Writing Realistic Characters/How Can I Make My Characters Seem More Real? [Your Writing Questions Answered]
So, welcome to the latest post within my new writing series, “Your Writing Questions Answered.” If you haven’t already seen my announcement about this series–or would like to submit your own question–then please hop over here.
So, this week’s question is from Dani:
My characters don’t feel real when I write them. To me, they seem like characters (which is what they are, I know, lol!). But when I read other books, those characters seem like real. How can I make my characters seem more real? Any tips?
And this week we have answers from professional writers: Kelley York, myself (Madeline Dyer), Brit McGinnis, and Adriana Marachlian.
Answered by: Kelley York
This is tough without seeing some of your writing. It could be that your characters need some fleshing out, and you need to get to know them beyond what will be in the book. Try taking some of those Facebook/Tumblr “get to know you” forms and fill them out as your characters! Learn what really makes them tick, even if those details are never mentioned on-page.
It could also be an issue of voice. Do your characters have their own quirks, ways of seeing the world, opinions, thoughts? People are very complex so it’s a lot more than just saying, “this is Samantha and she’s a brain, and that’s Dan and he’s a jerk.” People have reasons for everything they do, reasons they are who they are, even when they’re background characters, like a bully or a parent or sibling. Also make sure your dialogue is coming across as organic.
Answered by: Madeline Dyer
One of the things I think you can do make your characters seem more real is to make sure they have flaws. In real life, everyone has at least one flaw, but often in books I see characters that are just so perfect that they seem unreal–and therefore I can’t relate to them. So, giving each character a flaw is important. But they don’t need to be really big. obvious flaws, they can be little things–such as being too easily led by other people, being addicted to checking social media on their phone and so ignoring the people they’re with. It’s little things like that that can really make a character believable.
The other thing I’d suggest is to concentrate on body language when writing your characters. I read somewhere that 70% of communication (I think it was 70%) is non-verbal, and studying body language is useful for any writer. For this, I recommend getting a copy of The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. So, when your main character’s scared, give us imagery to show that they’re scared, rather than telling us. And, I think if you can work this into all your characters then they’ll seem more believable too, and readers will subconsciously analyse them to workout what they think/feel as they read.
Answered by: Brit McGinnis
I would say to find the most intriguing parts of your story and dive into them. Why does a character fidget the way they do? What music is playing in the background? Find the unexplained parts of your story and dive into them. You’ll find much more darkness and light there while you’re trying to explain the unexplained.
Answered by: Adriana Marachlian
This is the real struggle.
The first thing I want to say is this: You’re not alone. This is very, very common, and a lot of it stems from the fact that sometimes we’re so close to our writing that it hinders our own ability to see our characters. They’re there, though, so no despairing!
To me, characters are in the details. Whenever I have a story idea, and before I get to actually writing it, I jot down a couple of quick scenes placing my main characters in unrelated scenarios. It doesn’t take very long (the scenes themselves tend to be short, unless I get too inspired), but by having my characters outside the story, I allow myself to play around with their mannerisms and personality without the pressure of Plot. Does my character get angry when confronted? Does she lie reflexively or blurt out the truth without thinking? How’s her body language? Does she have any tells? A lot of these details rely on physicality—how the characters move and occupy their space. Once I know this, I take that and apply it to situations with actual plot.
Another thing that grounds a character for me is the why of themselves. Sometimes I’ll catch myself taking the lazy route out when creating characters and saying something like, “good at forgery”. This is enough for plot, but not nearly enough to make a character feel solid. Why are they good at forgery? A character that learned the skills because his/her mother was also in that world is very different from one who did it out of necessity. And it doesn’t stop there: in the first example, why would their mother teach them? Why would she know? What consequences does this have on their relationship?
(That last one wasn’t a why, but you get the idea!)
It seems tedious to do this for every little detail, but it helps so much. Knowing the story of your characters pre-plot, even things that will never make it into the book goes a long way. Once your characters feel real to you, they will feel real to your reader.
This was long, but to summarize: How do they behave? and Who are they?
Once you’re confident with those two things, the characters unfold onto the page.
