If you’re just starting out writing, I recommend writing character-focused stories. If you’re not already familiar with the terms, character-focused stories are based around a central cast of characters and their journey of adventure, growth or perhaps survival. Within this framing, stories exist along a sort of spectrum and on the opposite end from character-based stores are plot-based stories, which are stories that focus more on events and the situation being depicted than the characters caught up in said events or situations. I’ve never encountered a story that is purely one or the other; most simply tend to rely on one or the other and thus are said to be based on plot or based on characters.

But as I said before, I think character-focused stories are a good place to start. I’m not going to just come right out and say that character-based stories are easier to write than their plot-based counterparts — that isn’t really true, after all. It’s more that character-based stories are more manageable and come more naturally to beginning writers — usually, but not necessarily. So if you wanna go out and write something plot-based, please, don’t let me dissuade you. Here, however, I am going to talk about character-based stories.

The characters in a story should be based in some way on people. Even if your character is an emotionless robot or an ornery badger, there should be some element to them that an audience can identify with because they are, assumedly, also a person. Coming up with ideas for characters in my experience isn’t particularly hard, but at times, writing good characters can seem impossible — especially when you’re just starting out. So, with that in mind, I’ve written a handful of tips aimed at helping people improve their story’s characters.

Give your characters clear motivations

Ask yourself, “what drives my characters?” Each of them. Readers respond to characters that have clear goals. I’m not saying you have to spell it out for the audience or have every character shout from the mountaintops that they’re looking for the six-toed man that killed their grandfather in a quest for retribution. That’s pretty cool, if you don’t mind me saying, but the point is: your audience should get some sense that they’re after something.

A large component of this idea is the difference between an active and a reactive character (sometimes referred to as a passive character, though those terms are not necessarily synonymous). A character that has motivations and then acts on those motivations is a driving force in the plot; they have agency and their actions often lead to consequences for other characters that they must in turn react to, creating (in a lot of cases) this domino-effect we call a story, a plot. Your readers will have a clear understanding of what your character’s place in the story is as a result, and these are the characters readers can grow to love and never forget.

Write your characters’ backgrounds

This is a trick I learned a while ago from a writer friend of mine, and it has to do with an idea I’ve related in a previous article—that no words are wasted. Your story is probably focused on your protagonist (or several protagonists) and written from their perspective. However, you also likely gave them some side characters to aid them or tag along, and there’s probably also an antagonist making their life difficult. All of these characters need detail, need to come to life in order to be convincing and interesting. But before a character comes to life on the page for your readers, they have to come to life in your imagination.

If you know how a character talks, how they act, how they think, the color of their favorite undergarments, what they dream of, what they fear—the more details you can invent and solidify in your mind about them then the more life-like that character is going to be as they act in your story. You have to get to know them, kinda like a new friend. However, rather than ordering some pizza and taking an hour to finally pick what movie you’re going to watch, the best way to get to know any of these characters, including your protagonist, is to write part of their story with them at the center. Explore each of your characters. Write them into being.

Sometimes you’ll find that they’re more interesting than your protagonist. Most of the time, you’ll gain a familiarity with that character that you wouldn’t otherwise have had. You get ideas for their unique mannerisms and turns of phrase, where they’re going, what motivates them, where they’ve been and a whole bunch of other stuff that’s occurred in their past. Sometimes I do this and end up with notes or scenes for other stories I want to pursue with these characters at the center, other times these scenes or short narratives end up in the “main story” that I’m writing. And I don’t have any recommendations for how little or how much to write. However much or little you write, all of it should enhance your “main story” and ultimately lead to a more well-rounded cast of characters.

Don’t slack on dialogue

Not every character story has dialogue, but a lot will. I could probably write an entire article on dialogue, but the best and simplest advice I can give upfront is: pay close attention to how actual people talk. A lot of us think we already do this. I know I certainly did. But trust me, you don’t. If you’re fortunate enough to have some really good readers or helpful fellow writers look at your work, I’ve found they often dispel this thought for you very quickly. I highly recommend getting some of those if you can.

Writing convincing dialogue is difficult, and in spite of their misguided certainty that they already know how to do this, a lot of writers somehow still know this intuitively. When you’re watching a kid’s cartoon, a B-list movie or a TV series that only lasted a single season and you hear that one character give the most forced and unnecessary exposition dump to another character that should probably already know all of the things they’re being told, and you can’t help but cringe or roll your eyes, that is terrible dialogue standing out. It happens all the time. It’s stiff and unnatural and makes you feel like the story is wasting your time. And there are a whole slew of other things in dialogue that have a similar effect: characters who say things that don’t quite align with their personality, intimate characters being overly formal with one another, an imbalance of words and actions, use of confusing adverbs etc. Dialogue is one of many skills in writing that you can always improve, a repertoire that you can always grow, and doing so goes a long way in bringing your characters to life.

Gloss over nonessential characters

Say you’re writing a story set amidst the little boxes of the 1920s suburbs. Your story focuses on the families of a particular cul-de-sac within a development and the drama that ensues as their children antagonize one another and drag their folks into the mess. Perhaps the men are all vying for status as top dog. Well then, the milkman that comes every morning, drops off the milk at every door and leaves, is probably not that important (and while I agree with those of you thinking there are plenty of ways he can be made to be, let’s set those possibilities aside for now). He doesn’t matter, so don’t even bother naming him. It isn’t worth your audience’s time. Don’t tell us about his uniform or his endearing smile or the skip in his step. Have him come in, do his thing and head right back out, asap.

A lot of the stories you’ll write will have these: the janitor, the security guard, the friendly neighbor, the woman at the grocery store, yet another nameless soldier—the list goes on. When you add detail to anything, attention is brought to it, and if you’re bringing attention to something then your audience is going to think that it’s important (some writers will even tell you that you should only bother detailing things that are important to the story). So make up your mind ahead of time whether or not these characters matter, and if they don’t, just let them be “the milkman” and leave it at that.

So, have you got any cool characters you want to show off? Please, I’d love to see them! Need a hand with your dialogue? I’m all ears. If this article’s been of any use to you and you’ve written anything cool you’d like feedback on or advice about, then come see me at the writing center. I’m always down to talk about writing—storytelling and good characters especially.

Contributed by: Lyle Davis, Writing Center Tutor

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