One of the things I love most about your writing is how completely fleshed out your characters are. Everything they say and do is so firmly rooted in the identities you’ve created -as seen by the many asks you’ve answered about the TW characters’ really specific quirks. Do you have any tips on how to create characters with that much depth? I really struggle with this -often hitting a wall because I don’t know if my character is doing this because they would or because my plot dictates it.
first, thank you so much! i’m glad to hear my characterization resonates.
you are right on the nose with “i don’t know if my character is doing this because they would or because my plot dictates it.”
the first way to subvert that problem is by doing away entirely with plot, and focusing only on character. no one reads a story for its plot. they only ever want character and setting.
to know a character, you have to fill out five points of a star.
the character star
(not to be confused with the character triangle, which is an expository tool)
their highest priority
their deepest desire
their biggest fear
what breaks them
what mends them
a character’s highest priority is something like family, friendship, ambition, courage. it’s what they love about life and admire in others. it’s something passive and intrinsic in who they are.
desire is twofold: internal and external. it’s the single most important question you need to answer before starting a story. what do they want and why do they want it? is it something external – physical, tangible? do they want something to happen? or is it internal, to mend a broken heart, or find their reason for living?
fear is the second most important question. if desire is what a character is running toward, fear is what they’re running from. every character wants something, and every character is afraid of something. you can think of each character as a coin. often, the opposite of what a character desires is what they fear. if a character wants to find love, their fear would be loneliness. if a character wants success, their fear is failure.
these first three points build who a character is already. the last two are speculative. when you build a character, you can use their priorities, fears, and desires to figure out what exactly it would take to bring them to their lowest point, and then, how they behave when they’ve met their biggest fear. a character who values fame falling into obscurity. a character seeking wealth succumbing to poverty. once you’ve answered this question, you now know the climax of your story (if a happy ending) or the resolution to your story (if a sad one). conversely, what mends them is going to be your resolution (for a happy ending), or your climax before a downfall (for a sad ending).
where the idea of “plot” comes in, then, is offering tools or obstacles for your characters to reach these points. once you have these 5 things figured out, the character will move on their own, and it’s your job to lay the tracks of their path so they get to their intended destination.
conflict develops when a character has multiple priorities, desires, and fears, and they butt heads. that’s when stories get complicated, and characters feel real. a character who prioritizes morality yet is drawn by the desire for dark things. a character who is afraid of falling in love, yet deeply wants it. a character who puts on a happy face, but repeatedly self-destructs.
you brought up tw so i’ll use that as an example of going through this process.
bellamy:
priority: family, which has developed his entire sense of self
desire: maintaining familial harmony while longing for someone who will disrupt it
fear: losing his family, and therefore himself
what breaks him: the realization that, without a family to protect and support, he doesn’t know who he is. his lowest point is utter aloneness in which he self-objectifies and completely disconnects from his own emotions.
what mends him: finding who he is, and letting himself learn to love in a way that doesn’t force him to sacrifice his newfound sense of self
clarke:
priority: curiosity, knowledge, understanding
desire: figuring out her sexual identity, feeling loved and valued after a lifetime of neglect
fear: the belief that she’s not worth being loved
what breaks her: offering all of herself to someone, only to be rejected, affirming her worst fears
what mends her: allowing herself to love and be loved again
in the case of tw also, i could fill out another star for clarke and bellamy’s combined love/hate relationship of arkadia and wanting to get away, and their relationship to the idea of “home.” the more desires a character has, the longer your story becomes in order to fulfill or deny those desires, to face and overcome, or get destroyed by, their fears.
i feel like i have a lot more to say about characterization in terms of building history, relationships, voice, etc. but i hope for now this offers you a new tool in thinking of character development!
writing advice tag