How To Create Compelling Characters

This is a post I wrote about (as is obvious in the title) How To Write Compelling Characters as part of Elana Johnson, Alex Cavanaugh, and Jennifer Daiker's Great Blogging Experiment.

There is a lot more than the following information if you really want to cross-section the process of creating compelling characters, but that would mean an incredibly long post and lots of text. Therefore, I've narrowed it down to what I think are the most important things you should (and should not) do to create compelling characters.

What Is the Conflict?

What sort of conflict is the character going through? What sort of challenges face him/her? Strife is a good way of making the reader bond with the character, to feel something for the events that happen to your character. It can be physical, it can be psychological, it can be any sort of conflict, but there has to be some sort of predicament that the character has to face. If nothing is happening there's really no reason for the reader to stick around--the reader isn't compelled to find out what happens.

I would like to mention here a good example of this sort of thing: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. Some people said that it was slow and dull, while others adored it. I'm in the "adored" category, because there is conflict in the start of the book. Finn is about to get run over, and afterwards the world in which he lives is revealed; the place is violent politically and is a dangerous world to exist in. It throws you straight into the action and into the lives of the people and there isn't any dilly-dallying over insignificant details.

Every Person Wants Something

It's true. Almost all of us want something out of life, whether it's freedom, true love, liberation, self-discovery, or any such thing as that. What does your character want? Make the reader discover it--but there are different ways of doing that. It can be said in the first chapter with a statement made by the character. Or you can draw out the moment that the reader learns the full scope of his/her desires through a sequence of events or by conversation with another character.

Make the want real. Make it realistic and believable. For example, if there's a man living in Chicago who has a desk job and pores over documents for a living, a realistic desire would be moving away and getting a better job doing something he enjoys. If your character is, say, the President of some country, (I actually do have a character who is the President of a planet) a believable want would be the health and prosperity of his/her people or achieving political goals.

3-Dimensionality

Everyone has their secrets. It's true. I know you do. You might say that one character has this want/need--but, underneath it all, does he/she really believe that's what they want? Withdraw from the character's thoughts for a moment and focus on their external appearances. A person's actions and body language can say a whole lot more than their words can. Do they shift here when someone mentions such-and-such? Do they cough or close their eyes when that person brings up a certain subject? What's really behind his/her attitude should be revealed to the reader and/or to the other characters around them in twists and turns of the plot.

Don't Overuse Ideas

There are a lot of characters out there that are built on the same idea, especially in series. Characters that, while in a different setting, have similar attitudes toward their experiences and follow the same paths as so many other characters before them. Therefore, one major thing you shouldn't do is repeat what others have already repeated. Be original! Take the initiative and build a new, different world with original characters. Keeping things fresh will draw the reader in and keep the interest, whereas if the plot and/or the characters resembles something else, there goes one of the major draws since the reader will be able to guess what's going to happen.

What's the Point?

What is the point of your main character(s)? Are they another facet to a bigger picture, and they're there to show different personalities? Do they add something to the diversity of the setting that your story takes place in? Do they affect others around them in significant ways? Do they have something that makes them stand out and make the reader actually feel something for the character? Love? Hate? Disgust? Adulation?

The character should say "Pay attention!" in some way. Whether it be to make the reader experience what the character is experiencing, to make the reader understand something, to get a point across, or to simply present the world and its different perspectives, you need to make sure that the particular character has a point to their existence. The role they play (for it to be worthwhile to read and write about) has to be influential enough on either the reader or the other character.


To me, those points are the main reasons I find a character compelling. Let's condense:

1. Your character must be going through some sort of significant conflict.
2. The character must want something. Money. Power. Freedom. Love. Security. Even (although this case has been a little overused in my opinion) normalcy. Something that relates to their situation believably.
3. 3-Dimensionality AKA what your character(s) is/are hiding.
4. Be original. Don't emulate, copy, or repeat.
5. Make sure that the character has a purpose in the grand scheme of things.


There you have it! Do you have anything to add? Comment on? Disagree with? Did you write your own post for this Blogging Experiment?

-----The Golden Eagle

The Great Blogging Experiment Blogfest begins tomorrow! There were 153 entries last time I checked--those are a lot of blogs to read, but I know I'm going to be visiting at least a few! I might have to do a lot of it on Saturday, but I'll at least be visiting the people I follow. :)

You can still join if you haven't yet! *gasps* Just go HERE.

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I have been invited to celebrate Icewolf's 200th Post Party! Thanks, Icewolf!

The rules are to pass it on to three people, then have them pass it on to three others. (If you're not familiar with Da Lovely World of What-Not, then here's the explanation: Icewolf sets up situations and you and your characters type out scenes; those scenes are built on by other readers and the story expands into what's usually full-blown action!)

Choosing only three is going to be difficult, but here are my picks:

Caroline
Katie/Popular Joker
and
Brena

-----The Golden Eagle

Soap and Education Are Not as Sudden as a Massacre But are More Deadly in the Long Run*

I really don't like starting off posts that are more personal than book reviews and/or posts with a theme. Like, what do I start off the darned thing with--me, writing, stuff I'm doing 'round the blogosphere, or just some random fact? I usually go with the random fact option . . . but today I'm going to start off with the fact that my characters just turned a year old today!

You're probably thinking: HUH? but you see, I started writing my current story exactly a year ago. I think it was a year ago; for some reason this date reminds me of something. I know I started it in September sometime. Not all of my characters have reached a year yet; I only introduced some a few months ago when I was rewriting.

But Combat Chief Neodvisni (I didn't know his last name at the outset--I should have since that's what everyone calls him) and Esperanza, (no last name anyway), the two main characters in the story have been in my mind almost every day for the past year.

Question here: how often do YOU think about your characters? I do a lot. Like daily.

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Guess what? I signed up for Alex J. Cavanaugh's Top Ten TV Shows Blogfest set for September 20th. I don't watch any TV beyond PBS (I'm not kidding!) but I since I love a bunch that they show I decided to put my name up there. I only have tomorrow to write it though since I put it off--panic attack! I'm going to have to make up that list pretty fast. :P But I don't mind--go sign up yourself!

I'm also participating in Alex, Jennifer Daiker, and Elana Johnson's Great Blogging Experiment. I love that title. I'm really going to hit the blogging world on September 24th to see what everyone thinks is the best way to write compelling characters. Again--SIGN UP.

Watch out for my posts, too! :)

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The trees are starting to change here. They're turning orange, yellow, red, fading to brown . . . it's pretty, but it's also getting colder to point where I need a jacket. I don't like wearing jackets--anything bulky just gets on my nerves. The temperatures are dropping at night and in the day, 80s are unlikely and 60s are common, it's been in the 40s . . . but I love fall. It's my favorite season.

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I know I was going to say something else but I can't remember it now . . . hrrrmm. What was it? Eh. Never mind. I'll think of it tomorrow and probably forget it again . . . you know, it seems like whenever I start writing my posts the thoughts I had fly out the window. It's same with my story--the computer seems to dash everything I had in mind.

Ah well. I usually wing it successfully enough. Don't you think?

Here's a random fact I just noticed: I have a total of 458 tags.

458!? I don't use that many very often! I'm glad I don't have one of the lists of all the tags I have. It would take up the whole sidebar. I have such things as "Angels and Demons" "American Experience" "iPod" "Kenneth Feinberg" and all sorts of miscellany. Including "Zippidy-do-dah".

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Oh, hey, I just realized PBS is showing Victor Borge.

VICTOR BORGE. THAT GUY IS HILARIOUS. It's too bad he died. It's the Falling Leaves one--ever seen it? LOL.

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*Mark Twain quotation

-----The Golden Eagle