if you are writing a sci-fi, paranormal or fantasy novel, you may create characters that are nothing like 'normal' people, but there must be something 'average' about your characters in order for your readers to relate. 

The best stories are about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Readers love to see how people will react to stress, change, extreme situations and major life challenges. Create a 'regular' person and put them in a difficult situation and watch what happens!

There are many other facets of good character development, but this overview should get your started. Please feel free to comment or ask questions.  

On the Writing Process - Creating Great Characters

The second installment of musings on writing relates to creating great characters. If you've ever seen a movie or a TV show or read a novel or short story that captivates you, chances are that the writers developed great characters to tell the story. Great characters are well-rounded, and detailed enough for the reader (or viewer) to believe. That means they are three-dimensional. 

If you are writing a script, a novel, a short story or other piece, and you give ample thought to your characters, you are bound to win more fans! 


Here are some things you should consider when creating a character:


The character must be consistent (unless the character is mentally disturbed, the traits and actions of the character should remain consistent with their values and the way the writer has presented the character from the beginning of the story).


The character must be believable. Even if you are writing fantasy or science fiction, a good character must be believable in action, deed, thought and relationships, or you will lose credibility AND lose the attention of your viewer or reader.


The writer must create a history and relationships for the character, even if all meaningful relationships with family, friends, husbands, colleagues or lovers are not related directly to the story. With some idea of who this person is and the people in their life, the reader or viewer will understand the character as a whole human being. 


The writer should know how she or he sees the character (age, weight, height, description, gait, mannerisms, job, education). While the writer does not need to tell the reader or viewer everything he or she thinks about the character's physical presence or every fact about the person's lifestyle, exercise regimen or eating habits, it will be easier to write about the character if the writer can picture the character in his head and have a fully formed picture of how the character lives his or life life.


The character might have a particular style of speaking (an accent, a casual or formal sentence structure). That should remain consistent throughout the story, unless the character is a spy or someone who is changing identities!


The character should have a "back story". Even if the writer does not reveal every detail of the character's history, it helps the writing if the writer understands the history and experiences. That will explain the reasons for the character's actions and reactions to situations in the story. If an action or reaction is particularly odd, the writer must reveal the impetus or motivation in order for the reader to understand what is happening. 


There are certainly other factors to creating a character but I won't go into every one of them here. The last one I will talk about is the most important. The character MUST have some redeeming quality, value or reason for existence and/or for the actions they take. If a character is unnecessary to the story, or if the writer does not value the character in some way (even if the character isn't very nice), the reader or viewer certainly will not see the value or purpose of the character's role in the story. 


When a writer chooses to reveal a character's thought process, it should be to provide clarification or critical information to the reader or viewer. Remember that you don't have to write about every thought in a character's head but DO write about reactions so that the reader or viewer can see how one character is reacting to another's action or statement. In TV and movies and on the stage, the viewer has the luxury of seeing an actor emote and so can understand their reaction to what is going on. In books, the reader must rely on the author to explain what is happening so she can see the events unfold in her imagination!


Remember that the viewer or reader cannot read your mind and needs to have a certain amount of information in order to make sense of what the characters are doing and why they are acting they way they are acting. BUT...don't go into so much detail that you lose the reader or viewer in exposition and explanation. 


In the next blog entry about the writing process, I will talk about writing at a particular time of day. Since many of the topics we will discuss relate to other topics, you'll find that I might talk about a technique, about characters or about other topics more than once during these blog posts. When taken as a group of posts and a body of thought, I hope these blog posts will give you  more complete picture of the process, and how you might approach writing your own novel, short story, script or other content.