How to write: believable and realistic Characters
Your characters are the heart of your story, and it can sometimes be difficult to write compelling and interesting characters. Characters can quickly become flat, boring or one dimensional. And in order for your readers to like and root for your characters they need to feel believable and realistic
These are a few steps and tricks to achieve interesting and believable characters.
Step 1: make a Character profile for all of your characters! (Even side characters!)
A character profile can be an easy way to get to know your characters
Here are a few things that definitely need to be in the character profile:
The basics:
- Their Race/Ethnicity/Culture
- Age
- body type (Obese, skinny, muscular, tiny, thick, heavyset etc.)
- hair color
- eye color
- height
- beliefs and religion
- where are they from (country, planet, town, city)
Relationships:
- their family (parents, siblings etc)
- the type of relationship they have with their family members (is it: good, bad, okay)
- their friends
- the type of relationship they have with their friends
Personality:
- are they introverted or extroverted?
- give them 5 strengths (things they are good at)
- give them 5 weaknesses (things they are bad at)
- give them likes and dislikes
- give them hobbies
Step 2: give them a backstory!!
just a character profile mostly isn't enough, a character needs more depth than just the way they look.
You have to go deep into a character to figure out who they are, where they came from and why they are the way they are.
So giving them a believable backstory is really important to figuring out your characters.
Example: Your character may have experienced abuse in their childhood so because of that they shut people out and don't get close to people
Peoples experiences shape them into who they are, so a backstory and childhood is really
important to figure out who your character is and why they are the way that they are.
Last tips:
- figure out as much details about your characters as you possibly can!
But be careful that you don't have to put every detail of your character in your story.
Believe me, no one cares that your characters favorite shade of blue is teal, literally no one gives a shit. Small details like that are good for you as a writer to know, but if it's not important to your story or plot. Don't put it in.
Unless it fits into a certain scene or scenario then sure, write it in. But otherwise. Don't.
- no one is perfect, neither are your characters.
Give your characters flaws, because if they are just 100% perfect, no one is going to take them seriously. No one is perfect, everyone has their issues and struggles.
