Building Strong Characters (PT. 1: The Basics)

Building strong characters is the backbone of a good story and attributes to how well-built a plot line is. If your characters aren’t realistic or are not making your reader feel anything, then you’ve done something wrong. This is how to make investable characters in your writing.

To start off, a character needs to have a base. If a character has nothing special about them, then they won’t stand out to the reader. Writing backstories for your characters can help down the line when you need to write dialogue or a scene that relies heavily on their skills. If your character is good at origami, you could show that earlier in the story and use it down the line to be something useful. It’s small, but giving a character hobbies and interests is essential to bringing life to a character.

            Furthermore, research your characters. What a big problem the industry has currently (and this occurs in movies/shows as well) is making misinformed characters. Teenagers aren’t always screen addicts, and nobody from older time periods will be completely saint (this applies to historical writings). Nobody wants to invest their time in bland characters that the reader has seen time, and time again. An extra hour of research could make a big difference. Simply knowing the fundamentals of a culture or trait can make a character more well-rounded to the reader's perspective.

            Lastly, and most importantly, do NOT be afraid of the grey zone. It’s not realistic for a character to be positive all the time, show the reader when they're at their lowest too. When they’re angry, sadistic, depressed, etc. It brings a feeling of desperation to the story and raises the importance of the end goal. This is often overlooked and takes more practice than the other points, considering it’s so simple to mess up. For example, Elle from The Kissing Booth—this is a movie, but it’s still relevant to the idea. In the beginning, her mother passes away and this is shown to bring her hardships twice in the film, yet these are all under five minutes. All the distress she felt later in the story was shallow because it felt like there was no importance to how she was feeling. Make your characters past affect them, in a positive or negative way. Every decision is fundamental in a story and the reader won’t forget that.

Overall, character backstories, researched traits, and the importance of showing the emotions of a character and a clear reason why that affects them builds the backbone of your stories. This was a more summarized version of these topics, but you would be surprised how large of a difference it makes in your writing once you try it.