Today we have another special treat! Elle Rose is visiting from her blog Rebel, Reading.
I have asked her to write a little bit about how to write and create
three dimensional, realistic, believable characters. She did an
excellent job. I know for sure that I learned quite a bit.
She gave me some thoughts and ideas that definitely helped me, and can
help every one of you write about more dynamic characters from the time
you finish the post. Without any further blabbing from me, [obligatory
request for drum roll...] Elle Rose!
How to Make Dynamic Characters
If the novel you’re currently working on (or you just like this kind of thing) is in first-person – and that’s very often the case in YA – your whole story hinges on dynamic characters.
They can be quite tricky to create, but ironically the most important
thing of all is not to exercise too much control over them.
Take Kyla from Slated, by Teri Terry (my review here) –
she’s intriguing and she’s intelligent. She lets the reader view the
word through her eyes. That’s a very important thing about a character.
They have to take the reader on a journey. Sure, you can have an
unreliable narrator, but they should still tell the reader a story even if that story is not the truth. Readers want to be let in.
Relationships. This part is really important. Everyone
in the world has hundreds, thousands of relationships. They can be
fleeting ones – nodding hello to someone walking down the street – or
lasting ones, like familial relationships. But just remember that no
character should be entirely isolated. Even if they’re in solitary confinement in a prison cell they’re still going to be thinking about other people.
Also,
this is not confined to the main character – otherwise you’re going to
have a very flat story. Other characters all have to have their own
motivations and desires. These will all act on each other to create a
multi-dimensional, colourful story.Remember, if
the story is first-person, everything is being seen through the eyes of
the narrator. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the action is about that
character. Presumably the protagonist is going to be very involved, but
other people would see the story as being about themselves, so take
note of that.
Give
your character an arc. You can have the most interesting character in
the world but if they don’t develop through the story, if they don’t experience the
story, then they’re not going to be of any great import. You r
characters have to be shaped by the experiences and then go on to shape
the plot right back.
Here’s a point that I’ve struggled with a lot in the past. Voice.My
current WIP has two rotating first-person narrators, and they’re
siblings of a similar age. They’re also best friends and extremely
closely bonded. So it was hard to separate their voices, because they
sound so similar. And they should. These
characters have differences which develop throughout the book as they
meet new people and have new experiences, but they are still very
similar in voice. And you know what? That’s okay. The other characters
(who don’t narrate), we see through dialogue, and they have a different
way of speaking. I don’t have strong accents in my world, so I don’t
have to deal with those except in one character (because readers usually
hate accents when reading – I know I do), but I make the other
characters different in their own ways. My female main character’s best
friend is superficial but has her heart in the right place. My male
protagonist’s girlfriend is a sassy spitfire, probably the wittiest and
funniest character in the book, and I love writing her scenes because she’s completely irreverent.
I
see a lot of advice saying that you have to give your main characters
particular hobbies. But it isn’t always as clear-cut as that. Not
everyone likes basketball, or piano playing, or sailing exclusively.
Most people have varying levels of interest in lots of different things
and some don’t ever find their true passion. I think it’s great to have
your protagonist find her*(or his) passion
because of her growth throughout the story, because she’s found herself
in the triumph. That’s what I did in my WIP. Her brother, the other
main character, loves books and Magno racing. But she’s less defined.
They’re both extremely intelligent, but she’s not as specifically
interested in books as he is. And that’s alright. She finds her
potential during the story arc. So don’t go in with a list of check
boxes. I started out with just her full name, her date of birth,
physical features and five words describing her personality. Not all of
the words I had in my original formulating of ideas still stick, but the
ones that do are the best ones. Believe me, the rest will come as you write.
Give
them some priorities. One burning purpose each. You won’t have to go
into the details of this purpose for anyone who’s not a main character,
but it’s worth doing. For example, my female protagonist is quite
aimless at the beginning of the story. Then a certain cataclysmic event
occurs, and catapults her into action and a long journey where she has a
strong purpose to fight for what’s right. Once she leaves, her brother,
the male protagonist who is very close to her, starts a quest to find
her. That’s his single-minded focus for the first full half of the book,
until the spirited girl he meets spurs him into action of his own. His
passion only intensifies, but he has strong priorities all along.
Here’s a point that’ll do wonders for the sanity of your readers: don’t have characters there (especially not your main character!) just to prove a point. I don’t care if you’re Christian/Scientologist/Rastafarian, unless I buy that book specifically from the religious writing genre I don’t want to hear about why you think your god is great. It’s
not just religion. Please don’t make your characters a thinly veiled
shield for your personal agendas. Sure, you can use them to prove a
point, but it has to come from them, not
you. At some point your characters must leap off the page and be people.
Not caricatures, not campaigns, people. And they will have wildly
differing agendas themselves, if you’re writing them well. Also, they
may not always behave as you expect them to. But if they become a little
rebellious and aren’t fitting in with Your Divine Plan, since a writer
is God of their own universe, be proud. You’ve created real, dynamic characters.
Elle Rose is
a ukulele-playing, word-loving bookworm who packs a ridiculous amount
of things into her free time. She’s currently working on a
science-fiction dystopian novel and maintaining two blogs:
Rebel, Reading, where she reviews books and blogs about all things literary.
&
Student Bright Side, a fledgling blog where she talks about making the most of student life.
