If it wasn’t for believable characters, why would you be reading a story? Well, unless it was a How-To? History. Okay, okay, there are so many books without characters. In fiction, when you build your story, you want to be able to have characters that truly connect with audiences, and/or at least that they can see as believable.
So how can you make those characters believable? By making them like they were real. You can take a look around on the people that surround you. Friends, co-workers, family members, strangers you see at a supermarket. What do you see? What makes them unique? You can take more or less what sets them different from other people you know and write it down. Actually, that will be a good exercise if you are trying to create for the first time.
Still need help? How about if we do it by parts?
1- Do a backstory. When it comes to the backstory of a book it refers to events that proceed with the story leading to the plot. When it comes to the characters you are talking about that character’s past. Was he poor or rich growing up? Did he have parents or did they died when he was little? You have to ask yourself what happened to the character before he/she sets foot in your manuscript. On Marie Lu’s Prodigy series, one of the main character’s arc runs through his backstory, his house, mother, brother, and how they lived in the poor sector. This will help you understand a lot of Day’s strengths and flaws, and how he manages to tackle life as he does.
2- Strengths. We are not talking about how much your character can bench unless it is significant in the story. You can still throw that in. But psychologically, how strong is this person? Is the character good with words? Those it has leader qualities? Any skill that will help in the story? On Blake Crouch’s Recursion, the two main characters are always using their intellect and job skills as their strength to figure out the puzzle on how to fix the false memories. Other types of strengths can be wisdom, temperance, transparency, courage, creativity, between others.
3- Flaws. Yes, flaws. If you want a believable character, you need to give it flaws. Everyone has flaws. From physical flaws to emotional flaws. Remember that everything you put has to be relatable to the story you are writing. If it is a boy meets girl kind of story, you can play with physical flaws or maybe one of the things that are an obstacle can be like a car. Something that can be a flaw is someone being too proud that can’t accept when they are wrong, making that person butt-heads with others around him. Superman has kryptonite, but what about fear, greed, jealousy, lust for power, incompetence, between others?
4 – The way they speak. Even though this will be tied to the first three, the way each character speaks will make them more real. Around you you will have people that use big words, others will use more simple vocabulary. You will have people that when nervous speak very fast, others will stutter. Remember that you want to give them a voice, and how they express themselves opens up more on how people can see the full version of that character. In my book Reign of Darkness, on the thing that was pointed out in the first Beta Reader section, was the word bum. I don’t want to use language as an excuse, but I thought I was using it normally. So I changed it, depending on what character was speaking. So you have Mieke saying homeless or homeless man, Diane using vagabond and others that saw themselves as higher than homeless people calling that specific character a bum. In this case, it was detailed that made the characters stand out from one and another versus using just a random word that constricts the point of view of each character.
5 – Mannerisms. This is something you don’t hear often. There is a book that I bought when I was learning to do scripts called The Writer’s Guide to Character Traits. It is good in the sense that it talks about psychological behavior. One example, if a person is laying he/she can swipe his/her nose while being dishonest. A cliché has been when people are going to fight they crack their knuckles. Maybe your character passes her hair behind her ear. Before doing a task he licks his lip. She speaks waving her hands. I bet you have many mannerisms. Some you know you do them, some you do it unconsciously. Again check out people near you, you’ll find lots and lots of mannerisms that make each person unique.
These are some of the ways you can make your characters stand out. Do your research. Take time to mold them. If you take your time with each of the characters you can actually know what would be their reaction at any situation. You will probably know how the character will behave. What he will or not do. If you force a situation on a character how they will grow or not. The worst thing you can have are plain boring characters that audiences will discard and just roll their eyes every time they come out.
Reign of Darkness can be found at the moment in Amazon, on ebook and softcover. If you haven’t had your chance, don’t wait for too much and get aboard on this new vampire world. Be sure to follow me on social media as well. This is what I have for now, until the next time, take care guys and keep writing mis amigos.