How to Create a Believable Character
Last week we discussed the merits of character fiction and had an interesting conversation about what rules a story – plot or character.
Most people agreed that the characters make or break a story. Great character writing can breathe life into a flat or dull plot, and when we walk away from fiction, it’s the characters that continue to resonate in our imaginations.
But how do you create a character that readers believe?
Get Into Character
The Men with Pens are well-known for their smokin’ business tips, but their talents extend beyond helping freelancers and entrepreneurs make it on the world wide web.
James and Harry also run a gaming site called Escaping Reality in which creative writers collaborate in real time to forge an interactive and ongoing work of fiction, and in this fictional world, strong character writing is absolutely essential.
Step into our world any time. Collaborate with other players in scenes rich with visual imagery, description and dialogue. Improve your fiction writing skills with fast improvisation, quick wits, interactive writing and plenty of twists and turns.
Each writer enters a scene with one asset – a character. Plot happens spontaneously as different characters interact and move the story forward. As you can imagine, your character in this game has to be strong, vivid, and believable. In fact, before you’re allowed to join the game, you’ll need to submit a character sketch.
Even Fictional Character Writing Has to be Real
What does an online role-playing game have to do with fiction writing? Everything.
Realistic characters are essential to a work of fiction that compels readers just as they are essential to collaborative writing. Whether you’re developing a character for a game, a writing exercise, or for a short story or novel, you want to generate characters that step off the page and become a part of your readers’ lives.
A realistic character taps into readers’ emotions, giving rise to empathy, resentment, and adoration. We root for the protagonist because we’re on his side. We hiss and boo at the antagonist because she’s roused our senses of fear and loathing.
Put simply, readers get attached to characters. But only if those characters are believable. Your job as a fiction writer is to manifest lifelike characters. And the Men with Pens have a great resource that will walk you through every step of character creation.
How to Create a Believable Character
Not all characters are created equally. Have you ever read a character that seemed more like a stereotype than a real person? Ever tried to write a character that just fell flat and lacked a genuine personality?
People are complex organisms – even characters that are non-human are complicated and difficult to write in a way that makes it easy to believe that they’re real.
In their ebook How to Create a Believable Character, James Chartrand and Harrison McLeod share tons of tips and insight for creating characters that readers will connect with. From basic stuff, like what your character looks like, to more in-depth qualities, such as major life-altering events, this book will take you through the many different aspects of a character that you need to define – both before and during the fiction writing process.
Ready, Set, Create Character!
How to Create a Believable Character is a fairly quick read and includes worksheets that you can print out to help guide you through the process of drafting a character sketch. You’ll be prompted to think about your character’s:
- Appearance
- Abilities
- Background
- Personality
Plus, you’ll learn how to tie all your character’s traits together so you end up with a realistic, believable character that will resonate with readers.
This is a fun and affordable little resource – just under twelve dollars – so you can’t afford not to pick this one up and add it to your collection of writing resources. And once you have it, you’ll find yourself scrolling through it every time you’re working on a character, just to make sure you’ve covered all your bases.
And with this book, all your character-creating bases will definitely be covered. Get your copy today.
And keep on writing.
Do you have any tips to share on strong character writing? Leave a comment or send in a guest post.
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[...] felt for them? Think about it. Write about it. Then go and create your own larger-than-life, believable characters. And love live fiction [...]
Thanks for the heads up , I’ve been meaning to read this for a while but haven’t got round to it.
And yes, characters are the lifeblood of a narrative and usually, far more interesting than any plot twist or other writerly device!
Iain Broomes last blog post..How Twitter can help you improve, market and publish your creative writing
Hi Iain, It’s definitely worth checking out. Actually, I think the price is a bit low for what you get, but who am I to complain? Characters are so essential, it’s nice to have a resource on hand that’s completely devoted to them.
Thanks for the review Melissa. Like Iain I’ve been meaning to get a hold of a copy myself.
Guess who’s getting the commission
Marc – Welshscribes last blog post..Are You Really Wasting Your Time Blogging?
Heheh
Commissions are nice but I want to note that I only promote stuff that I’ve read, used, and fully approve. That’s why you rarely see a bunch of affiliate marketing on this site – I’m very, very picky.
Unbelievable characters do more harm than good.
It’s like watching a movie and a single unbelievable actor can ruin everything.
Escaping Reality sounds too cool and I like the idea of an unfolding story with a variety of believable characters.
J.D. Meiers last blog post..Avoid Mental Burnout
Oh, unbelievable characters are the worst! I’ve read stories with characters that were perhaps boring or cookie-cutter but if you can’t even believe that a character could be real – forget it! Oddly enough, I think one of the best examples of character is the teapot from the animated Disney film Beauty and the Beast. Making a teapot seem believable as a character is quite an accomplishment if you ask me!
Thanks for those websites. I used to write all the time growing up. I just got back into my writing and I really need to improve my skills. I love your site and the help that I get. Thanks.
Thank you so much Tracy. Your kind words mean a lot and inspire me to keep this site going. Best of luck to you. Keep on writing!
Some solid tips here. I think it’s important to ask yourself throughout “How would a real person respond to this situation?” and not “What do I need this character to do to make the plot move forward?” If you fail at this, you’re going to lose realism quickly.
One thing I’ve always had trouble with is appearance. To me, a character’s appearance never means too much because I am concerned more with what they say and how they act. As such, I have trouble conveying appearance in my writing.
Martin – Writing Promptss last blog post..Controlling the Pace – Mixing Scenes with Summary
The Men with Pens’ book goes into detail about characters’ appearance. It is one of those things that’s a little challenging – hard to know how much or how little you should describe the way your character looks. You have an idea in your head, but you also want to allow the reader to come up their own visual. That can be tricky but it’s always a fun challenge.
@ Martin – I am in a similar position, I tend to forget about character appearances probably because I already have an image in my mind. I found asking myself the following questions help:
what would the character say if s/he looked in the mirror?
How would another character describe him/her?
I’d then either write that in as character dialogue or sometimes as the “reader”. e.g
To look at Marc you’d think he was a typical geek. With unkempt hair and wearing a t-shirt sporting a computer graphic from some obscure 1970′s Arcade game, you wouldn’t be far from wrong either.”
I think I posted a writing exercises here some time ago that involved using celebrities for describing the way characters look. The idea was not to latch on to the entertainment industry but to sift through the faces of actors, musicians, politicians, comedians, TV personalities, etc. to find one that captures the essence you have in mind for a character. Then, you can simply write a visual description based on a real person, and then of course, tweak it as much as you like
Melissa,
Your content enriches my knowledge – it is fun read too.
But this time you take it to the limit – four items to remember!
* Appearance
* Abilities
* Background
* Personality
Last time it was only three (chat, stand in, monologue)
Kidding!
Very good stuff. I am a huge fan of lessons learned kind of posts.
Good stuff.
Alik you are too kind. I have to keep upping the challenge around here. A great writer doesn’t get off easy
I can’t say I’ve been meaning to read this book you recommend, but I can now. Unfortunately, there are about three other books waiting to be finished and I’m working on managing my time a little better. With that, I would definitely love to get involved with Escaping Reality. In due time, I suppose. By the way, I’ve loving this character month postings.
t.sterlings last blog post..fripodding and watching: the watchmen experience-reviews and stuff
I absolutely loved Escaping Reality, but I drifted away because I was getting ready to work on a novel and I didn’t have the time. I’d love to go back and get involved again but it seems like once I’m done with my client work, my creative writing (novel, etc.), and blogging, I just want to get away from the computer. Same old thing: too much to do and not enough hours in the day. Grr.
I’ve been having the same problem lately… which explains all these comments from me suddenly. I’m trying to catch up. You and your writing wisdom have been missed.
Yeah, you are catching up, aren’t you? Hehehee.
When you create a character, do you draw out that person? Or do you describe him/her (in written form) from what you see/created in your mind. I have tried drawing them, but I’m not much of an artist. It seems like it would be easier to picture what you have already created (when writing) if you have a hard copy of it. Does anyone agree or am I overstressing the situation?
I often write a character sketch to highlight details about the character, including looks, personality, and personal history. I do sketches, but they are not usually drawings of characters (people are very difficult to draw). I have used images of celebrities (or the characters they’ve played in films) or pictures that I’ve found online as a point of reference, and I’ve found that to be a useful way to visualize characters. So yes, I agree that it’s helpful to have a visual reference. Even a rugged drawing would be helpful, so I think you’ve got a good method.