Happy Wednesday Scribblers, I hope you all had a great week. This week I thought we could talk about creating interesting book characters. Creating interesting characters is one of the most important aspects of writing a novel or a short story, especially in queer fiction. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve read where the characters are bland and have absolutely nothing to offer the reader. Our characters are the ones who drive the plot, engage the readers, and make the story come alive. These are the people we need to cheer for and if don’t feel anything for them, then the book becomes drudgery to read. But how do you create characters that are not only believable but also memorable and original? Here are some tips to help with character development.
1. Start with a character archetype
A character archetype is a typical or universal pattern of behavior that represents a certain type of person in a story. For example, the hero, the villain, the sidekick, the mentor, etc. Archetypes help you define the basic personality, goals, and motivations of your character, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. You can use archetypes as a starting point, but don’t limit yourself to them. You can mix and match different archetypes or create your own unique ones. This is especially helpful when you are creating queer characters. You don’t want to land on stereotypes that can turn off your reader.
2. Give the character some flaws
No one is perfect, and neither should your characters be. Flaws make your characters more realistic and relatable, and they also create conflict and tension in your story. Faults can be physical, psychological, emotional, moral, or social. They can be minor quirks or major weaknesses that affect the character’s actions and decisions. For example, a character might be clumsy, stubborn, insecure, greedy, or impulsive. These shortcomings can also be sources of growth and change for your character throughout the story. I find this is really helpful in ensuring I don’t have perfect characters. I will even do this for my background characters.
3. Define the character’s goals and motivations
Every character, queer characters included, needs a reason to exist in your story. What do they want? Why do they want it? How do they plan to get it? These are the questions that define your character’s goals and motivations. Goals are the specific outcomes that your character desires or needs to achieve. Motivations are the underlying reasons or forces that drive your character to pursue their goals. These goals and motivations create stakes and urgency in the story, and they also reveal a lot about your character’s personality and values. What’s nice is these goals and motivations don’t always have to do with the plot of your story. You can treat them as significant as you want for the story.
4. Describe the character’s history
Your character’s past shapes their present and future. Their history includes their background, upbringing, education, relationships (good and bad), experiences, traumas, achievements, etc. All these factors influence your character’s worldview, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, skills, fears, hopes, dreams, etc. You don’t need to write a detailed biography for every character, but you should have a clear idea of their history and how it affects them in the story. I also suggest that you keep a file on each of your characters with all this information for easy reference.
5. Allow the character to be vulnerable
Vulnerability is the ability to show one’s emotions and feelings without fear of judgment or rejection. And this is incredibly important for our characters, especially our Main Characters. It is also the willingness to take risks and face challenges despite uncertainty or potential failure. Vulnerability makes your characters more human and sympathetic, and it also creates opportunities for growth and change. To make your characters vulnerable, you need to put them in situations where they have to face their fears, doubts, insecurities, regrets, etc., and where they have to open up to others or themselves. I find this really important when I’m writing any kind of relationship.
6. Make your character a bit unpredictable
Predictability is boring. If your readers can always guess what your character will do or say next, they will lose interest in them and the story. To avoid this problem, you need to make your character a bit unpredictable. This doesn’t mean that you have to make them act randomly or illogically; rather, you have to make them act in ways that surprise or challenge the readers’ expectations. For example, you can make your character do something heroic or vulnerable; reveal a hidden secret or talent; change their mind or opinion; make a mistake or fail; etc. Adding in unpredictability to your characters is a lot of fun. I love doing this in my stories.
7. Do your research
If you want to create realistic and interesting characters and I cannot stress this enough, especially for queer characters, you need to do some research on the topics that relate to them. Or talk to people who live the life of your character. For example, if your character is a lawyer, you need to know how the legal system works; if your character is a musician, you need to know how music is composed and performed; if your character is from another culture or time period than yours, you need to know how people lived and behaved in that context; etc. Research can help you avoid stereotypes and clichés, and it can also provide you with inspiration and details that enrich your characters and your story. I find this helps me discover what a character’s vulnerabilities, goals and motivations are.
8. Steer clear of the biggest character development mistake
The biggest character development mistake is creating flat or static characters who don’t change or grow throughout the story. This can happen a lot. The more time you spend in fleshing out your characters at the beginning, the more interesting and exciting your characters become as you write their story.
Well, there you go. Here are eight ways to create interesting book characters. Did I leave anything out? Want to add to the list, let me know in the comments below. Until time have a great week.
