Developing Your Main Characters.Â
Your characters must be real and understandable within the context of your story, regardless of genre.
Whether talking about Hamlet, Harry Potter, or Robin Hood, the best stories are about characters, not just an exciting series of events.
While plot mastery can help you create exciting twists and turns, great character development draws readers in by providing them with strong characters with whom they can identify. In fiction, character development creates a distinct, three-dimensional character with depth, personality, and distinct motivations. Character development can also refer to the changes a character goes through due to their actions and experiences throughout a story.
A novel comprises a character who interacts with events over time. Character and plot are inextricably linked because people are defined by what happens to them. The reader will be unable to appreciate the significance of your events if they do not have a clear sense of who a character is, what they value, and what they are afraid of.
Fictional characters, like real people, have hobbies, pets, histories, problems, quirks, beliefs, and obsessions. These traits influence how a character reacts to and feels about what happens to them. Therefore, it is critical for your novel that you understand all aspects of your characters so that you can understand how they will react under the pressures of the events they face.
Let’s take a look at the Protagonist and the Antagonist
There will be many characters in your novel. But these two will most likely be front and center.Â
The Protagonist –Â Your main character or the hero. This character will be your focus, the person you want readers to invest in and care about.
Make the protagonist have flaws. Protagonists and heroes do not have to be perfect human beings. In fact, those protagonists are often tedious. Great characters emerge from the trials they face, and believable characters, like real people, have human flaws.
Give the protagonist a backstory. Over the course of the story, a good character changes in some way. The character arc describes this transformation. You can also create a main character who does not change, but this should be done with care.
The Antagonist – Sometimes referred to as the villain. Make the antagonist moral. The motivations of your villain should cause a crisis for your protagonist. Every villain must have their own morality, no matter how twisted. If a villain spends a significant portion of the novel killing people, you must give him or her plausible reasons for doing so. Make the reader understand the villain’s desperate need or twisted belief, and make those motivations personal to their history and upbringing.
Also, make the antagonist strong. Readers want to see your main character succeed—but not in an easy way. Therefore, your villain should not only be a match for your hero but also more powerful. This forces your protagonist to gather the skills, items, and allies required to defeat your antagonist, providing additional opportunities for character development.
Character buildingÂ
Create characters based on your interests. Because you’ll be spending so much time with them, the fiction rule of “write what you want to know” also applies to them. Don’t be afraid to instill recognizable traits in your protagonist, but prioritize your interests and make sure your main characters are well-rounded.
Detail reveals their physical surroundings. Whether on purpose or not, different writers emphasize different details to evoke character. Some people are drawn to a character’s physical appearance. Others, on the other hand, focus on emotions, mannerisms, and environments. Understanding your characters’ physical world and how they interact with it is critical, regardless of the details you choose.
Give them the necessary skills. Your characters should have abilities that allow them to function in your world. If you’ve decided to set your novel in the ocean, make sure your character has or learns how to use a diving suit.
Make your characters memorable. Make sure that important characters that the reader will meet more than once are memorable in some way. Give each one a quirk or quality that will help readers remember who they are later. This could be a title such as “the detective” or a physical characteristic such as “bushy hair.”
Allow the reader to see your character’s internal struggle. One way to connect with your reader and make them care about your main character is through internal monologue. Allowing the reader to witness a character’s thoughts as they happen, revealing that person’s inner conflict, motivations, opinions, and personality. Internal monologue is a great way to reveal character while also conveying information about your setting, events, and other characters.
Perplex your reader’s expectations. The most interesting characters will surprise your readers. We do not need to always focus on things that are stable. Readers pay attention, however, when something unexpected occurs, such as a beast emerging from the woods. How would your character react to that?
I have designed a Character Profile template that can be downloaded here. Let me know if you like it or think changes should be made. And don’t forget to subscribe to my monthly newsletter.Â
Until we meet again – you know the drill – KEEP WRITING!