Writing a story and need to flush out your characters? Having trouble creating their rich backstories? Not sure how to get into your character’s head?
Read this article for tips on how to create dynamic, three dimensional characters!
Basics
A story, in any form, is driven by the characters within it. If you want to write a good story, then you need to write good characters.
You need to imagine yourself as the character you are writing. You need to place yourself in their shoes and ask, “what would they do in this situation?”
The Proust Questionnaire
The best way to do this is by answering a character questionnaire. You can find multiple questionnaires around the web. But the best one I have found is The Proust Questionnaire, created by the french novelist, Marcel Proust.
The Proust Questionnaire contains 35 questions that will help you figure out who your characters are, what their strengths are, their faults, their fears, their dreams, etc.
Answer the questions as if you are the character you want to create. Use empathy, imagine that you live and have lived this character’s life. This is the best way to flush out their backstory and figure out why they are the way that they are.
Realistic Growth
People do not change when they are comfortable. No one wakes up with a completely different worldview for no reason. And neither should your characters.
You need to grow your characters, not change them. People grow when faced with adversity. Throw obstacles at your characters for them to overcome. They need to learn from their experiences, from their mistakes, and from their successes.
If your antagonist goes from a homicidal maniac to running an orphanage in one page, then your readers will be left confused. There must be a reason for everything, a reason for change. Set up character arcs that allow your characters to grow.
Make them Unique
Every character you create must be different from the last. A story is driven by its characters, and the characters are driven by their desires. Opposing desire breeds conflict. Conflict acts as a catalyst in storytelling. Give your characters unique goals.
If you have two or three characters that think the same and act the same, then combine them into one. This will streamline your scenes and allow you to have more time/space to develop that character. Fewer complex characters is better than a multitude of flat characters. You should have a quality over quantity mindset when creating characters.
Seven Tips
The following list is pulled from an article written on The Penned Sleuth website:
- Make them different from other characters by their actions, not by the way that they look.
- Give them negatives; weaknesses, phobias, a nemesis, prejudices.
- Allow them to have their own place in the world where they feel comfortable.
- Each character needs a goal, make all of them unique.
- You should be able to tell your characters apart just by the way they speak.
- Allow them to grow and learn, do not just change them.
- They need morals, ethics, values, etc. Allow them to struggle with their choices.
Character Types
There are a lot of different types of characters that you can have. Some you should avoid and others are vital. Here I will lay out the basic types of characters your story may/could have:
Flat Characters: do not change throughout the story.
Rounded Characters: complex, like a real person.
Static Characters: stay the same from the start to the end of the story.
Dynamic Characters: learn from their mistakes, changes their personality by the end of the story.
Some of these character types do seem the same. But I promise there is a difference between them. For a more in-depth analysis of these character types, check out Emma Bullen’s article, “Character Types: This will help you remember!”
New Icarus 