How to Make Your Characters Seem Real

So this week I thought I would dive back into characters and more specifically, how to take an idea for a character and bring them to life. This topic is so fun for me especially, because Kamryn and I love and adore our characters SO much when we create them.

My first bit of advice might be a bit controversial. I am against character templates (please lower your digital pitch forks). Here is why: most of the time, they don’t give you the information you need for your story and you waste time coming up with unimportant character facts. You do not immediately need to know a character’s favorite food when you make them.

Instead, think of your story first: what purpose does your character serve? Are they even necessary? (ouch). Each and every character should serve a purpose in the story or else they really don’t need to be there. This doesn’t have to be a fully-formed idea when just starting out. Idea come and go and as the story progresses, that is when you should be thinking about what about the character you need to develop.

Starting off, what does the reader immediately need to understand about your character? This usually comes in the form of the atmosphere in which they are introduced and what their physical appearance tells the reader.

Over time, you should be pausing and asking yourself, what do you need to know about this character for the story? How would this character react to a certain event and why?

This is honestly the most fun for me and Kamryn. We do a constant stop and go process of being like, “Okay, what do we need to know about the antagonist? What happened in __ person’s past?”

We have literally spent HOURS talking and theorizing about our characters. It may seem a bit odd to stop and go, but the process for us makes us MORE motivated to keep going and usually creates more ideas for us. This way, we're only creating information that’s relevant to the story. But the process itself usually leads to more and more ideas. Just the other day, I had BOMBARDED Kamryn with paragraphs of ideas about certain characters that would drive certain plot points (I’m sorry, Karmyn).

Another way we bring our characters to life is by making their past or present circle back to the future. What events of their past helped make them who they are and how does facing it (or not) affect the character? This is an easy way to develop your character and add tension to the story.

Speaking of tension, your characters need to grow and change as the story develops. They should be facing a constant internal and external conflict that will affect how the character thinks and behaves. If they make no progression, they feel two-dimensional.

They should also NOT be perfect. As humans, we make mistakes. We say the wrong things when we’re mad. We misunderstand things. If your character always wins every fight or is always completely composed, they will NOT feel real. A good rule of thumb is to think about the worst thing that could possibly happen to that specific character and make it happen.

When the character feels real, the story feels real. People read books for the characters more than the plot. Flat characters will ruin the best plot line and great characters can sometimes save a mediocre plot (you do still need to develop the plot).

Like I said earlier, Kamryn and I LOVE our characters. We love them so much, even when taking a five-year writing hiatus, we still spoke about our characters and what they would do or how they would react to certain events. Overtime, we’ve developed these characters so much that they absolutely feel real to us. And if you love your characters, it’ll show in your writing.

So, develop your characters naturally. Make them make mistakes and learn and grow. Love them into existence. Don’t use character templates (unless you really want to). What are some of your favorite characters? What about them makes them real to you? Let us know!

Until next time! Write-on,

Kristin