The Accidental Writer: The Many Faces of our Characters
Great characters, like interesting fun people, must be multifaceted. It is important that protagonists have some positive traits—maybe they are smart or physically gifted, but those same heroes must also have faults. Perhaps they are overconfident, too trusting, insanely stubborn or shy.
The next part is critical—not only must they have faults, but those faults must become meaningful to your story. If the hero is overconfident, but her overconfidence never leads to trouble, it doesn’t really count and won’t grip the reader. Of course the same holds true for villains.
Don’t forget about building interesting villains! Villains should rarely be all bad. Often they have a different worldview that makes their acts villainous, but they see themselves as being virtuous. It’s also important to build backstories for your characters. Why has someone turned bad? If readers understand a character’s motivation, they become more engaged in them and more likely to keep reading.
Don’t forget that good writing entertains, so characters, whether protagonists or antagonists, must catch a reader’s imagination. Few good novels are based on perfectly ordinary characters doing perfectly ordinary events. Where is the fun in that? Even books that seem to be about an average Joe thrust into an extreme situation, usually involve characters that are not average and not named Joe! It is okay to create exceptional characters, so long as the reader understands their motives, their strengths, and their flaws.
I know authors who create entire life stories for their characters before they start writing. I don’t go that far because I like to let them develop over time, but give them plenty of consideration before you start telling their stories.
Stock characters quickly become boring, losing a reader’s interest and turning him or her off. If you need a thug or greedy banker for one chapter they might come in handy. Other than that, think layers. Remember how Donkey from Shrek describes his new pal. He likens him to an onion. Now those are two great characters full of layers!
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