How to Write a Good Story

David Mesick: Three Things that will Make your Characters Deeper

Hi readers! *waves* Thanks for reading this far, I hope it's been useful. The next articles featured is about character development, figuring out who your character is on a deeper level. I learned on the clubs feed that many of you guys struggle with character development and, finding this particularly useful myself, I hoped featuring it would help you too.

Also, check out my competition please (if you don't like the competition, I'd love to know why for future use):

http://www.wattpad.com/story/39290490-the-great-blink-fan-art-%26-review-competition

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Creating interesting characters with depth is hard. It doesn't take long for your audience to discover everything there is to know about a shallow character; adding depth will keep your reader engaged and invested as they discover that a character has more to them than just their surface characteristics. Here are three tools you can use to make deeper characters.

- A Worldview -

A worldview is an intrinsic part of any character. Without it, your character is going to seem pretty darn blank. What color tint are their lenses?

There are a variety of available worldviews. Here are a few examples:

Nihilism: A character who believes that nothing matters holds a nihilistic worldview. They don't follow any specific system of morality, and they aren't very concerned about consequences that affect themselves or other people. Frequently, their goals are short-term and revolve around personal gratification and whims.

Religion: This can be a belief in a specific religion or general spirituality. If a religion and its rites are central to all of their actions and beliefs, then they have a religious worldview.

The strong rule: This worldview centers around power and using it on others. This can give a character a predatory aspect; they'll use their worldview to justify taking what they want from those who can't defend it. Similar to nihilism, they're not interested in consequences that affect others. However, they're interested in their own payday, which sets them apart.

Worldview is the soul of a character

A character's worldview fundamentally defines who they are. Worldview affects perception; hence, it determines how a character processes information and reacts. If you pare down a character, removing all of their actions, backstory, and fluff, all you have left is the worldview.

Start with a worldview and then decide how your character acts. This will make them more consistent and stronger because their actions will align with their core concept. Additionally, it will empower your character and give them agency. Even if they react passively, their actions will come from inside, instead of simply being convenient for the story.

Finally, your worldview will determine how well they get along with others. Characters with opposing worldviews are unlikely to play nice. It is unrealistic to expect a monk from an ascetic order and a hedonist to get along perfectly, for example. Having differing worldviews can help determine which characters will hinder the protagonist and which will help them.

Major events can change worldviews

People change, and sometimes major events can alter someone's entire worldview. However, switching worldviews is a big decision, and should play a major part in the plot of your story.

Say we have a cop that staunchly believes in the infallibility of law. What if he determines that his entire precinct is riddled with corruption? One of two things will likely follow.