How can you make the characters in your novel real? In this article we answer this question.
Below we’ve included 5 top tips on how to give characters depth.
1. Give them a look.
Why it helps
Readers like to imagine the characters as real people, and what better way than to provide a physical description for readers to build upon. Allowing the reader to see the color of the character’s hair and the way it moves as they walk, or if they have glasses or stand taller than other characters, gives the reader something concrete upon which to build their own imagined version of the character
It’s one of the reasons Harry Potter book fans liked the movies: Daniel Radcliffe looked like how the readers imagined Harry Potter while they were reading.
How to include it
The more detailed the description, the more real the characters feel. Especially if those physical descriptions reflect elements of the character’s personality or has an impact on the storyline in some way. Details like the color and length of the character’s hair, the color of their eyes and the way they widen or narrow them, their height and tone of their skin. All these elements make the character unique and will help your descriptions take life in the reader’s head.
But don’t write in all the character’s physical descriptions in the first two or three paragraphs of introducing them. Physical descriptions work best when they are included naturally in the narrative and have an impact on the story.
2. Give them unique personality traits.
Why it helps
Deep, well-rounded characters have nuances to their personality that allow the reader to connect with them on a realistic level. Like Adrian Monk from the TV show Monk: while he’s a brilliant detective, he suffers from OCD, which makes him a struggling hero viewers can relate to.
These little character traits give the reader a chance to identify the characters with people they know in their own lives or empathize with how the protagonist overcomes those nuances. These characters become real people through their unique traits.
How to include it
Characters seem deeper when their defining traits are different from their role in the story, like a villain who does charity work or a hero who is a secret hoarder. These traits surprise the reader and keep them interested in wondering how those traits will impact the character’s arc in the story.
When you’re creating your main character profiles, include a fear or a feature that defines them separately from their role in the narrative. These traits could even impact their motivations in the story. For example, you could have the antagonist love puppies even though they’re a hardened serial killer. Or the detective protagonist could like punk rock music as a way to help them focus.
3. Give them a past.
Why it helps
A person’s personality and even the way they style themselves are reflections of their past. The people and events that take place when a person is younger mold them into who they are and who they want to be. When this history is provided in a story, it allows the reader to understand the characters and connect with them even more.
Dexter Morgan wouldn’t be a relatable or empathetic protagonist as a serial killer without understanding why he became a serial killer or how he came to choose bad guys as his targets. Readers need to know the reason for character motivations so that those motivations seem realistic to the story and the character.
How to include it
Don’t just write a physical description and personality for your characters. Explore the reasons they feel compelled to act out their role in the story. Jason Bourne doesn’t just know martial arts and how to use weapons so effectively; he was trained as a secret operative. Voldemort isn’t evil for evil’s sake; he was isolated and groomed as a child.
Consider where your characters have been and how those experiences impact their role in your story. Then, as you’re writing, include snippets of that history where necessary to help explain the character’s motivations or reactions.
4. Give them hopes and dreams.
Why it helps
When characters, particularly the main characters, have dreams and motivations, then the reader can better understand why said characters act in certain ways. Knowing the protagonist detective hopes to become commissioner one day helps the reader understand why they’re so obsessed with solving the case. When characters have a purpose for their actions, dreams they hope to achieve, then the reader can relate to them even more.
How to include it
Once you’ve created the characters’ pasts, decide how those pasts might influence their hopes and dreams for the future. What is it that Dexter hopes to get out of killing bad guys? He strives to do right by his late foster father. What is it that Jason Bourne wants? He wants to understand who he is and where he comes from.
Look at what the character’s purpose is in your storyline and how that fits your character’s past and present. Then go beyond the storyline into the future: how does their success in your story fit their overall life mission?
For example, if you’re writing a romance, how does matching with this particular love interest fit the character’s life dream of love? If you’re writing a horror story, what hope or dream motivates the protagonist to get involved in the horror plot in the first place and how will succeeding get them closer to that dream?
Think about how this story will impact the character beyond your story and try to work that in as you’re writing.
5. Give them a community.
Why it helps
People are not created in a vacuum. The people and culture we grow up within influence our development as much as we influence them. Readers expect the characters to be developed in the same way, and the best way to showcase that is by including that community in the story.
Take one of the most famous stories in publishing history: A Christmas Carol. By showing the people Ebenezer Scrooge was surrounded by when exploring his past, the reader can better understand how he developed into such a greedy curmudgeon. Then, showing Bob Cratchit and his life provides a contrast that highlights Scrooge’s negative characteristics and gives Scrooge a reason for eventually changing his ways at the end of the story.
Showing the ways the character interacts with the world around them gives the character a sense of depth beyond the role in the story.
How to include it
Don’t just think about your main characters or the minor characters that immediately support them (like the archetypal supportive friend or sidekick detective). Think also about including small characters that would otherwise go unnoticed: the neighbor that comments to the murderer about their strange behavior or the waiter who highlights to the love interests that they seem to have an intense connection. Adding small, seemingly insignificant characters to the story around your main characters will help to define their impact on the story world and give them more life than just being words on a page.