Hermione Granger. Walter White. Star Girl. Demon Copperhead. What do they all have in common, you ask? Oh, you know. They’re just some of my personal favorite characters. Obviously each of them is very different from another, but they each felt real enough to me at some point in my life that I was drawn to them – enough to still think about them from time to time. Sometimes I wonder what Hermione would do if she were in my situation, or Star Girl. Or, in Walter White’s case, I wonder if I could start making meth too. JUST KIDDING. I would never. Look what it did to him! 

Moving on from that haphazard introduction, hopefully you understood that this week’s newsletter is all about how to flesh out real characters in your writing. Good characters breathe life into your book –  they turn a simple situation into an entire, riveting novel. They connect your audience to the story you’re trying to tell and if they’re done right, they can leave such a big impression that your readers will be thinking about them years down the road. How exciting!

The best way to write real, riveting characters is to first fully flesh them out when you’re in the brainstorming process and then, once you’re actually writing, to create them as honestly as possible.  

Flesh Out Your Characters

Take your time when brainstorming characters. Really try to think about them from all angles, so when the time comes to write, you know exactly what they’d do in the situation you’re about to place them in. Here is a list of questions I like to ask myself when brainstorming my characters: 

PHYSICAL

1. What is your character’s appearance?

2. What is your character’s health?

3. What does your character wear?

4. What is your character’s age and sex?

5. Anything extra?

SOCIOLOGY

1. What are your character’s familial relationships like?

2. What are your character’s hopes?

3. What is your character’s religion?

4. What is your character’s financial situation?

5. What is your character’s career?

PSYCHOLOGY

1. What are your character’s superstitions?

2. What are your character’s talents?

3. What are your character’s ambitions?

4. What are your character’s disappointments?

5. What are your character’s inhibitions?

6. What are your character’s fears?

7. What is your character’s philosophy?

8. What are your character’s morals?

9. What is your character’s temperament?

10. What are your character’s hobbies?

11. What motivates your character to make the decisions she makes?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. What was your character’s childhood like?

2. What was your character’s education?

3. What was your character’s relationship like with her parents?

4. What was your character’s first kiss like?

5. What was your character’s greatest moment of happiness?

6. What was your character’s greatest moment of sadness?

I understand that this is a lot of questions. For side characters, just pick a few of these based on what you’d like to highlight about them. But for your main characters, try answering all of them. Give it a go. We promise you’ll come up with loads of good information.

NOTE: Just because you’ve answered all of these questions doesn’t mean you’re going to use all of that information in your book. In fact, it’s best not to. As you get into writing the book, you’ll discover that some characteristics are more important than others to the story. Focus on those. 

Tell the Truth

Our second tip for writing characters is to tell the truth about them to the best of your ability. In his book On Writing, Stephen King says about building characters: “The job boils down to two things: paying attention to how the real people behave around you and then telling the truth about what you see” (189). We echo this.

I believe the reason why I remember characters like Hermione or Demon so well is because their characterization felt so truthful to me. I saw myself in them, or people I knew. I grew to love them because I understood them. If your characters are truthful, they’ll be memorable. 

Pay attention to the people around you. What are their quirks? What do they find comfort in? How do they react in new situations? Use those observations to create your characters and chances are, you’ll end up creating truthful, compelling characters.

Our last bit of advice is to let your characters change. Character arcs are often the most compelling parts of good writing because they lend to that honesty you’re seeking. People change, so your characters should too. 

In conclusion, take the time to really flesh out your characters before you begin writing. Answer those questions about them to really get a feel for who they are. Then, as you begin writing, do your best to tell the truth. Be honest about your characters’ humanity and let your honesty drive their arc.