Perhaps one of the most fun and most important parts of writing revolves around characters. By choosing to write, you've been thrust into the creator's spotlight, and if you don't keep up and produce a palatable character, nobody will read your work. It's that simple. It's a strange sense of power and yet a huge responsibility. Personally, I have no qualms and often do quit reading a story because the characters are too dull, too lifeless, or too predictable and unrealistic.
If you create you characters well, the result should be:
There are the three main parts to a character:
Number 1; Face Value
First a little note that will take a little of the stress off: Every reader is going to imagine your characters differently, no matter how detailed a description you give. You can say that your character is tall, thin, blonde hair, blue eyes, but somebody is going to listen to her talk and act and see a short girl with curly black hair and brown eyes. And while it's your license as the writer to create the character how you want it, it's their license as the reader to take it or leave it.
Along those lines, while it's important to get some physical description in there --because, after all, the way you look says a lot about you, and that is important to the reader– it's not necessary to give them a full-body description of every inch of skin. You should know every detail about the character, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to tell the reader, and definitely not all at once. If it's not necessary, if it doesn't add anything to the story, don't waste time putting it in. You may think the scar Tara has running all the way down the back of her leg from the time she fell off the swing set and scraped it along a rusty pole is interesting, but if it isn't going to be necessary in identifying her body, if she isn't going through therapy to get over the trauma of having such a large scar on her leg, if it isn't ruining her dream career of being a model, or any important scenario like that, then I really don't care and I doubt your readers do all that much, either. This is not the way to get your readers in tune with your characters –this establishes the character, numbers 2 and 3 develop the character.
Certain details that maybe aren't all that important but add familiarity are perfectly fine. Such as, "Though Delia was small for her age, Matt rose like a giant above most of the other senior boys, so the resulting picture was almost comical when they slow-danced and she was forced to stretch to reach his shoulders." It's a little detail that enhances the story, but the location is what makes it acceptable. If you just randomly throw in, "Delia was short," the reader will think, 'Okay, she's short, but who cares?' Show the reader why that detail is noteworthy.
That's not to say that no physical description should be given at all. Just sneak it in. Don't introduce Delia with: "Delia was five-foot-one, had blonde hair, brown eyes, two earrings in both ears, a nose ring, and tiny hands." I'll be honest: if I open a story/book/whatever and come across that, I shut the thing and never open it up again. This isn't a questionnaire or a character bio (we'll get to that later), it's a story. Sneak the details in! Use the fact that Delia can't reach Matt's shoulders to show her height; have her throw her blonde hair back in a ponytail; let her brown eyes tear up; send her shopping for new earrings; have her nose ring gain stares in the mall; have her whine about how her tiny hands make it difficult to play the piano. Just listing physical traits is never okay!
Your characters probably wear clothes (I'm assuming; exceptions would be animals, maybe aliens, but most people do.) This goes directly with the previous paragraph: don't list what they're wearing unless it pertains to the story. If Delia's wearing shorts, giving Matt the chance to check out her legs, then say it. But don't say "Delia was wearing blue terry-cloth Old Navy shorts, a UT t. shirt, her hair in a low ponytail, and bright yellow flip-flops that cost $3 at Kohl's." Find a creative way to slip it in if you really think it's necessary. "Delia's UT shirt was hardly recognizable through the dirt and sweat caking it, stray hair from her pony-tail stuck uncomfortably to her neck, and she was definitely regretting wearing those shorts as her knees once again planted in the dirt under the weight of her tackler." Much better, wouldn't you say?
Number 2, Inner Beauty (IE, personality)
This gets a bit harder than physical appearance for several reasons. One, you usually can't see their inner soul when you're writing about them unless they show it to you, which means you have to work to get what you can and remember it so that your character is consistent. If Delia's afraid of clowns, don't you dare send her to the circus to enjoy some up-close time with a clown unless it's part of a 12-step program to overcome her fear. If Delia doesn't like her stomach, don't send her to a pool party in a bikini. Next, the characters you create should become living, breathing people(animals/aliens/things/whatever), which means they'll have a will of their own (See Parenting 101). This also means they'll randomly throw new personality traits at you that you didn't know existed, and sometimes these contradict your original plan. Lastly, their personality is ultimately what will make the readers either love or hate your characters and one of the biggest factors determining whether the reader will connect with the character. If this isn't believable, you're sunk.
The absolute hardest part of creating a character's personality is realism. No matter how much you want him to be, Prince Charming can't be perfect if you want him to be touchable, because nobody's perfect. We all know the ultimate hero would be handsome, smart, kind, loving, never burps, never goes to the bathroom, etc., but that person doesn't exist and you'll lose some of your credibility if you try to convince the reader that it does. So unless your story is about angels and demons, you need to throw some bad in with the good, or vice versa. Give them a short temper, make them disorganized or a compulsive exaggerator, or a snob, or bossy. And while it's so easy to make your villain all bad, even Hitler had a soft spot --for animals; he was even a vegetarian because he didn't believe animals should be killed to eat, yet he started one of the largest genocides ever. If you're trying to make the reader hate the character, since they are a bad guy, it's okay to make them seem totally bad, but even villains have fears and concerns which can turn into weaknesses. Even mob leaders may have daughters they're overprotective of, or a mad scientist may have an obsession with his tropical fish, or maybe your gothic drug addict has a soft spot for that bee on the Cheerios box. It doesn't necessarily have to be logical, but the fact that it's there makes them more touchable, which is the goal with every character.
Please, please, please make your characters consistent. I can't tell you how many times I've been reading something online and had to tell the person, "This character is inconsistent." Unless something happens to trigger a change in the person (which should happen because stories are all about a change, often a change in a character), there shouldn't be anything out of character. Now, if a character hides a trait of theirs to impress someone, that's still being consistent. Maybe that's confusing, so let me try to explain differently. Delia's terrified of clowns, but Matt has invited her to the circus and she doesn't want him to know about her fear, so she pretends to not be afraid. However, even in that scenario, I personally would be writing little tip offs --maybe she winces every time the clown looks at her, or has to leave for the bathroom at one point to splash cool water on her face.
The more controversial your characters are, the better, really. For example, in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, the main story is narrated by Ellen, the maid. Throughout the story, you're never quite sure whether you like her or not. She'll be very helpful and friendly and supportive at one point, so you'll have a good impression of her, but she's also horribly gossipy and continuously meddles in other people's affairs, so you wind up mad at her. Heathcliff will make you so furious at points that you'll chunk the book against the wall, but then something about him makes you pity him and you want to just reach your hand out and fix things for him. That is genius writing.
Number 3; Actions and Reactions
You should not only know your character inside and out, you should know why they're like that. Delia got brown eyes from her Dad, but her mom's the one with the blond hair. She's scared of clowns because a giant clown lamp fell on her when she was five and caused her to need six stitches. She's liked Matt since seventh grade when he told her she was pretty after snotty Hailey told her she had a crooked nose.
Throw your character into some scenarios. Say Delia is stuck in a long line at a grocery story. Does she play with the cute baby in front of her? Read a magazine? The tabloids? Look for a shorter line? Tap her foot impatiently at the stupid cashier for taking so long? What about if she runs into an old friend of hers? An ex-boyfriend? You should know your character so well that if someone asks you about a scenario like that, you can explain what your character would do.
Your character's actions and reactions depend largely on their physical and inward appearances. Make sure you reflect that. For instance, if your character is short, they can probably zip between people in crowds, but Matt, at 6'4", may not do so well at that. If they're nervous around crowds, it doesn't make sense for them to dive into the nearest group of people, but they probably will avoid them. If they're bossy, they're going to react to a problem far differently than if they're snobby or shy.
One thing to watch out for, though this isn't a bad thing at all, is the occasional surprise reaction. This is not the same thing as an inconsistency. A surprise reaction is when a trait your character didn't previously share they had comes out, but it's usually only with a very intense situation. Like your really shy, timid character may or may not snap when she and her little brother are kidnapped and go into this momentary very confrontational mode, which is perfectly acceptable. The difference is that the sudden change is brought on by some sort of stressful situation, usually, and not just a mistake on the writer's part. Listen to your character; they'll let you know when it's a surprise and when it's your error.
The thing about this is that, if your character is real in your head, you shouldn't be writing about their reactions to a scenario, they should be telling you what's going on and you're merely putting that down on paper. If your characters are real, you should just sit back and watch them go --maybe throw in some encouragement here and there. Again, see Parenting 101 (when it gets put up) for what to do when your characters decide to rebel. But as long as you're keeping consistency and have a touchable person, this should be the easy part.
Go Here for some help in developing your characters.
Questions? Comments? Feel free to E-mail me.
Everything, unless otherwise stated, copyright Shiloh, 2005.
1. A well-developed, realistic character
2. Somebody your readers can see walking down the street (or, you know, whatever your character does)
3. Intentionally likeable or not.
4. A character with a healthy mixture of positives and negatives. Nobody is entirely good or entirely bad --if they are, readers tend to get bored and feel no connection with them whatsoever.
5. You should feel such a link with them, even if it's a character who you hate (a villain, say), that you can carry on a conversation about/with them and never be lacking for answers.
6. Likewise, your readers should feel like they know the character --even if the point of the character is that they're secretive and won't share anything about themselves, the way they act and react should bring the reader in.
1. Face Value
2. Inner Beauty
3. Actions and Reactions