The Right To Write

Realistic Characters: Part 4

Realism are one of the main factors that lead to a compelling character. Believability is what makes us, well, believable and real. And in order to make your characters feel authentic, they need to feel real.

Motive and Backstory. Your character requires believable reasons for his purpose in the plot. The protagonist needs something to propel his choices, to verify his decisions. Why would he choose violence over tactic? Maybe because he was raised in a criminal background. Why would rather remain in the background rather than use the attention of the public against his enemies? Maybe because has grown into an individualistic character, and is afraid his plans will play out vice-versa if others get involved.

Most importantly why is he going through all the trouble to solve the plot in the first place? What is driving into fulfilling his purposes? Of course, the answer highly depends on the plot line. It could range from the fear of being cast out of the new life he loves to the antagonist threatening to murder all his loved ones. The bigger the responsibility, the bigger his motive needs to be. If he wants to save his grandfather's farm, his motive could be as trivial as his memories on the farm, and what he'd do to make sure they don't die away in the government's hands. But if it were as big a responsibility as saving the world from aliens, the main character would need far bigger motive. 

Their personality is an extra point, but it's not sufficient for taking them where they need to be; readers need a reason from behind what they are. As far as motive goes, the character's reasons for doing what they do should come from personal experience and beliefs. 

I have primarily mentioned background motives and backstory, but there are also their expecting motives. What are they fighting for? Money? Power? An honorable name? The goal is one thing, but the expected outcome of the goal is another thing. Think about what your characters would expect from succeeding, and what they put themselves through to achieve it.

Realistic Backstory. Don't get me wrong, good backstory makes amazing characters. It adds to their emotional complexity. But a lot of people seem to go wrong in how they insert and portray their backstory.

First off, positioning. Your character is driving a car, and he spontaneously starts dabbing at his damp eyes because he had an abrupt memory of his dead brother. I mean, unless his brother has died recently, there's absolutely no excuse for him suddenly breaking into sadness. You need something to trigger this natural reaction. Maybe a picture or dream. You need an acceptable reason for your character have the given reaction. Think. What would trigger an emotional response from you? Assuming that your robotic writer's heart had emotions.

Also, don't introduce backstory in the beginning of the book. This is a common technique that will supposedly generate a certain impression on the main character, most likely empathy. But no. It most likely won't if you position it right in the beginning. It will sound uncorrelated and forced. Wait until the reader gets to know your character, then insert backstory; I can assure you your audience will appreciate that much more.

Lastly, connect the backstory with who the character is at the moment. Sometimes, the correlation between their past and their current personality makes absolutely zero sense. Your character's background needs to influence certain traits. For example, your character's father may have died while inventing something, which brings your protagonist into a traumatic stage of life. Then maybe, your character decides he wants to live up to the great man his father once was. If your character's father got killed in the process of designing a teleportation machine, then why on earth would your main character want to supposedly "live up to his father's goals" and continue to develop the source of his father's death. "dude, yeah, this machine killed my father, so being the logical character I am, I'm going to develop the machine that killed him."

That is an extremely unrealistic portrayal of backstory development. Once again, put yourself in your character's shoes. If your father ended up in a grave due to the machine, what would you do? How would you react? How would this incident change you?

Write from your experience. Base your character's experience of of your own. Your character's father died at work; maybe your character even watched him die. When was the last time you cried yourself dry?

So what if it was back in kindergarten when your ice cream melted. It's the emotions you went through that mattered. How did they sting? Did your heart feel as if dropped at your feet? (Yes, kindergartners have nothing better to care about that dessert, so don't judge.) This mindset will be your character's source of life; they'll bring your character one step closer to realism.

This is a gift that will develop overtime. The older you grow to be, the more experience accumulates, and thus the more realism your characters will possess. There's one reason to look forward to the years you become old and creaky!