Making Your Characters Feel Real

9/27/2020

Note: Realistic characters are not always the best choice depending on your story and creative medium. I personally rely on relatable characters to drive my plot forward and engage my audience, but if you don't, that's okay! Below are some of my lessons learned on the best way to create characters that feel authentic, but I definitely do not have all the answers.

The Backstory

I consider realistic characters to be one of the most recognizable features of my writing. It's something I work really hard on, because one of my biggest pet peeves is when characters feel like superheroes. It drives me up a wall when characters react in inauthentic ways, or when I don't buy the emotional journey they are on - just as it makes me completely crazy when characters are never hungry, or are always skinny supermodels who can run 10 miles without breaking a sweat.

When I was younger, and just starting to write, I was the opposite. All my characters were youthful, attractive, and white; they were smart and funny, brave and diplomatic. They were often female (since that was my lived experience), and represented the way I thought I wanted to look. It was actually a piece of feedback I got from someone I showed a short story too - she commented, "why are all your characters hot girls?"

It really got me thinking about why I portrayed characters as perfect. Why did it never occur to me that a character should be older, a little softer, ruder, or deeply flawed? Why did I struggle to represent two opposing identities in one character? In reality, we're all composed of a wide range of paradoxes - so why was that so hard to write?

In retrospect, it's clear that the answer is a combination of several different reasons. First, I was biased. Am I blaming 10-year-old-me for not having a nuanced understanding of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? Not fully. But, the limitations on my perspective were clear in my writing. I didn't write about people of color because I was not close with anyone who fit that mold. It didn't occur to me that the world was more complex than my own limited sphere.

Second, I wrote about the person I painfully wanted to be. Think back to middle school: how did you want to be seen by the world? I wanted to be smart but kind, attractive but not "slutty" (I know, I know, but bear with me). I wanted to be seen as flawless, and I was at a stage of my life where I could only focus on the flaws. I wanted that fantasy of perfection to extend to my writing.

As I've grown up - and as I've worked on Summer Twilight - I've realized that not only was I shortchanging myself, but I was doing a disservice to my readers. I had always had the privilege of being represented in media: young white women are everywhere. Until I got older, I didn't realize how important that was - that I had literary heroes who looked and sounded like me. I should note that my writing is still not fully representative, and I'm working constantly to improve it. But I, just like you, am constantly learning.

And finally (we're almost to the tips, I promise!), my perfect characters weren't very interesting. Do you know how hard it is to create a believable, interesting, suspenseful plot when your characters can escape every situation unscathed? It's incredibly boring to always make the right choice, the same choice you would make with the benefit of hindsight. Think back to the biggest lessons you have learned throughout life - were they the product of perfect decisions, or the messy reality we all live in?

Enter: creating characters that feel real. Not perfectly anything - just actual humans. It's been a long process - and to be clear, I'm not done. I don't do it perfectly at all. But it's a start, and it's something I'm proud of, because I think our imperfections are what unite us beyond the external labels we carry day-to-day.

Which brings us to......

It all starts from the foundation. Ideas for characters come from a lot of different places - a dream, a movie, someone you saw on the street. Wherever your inspiration comes from, use it as a jumping off point - not as the final image. Often when we are inspired, we see the best or most interesting parts of a character emerge - push yourself to add dimensionality to that image.'

Strategy 1: Question Your Inspiration

Step 1: Write down what you're thinking. Note what you're inspiration is, whether it's a scene that keeps playing through your head, or a strong personality trait.
Step 2: Game it out. What would this character do if they had to take a test that would determine their fate? Got entered in a horse race and had never ridden before? Had 10 minutes to prepare a presentation for Bill Gates?
Step 3: Identify where the tension is. What is it hard to imagine this character doing? Why? Is this because you only see one part of them (for example, they're very strong, but you have no idea if they are smart or not - what the heck would they tell Bill Gates about?)? Or is it because of something else?
Step 4: Find a way to fix the tension. This is where the true creative element comes in, and where you have an opportunity to help flesh out the character. If you only understand one dimension of your character, they will only ever be one dimensional. Everyone - no matter their character strengths - has to face the same situations in life: success, loss, fear, exhaustion, joy. So, how does your character react to it?

Alternatively, one of my favorite things to do is what I call a character survey. Instead of starting from the character and figuring out how they react, I start from the situation, and build backward to the character. This can help you think outside the box, especially if you feel like you're stuck in a creative rut.

Strategy 2: Start With Plot

Step 1: Pick a situation your character will probably encounter. Maybe they have to meet the King, or go on a long sea voyage (or build a star ship, or visit the supermarket....literally anything)....you get the idea. Feel really, really sure about the situation: what is it? What does the character want out of the moment (think: to convince the king to name his daughter Nicolette; to build a star ship that only runs for the first 9 million miles)?
Step 2: Go ask people. Like, real people. I ask my friends with some frequency: how would you react to this situation? How would your siblings? What about your significant other? Why, you ask? Because if you want your character to behave realistically, there's no better way to start than with real people. When they answer, note down what stands out to you about their reply, and how they think about the situation - especially if it's different than the way you would have approached it (hint: that's the good stuff).
Step 3: Sit down and sort through your notes. Try different combinations of approaches, or highlighting things that surprised you. Now start to look for commonalities you are gravitating towards: do you like responses that are aggressive and confrontational? Clever and witty? Foolishly brave? Those are the building blocks for your character.
Step 4: And finally, give it a quarter twist. Again, here's where the true creativity comes to play: how can you modify, combine, or tweak approaches so they feel right for the character? How can you subvert the reader's expectations? What can you do to make it a little more interesting, or up the stakes?

My third strategy starts with advice: be brutally true to your character. For example, if you decide your character is a shop clerk who is self-sacrificing at the expense of her own sanity, the clerk better be that way throughout the entire story. Don't be afraid to have your characters make bad or flawed decisions if they are decisions they would authentically make. Consider your own life: when have you made a decision you knew was bad, but also knew you had to make?

Strategy 3: The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth

Step 1: Write down what your character's core values are. What are their red lines, that they won't compromise on for anything? Who do they care about more than anyone else (up to, and including, themselves)?
Step 2: Pick a scene, at random, from your book. Read that scene analytically (or ask a friend to), with the list of values next to the page. What jumps out to you? What values do you think the character sticks to in the scene? What values do they ignore, or counter? Which ones don't show up at all?
Step 3: Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Are you doing your character justice? Would they be happy with you if you told them how they were going to behave in this scene? Or, like any actor or actress, would they tell you that it was inauthentic, and not how they would behave?
Step 4: Try it a different way. This is particularly helpful if you're facing writer's block, or struggling with a scene. What if, instead of hiring shady engineers to design the star ship (we're hopping back to a hypothetical from strategy #2), your character hired good people, and conned them all into doing a bad job? What parts of that idea feel better, or worse, than your current one? Why?

Ultimately, creating authentic characters is a long and iterative process - you're not going to get it right the first time (for the record, I still haven't gotten it 100% right). But it's worth it. It helps people connect with your writing the same way you do, to work through their struggles and process emotions. It allows people to feel seen, and like it's okay to make mistakes, bad choices, or spur-of-the-moment decisions. And finally? It does your characters, your plot, your world, and your story the justice they deserve.

My Thoughts