Ask anyone what they liked about their favorite book or movie and they’ll tell you about a big action scene or pivotal moment in the scene where the characters saved the cat, blew up the evil villain’s lair, or figured out who they really loved. Why? The plot is important to keep everything moving forward, but the characters make that journey interesting.
While there are some amazing books that are more plot-driven than character-driven (Brandon Sanderson, Agatha Christy), all of their characters are fleshed out and real to the reader. In this post, I wanted to share with you my journey as to how I created my characters, how I fleshed out the secondary characters, and the issues I still struggle with for creating real, 3D, you-care-if-they-cry characters.
Where Do you Start?
My main characters started out from a daydream. I was stuck on the first sort of book I wrote and felt frustrated by how much work it would take to fix the world and the plot to make it work. While still in that creative zone, I daydreamed and a new idea was born.
Some people do dream or think up their characters like me. Others watch something or see someone doing something interesting and feel like that is a character they need to write. Other writers are overwhelmed by a character that must break free from their mind. Some writers start with the plot and flesh out the characters later.
The point is, there are many ways to begin a character and none of them are wrong.
So, starting with my MCs. I daydreamed a girl named Seraphina who shares her body with a boogeywoman. The boogeywoman’s sole purpose is to shut down any major magical events or power grabs and protect the people on the planet. Now what do I do?
Ask yourself a few basic questions about the character and the world they live in, such as:
- How old are they?
- Are they in a first world (ours) or a second?
- Do they live in a city, a small town, a forest, a spaceship, in a tent, etc.?
- Do they have family?
- What do they look like?
This is what it looked like for me:
- I started out with Seraphina at 16, but quickly changed that to 25 when I realized I couldn’t think like a 16 year old anymore.
- I wanted her to live in our world to avoid massive world building (but still had tons to do, so I pushed it on to my husband who is much better than me, posts here).
- I saw her on windy roads with lots of trees – so New England fit. (Post here on where I picked and how I created it.)
- She lived in a small town to make all her actions more impactful.
- I knew she had a sister, Nora, and an aunt, originally named Therese and changed later to Tristana. The rest of her family died tragically.
Once you know the answer to those questions, you have a few paths you can take, depending on the type of writer you are.
a) Character Driven: Ask more detailed questions to the ones above, like who is their family? Are they close? Do they live nearby? What’s their history? Is their age normal for their environment? What’s the town look like where they live? Where do they go to school or where do they work, etc.?
OR
b) Plot Driven: Where are they in the story? What’s their role? Where do they come in, etc.
You want to answer these questions for ALL of the characters in your book, not just your protagonist. You don’t want cardboard cutout secondary characters because you didn’t do at least the basic research for them. Spend more time on your MCs – absolutely – but do spend time on those secondary characters as well.
When I say research, I mean research. You could completely craft all of their history out of your head or (and it adds depth) you can do secondary research. This is watching Youtube or TED talks or reading or watching TV or movies to see what characteristics of a real or imagined person you want to borrow from to create a richer character.
How do you start that research?
- Start with researching authors and others who talk about similar types of books. See if they make comments about how they create their characters.
- Do keyword searches for core concepts and themes for your characters.
- Read, read, read lots of books with different character treatments and deconstruct how they’re done.
- Also look at craft books (Save the Cat!, The Story Grid, psychology studies, etc.) to get inspiration and depth.
BIG LEGAL WARNING HERE: Do not just copy someone else – whether in real life or fiction. Create your characters. Borrow the way they express themselves, their hobbies, their looks from secondary research, but don’t borrow the whole enchilada. This opens you up to lawsuits: real people – slander, libel, defamation; fake people – copyright infringement. You do not want either of those things to happen because you failed to make them your own.
What Does Secondary Research look like?
For my book, two of my characters are based on real people. For Roslynn Griffiths, the best friend, I based the way she talked – fast and with no periods at all, her positive attitude, and her enthusiastic approach to life on a Youtuber called Sara Dietschy. I took the essence of what I liked about Sara’s online presence and used it as the base for part of Roslynn’s personality.
But here’s the difference – I wanted her to be bubbly, positive, a fast talker, so that’s what I took. But that’s where the comparison ends.
- Roslynn is studying to be a Marine Biologist, Sara is a podcaster/youtuber person who promotes artists.
- Roslynn is a Selkie with a serious longtime boyfriend (who doesn’t appear and I haven’t fully fleshed out yet). Sara is human with a real boyfriend who is fully fleshed out.
- Roslynn comes from a very rich and powerful family. Sara’s family I know little about except her mom seems nice from the 20 seconds I saw on a video.
The other person, the aunt – Tristana, I based on two people. And from those two people I took, again, the way they expressed themselves, how they held themselves, and what was important to them.
Basically, you want to do some research, get a few ideas, and then expand upon those ideas for your character. Don’t be lazy.
Once you have a barebones or in-depth idea of the basic answers to the questions, the most important questions you need to answer are next. When I say need, I seriously mean need.
Three Important Questions to Ask
To create real people in your book, you need to have them behave like real people. What I mean by that is they need conflict – external, internal or both – and they need to learn from that conflict in some way. Some character growth will be major; some will be minor.
When figuring out your main characters – the people the book revolves around – you want to give them (hat-tip Save the Cat! Writes a novel by Jessica Brody):
- A problem or a flaw that needs fixing
- A want or a goal the hero is pursuing
- A need or a life lesson to be learned
The key to a strong character is knowing the answers to all three of these.
Knowing the problem is the FIRST thing to determine. Another set of deeper questions to ask yourself here are: What do people think your MC’s flaws are? And more importantly, what does your MC think their flaws are?
In my book, Seraphina’s problem is that she graduated with her Masters and doesn’t have a job. She also just got bumped out of her best friend’s apartment and has nowhere to live. She thinks she just needs to get a job. Her best friend thinks she needs to start living her life and make her own decisions. What’s her real problem? Roslynn is right – she’s been letting others make decisions for her instead of living her life and making choices.
Now that you know what the problem is or isn’t (the problem could be your character doesn’t know they have a problem), you focus on the want. The WANT is what they think they need to fix the problem.
Seraphina hasn’t made choices for herself and ends up back home with her aunt in a house and a town she doesn’t want to be. Her want is to find a job, make some money and get the hell out of dodge. But that won’t fix her problem, that will only mask it.
So now we’re at NEED. What does she really need to be happy? She needs to know her worth and who she is so that she can make the right decisions (and the wrong ones – that is how we grow) for her life. And the NEED drives the character arc and growth, which ultimately helps resolve (some of) her problem.
You want a flawed character because that makes their journey interesting. Without conflict and mistakes, the character will be quite boring. If they are a Mary Sue, you wonder why you’re even watching what’s happening and where the character growth comes from.
While a potentially controversial discussion, in my opinion Rey from Star Wars is a classic Mary Sue. Everyone immediately loves her, she’s good at everything right from the start (flying the Millenium Falcon, fighting with a light saber, her strength in the force – don’t you remember how long Luke struggled to master it?). While she has some conflict and character growth, it’s all based on plot, not from within. She has no NEED that is solved by the end of the trilogy.
Right, so now you have a problem, a want, and a need. What’s next?
What To Do Now
Write your book. Fit your plot around your characters’ growth, or fit your characters’ growth around the plot. Or do both. It’s up to you.
Remember though that all of the characters – whether primary or secondary – need to be fleshed out enough to be real on the page. Some characters are there to help your MC grow, change, or see the world differently. Some are just there because you need suspects in your mystery. But all of them need to feel like real people.
And that’s where my current struggle is. I’ve got some great secondary characters, but the one I’ve not made real enough is Seraphina’s Aunt Tristana. Because she doesn’t appear much in the book, because I’m cutting down on the words, and because how do you flesh out a character with a few hundred words in the plot?
I don’t know, but I’m continuing to work on it with my editor and in revisions to find a way to make her more real. I’m sure the feedback I’m about to get is going to tell me my secondary characters aren’t connected enough to the plot or the MC to feel real. But I know I’ll get there. I may just need to do more research.
Some Resources for Character Creation
Character Chart for Fiction Writers
MasterClass – Writing 101: All the Different Types of Characters in Literature – 2020.