Writing a Story for Dummies

Balancing Character Traits

        In order to be realistic, all characters need to have some good traits as well as some bad ones. In real life, nobody is perfect. It is also true that everyone has at least a few positive qualities (although these can be tough to spot). People find it much easier to identify with characters that they can relate too. If a character is too perfect, they will bore your readers. If a character has too many flaws without positive qualities to balance them out, your readers will find them to be unbearably unpleasant. Ideally, all characters should have a blend of both positive and negative qualities to help readers become invested in them and to make them interesting.

        This mix of characteristics means that characters and the stories they are involved in are rarely ever black and white. How the work is written and who is chosen as the protagonist often skews the story’s morality in favor of certain traits, but nobody is ever in the right one hundred percent of the time. Even if the protagonist does reach their goal in the end, they will experience some trouble along the way. There should be times when your readers are uncertain of the story’s outcome. That being said, there does need to be balance in this regard.

        For a story to be worth reading, there must be doubt about whether or not the protagonist will succeed. If a character has too few difficult obstacles along the way, the journey will be too dull and predictable. An overly flawed character is far from ideal as well. If a character’s quest seems to hopeless, they will evoke pity rather than interest. The character must have a fair chance at reaching their goal without having the outcome be too obvious. So, how is this balance achieved?

        First, we need to identify what makes different traits good or bad. This is not as obvious as it sounds. For instance, being generous can cause problems in some circumstances. Although generosity is generally regarded as a positive trait in real life, its value in a story varies based on the situation the character is facing. For example, letting your cousin stay at your house until he manages to get a stable job again can cause its fair share of problems. Traits generally seen in a negative light can actually help characters just as easily as ‘good’ ones can. A character who is highly aggressive would likely have an easier time adjusting to a violent environment while a character with a kinder nature wouldn’t be able to adapt so easily. As you can see, it is the situation a character is in that truly determines whether or not a trait is good or bad to have although some traits are more likely to be beneficial than others.

        When I’m creating a character, I try to list at least three traits that would help them reach their goals and three traits that would hinder them. This ensures that they would be able to reasonably pursue their goals while still facing some conflict in the process. It also ensures that their character flaws are relevant to the plot. This is essential. A trait that has no bearing on the plot whatsoever (with the exception of details about their appearance) might as well be nonexistent. It is also important to be sensitive when giving characters traits. What do I mean by this? It means that the traits that help or hinder a character must be handled with tact and reason.

        Although almost any trait a character has can aid them or cause them problems, you should keep in mind that real people have these same traits or at least similar ones. They could be offended if you portray their traits unfairly. This shouldn’t be a problem with traits such as impatience or greed. However, there are many other traits that will have people up in arms if they are handled poorly. These include but are not limited to religion, political beliefs, sexuality, race, and other factors. That’s not to say these traits can’t cause a character problems. An African American could easily be forced to face racism in a story. A homosexual could be ridiculed by his peers. Those things happen in real life. It sucks, but it happens.     

        The main thing to remember here is that these traits are not flaws. It is how people react to these traits that causes the problems a character faces rather than the mere fact that they have this trait. On that note, a character’s traits don’t necessarily make them better than the others either. Regardless of your own stance, be realistic and be civil. Don’t use your work to go on a soapbox about a group you are unhappy with or to shove your beliefs down everyone’s throats. You are better than that. Be fair. Be respectful. 

        With that vital lesson out of the way, let’s lighten this up a little. Not all characters will have such touchy subjects serving as their flaws or positive attributes. A lot of the time, it doesn’t matter if the character is a Christian or an atheist, a Democrat or a Republican, a heterosexual or a homosexual. Those parts of a character’s identity are often very touchy topics when they feature prominently in the plot itself. For this reason, many stories tend to go for less risky territory and stick to more traditional traits to use as positive attributes and flaws.

        When I am picking the minimum of three positive traits and three flaws for a character, I always keep in mind how they will affect the plot. All of the personality traits I choose must play a role somehow. Physical traits don’t need to be handled so strictly since people’s appearances are going to be described whether or not they play a role in the plot since the readers need to be able to visualize the characters. I usually stick to personality traits and other nonphysical attributes when I’m coming up with the minimum number of positive and negative traits. They tend to make characters more unique in comparison to each other and they usually have larger effects than physical traits do. To illustrate how this blend of traits creates a balance, I’m going to describe some of the traits the protagonist of one of my stories and how these traits affect his goals.

        This particular character, Bernard, is a boy who was turned into a bear and forced to learn how to survive in the wilderness. His main goal is simple: survival. He has many smaller objectives along the way, but he’s well occupied with staying alive for the most part. This is a pretty basic scenario with a conflict that is relatively uncomplicated. It is very easy to describe how Bernard’s traits come into play over the course of the story.

        Let’s start with the flaws. For starters, Bernard is very inexperienced. He had some practice foraging before the beginning of the story, but his mother still provided for him right up until she had him sent into the wild. It will be a challenge for him to learn how to provide for himself since he can’t live off of mushrooms, berries, and other small sources of food forever. His second flaw is that he is dealing with a lot of emotional trauma. Bernard is dealing with his transformation into a bear, being sent deep into the forest by his own mother, and with his father’s death two years prior to the story’s beginning. These emotional issues are very distracting for Bernard. They make it incredibly hard for him to adjust to his new lifestyle since he is plagued by memories of his past. His third flaw is that he is trying to preserve human morals. This is a massive problem for Bernard because he doesn’t want to hunt other animals with the sole exception of fish. This severely limits his food resources.

        Now for his positive traits. First, Bernard has been taught a few things about the wilderness. His father, a park ranger, taught him a bit about the woods before he died such as things that are safe to eat. Because of this, Bernard knows about resources such as mushrooms which could help him stay well fed. Secondly, Bernard has had experience getting out of tricky situations before. Since he was a mischievous little boy before his transformation, he has had practice getting out of trouble with others. Bernard’s third positive trait is that he is very stubborn. No matter what nature throws at him, he will not give up. He will always try to find creative ways to survive while still standing by his moral beliefs. With this mix traits, Bernard  has both obstacles to make his survival tough and tools that will help him stay alive.

        Not all conflicts are that simple, but they are all essential in determining the nature of any given trait. Everything a character faces as they try to reach a goal will have the overall outcome of that situation affected by the character’s traits. Above all else, it is important to keep each character balanced. They might succeed or they might not. Just make sure the reader is in doubt until the moment of reckoning is at hand.