Why is Character Important?

It’s important to learn how to write character because although plot is what makes a reader up pick your book, character keeps them reading. The reader has to connect with the character in some way, otherwise they feel removed from the story and stop reading.

Everyone is flawed

You don’t want your characters to be perfect. It makes them unlikable. I remember reading Tai Pan by James Clavell and I ended up disliking Dirk Struan because there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. In the end it was tedious and I vowed never to read another Clavell book again!

We all have flaws, and that’s one of the things that make us interesting and complex. You want the same for your characters. Hitler’s one redeeming feature was his kindness to animals.

Character flaws can reveal a lot about a person’s backstory. Why are they addicted to alcohol? Why can they not commit in a relationship? Why do they skip from job to job?

5 questions to ask your protagonist

You know what your character wants, but you don’t know why he or she wants it. How do you find out? Savannah Gilbo suggests we ask our characters 5 questions:

What do they want?
This is easier for some stories than others, for example in a romance it’s for them to find love. In a mystery it’s to solve the crime. If it’s a non-genre book, it might be your protagonist wants to resolve an argument with a family member, a job promotion or even peace of mind.

Why do they want this?
Once you understand what your character wants, you need to understand why they want it. If they are looking for a new relationship, why are they not content to be single? If they want that job promotion, why aren’t they happy in their current role? If they want peace of mind, what is it that’s disturbing their equilibrium?

This underlying emotional motivation is what drives the character to pursue what they want.

What do they need?
You know what your protagonist wants and why, but is it what they need? This can be a harder question to answer. Sometimes you don’t find out until you start writing!

An example is Jane Austen’s Emma. She wants to love-match her friends because she’s bored, it’s fun, and she thinks she’s good at it. What she needs, though, is to fall in love herself.

What’s standing in their way?
There are essentially two types of conflict that stop a character achieving their goal: external and internal.

External conflicts are those obstacles that come from someone or something else, for example, the love interests existing partner, or a competitor for that job promotion.

Internal conflict is that which comes from the character themselves, for example, they don’t think they’re good enough for the love interest or they lack the skills for the job promotion.

What’s at stake if the character fails?
Knowing what your character stands to lose if they don’t get their goal will influence how your character behaves throughout the novel. What’s the consequence if they don’t get the guy or the job?

Isadora Felix says your focus should be on creating real people rather than stereotypes that fit certain genre moulds.

She points out that every human is unique, even identical twins, and so we should aim for our characters to be the same.

She suggests you mine yourself, your family, friends and acquaintances for those little details. What are your interests that your friends think are a bit daft. What are theirs? I love genealogy, but none of my friends do. I know someone who used to take part in Japanese battle reconstructions, in full costume, even though he lived in Scotland! It’s worth jotting down people’s idiosyncrasies for future characters. It’s these little quirks that can make your character unforgettable.

A common pitfall

All writers, not just beginners, tend to put something of themselves in their writing, and that’s okay. It’s hard to avoid altogether.

The trick is to be aware of it and pull back if you feel you’re using yourself too much. If you do, all your characters will lack contrast or individuality. It will be hard to differentiate one from the other.

Additional Details

Hannah Bauman says don’t forget to look at the outside stuff too. What does your character look like? How old are they, what kind of physique do they have? What about skin and eye colour? Do they have any distinguishing features?

In addition to the five questions that relate directly to your story, what do you know about their background? Did they have a happy childhood? Do they have any siblings? How did they get on at school? Do they have any special skills or attributes?

What kind of personality do they have? Are they a generally cheerful person, or is the glass always half empty? Do they laugh out loud or chuckle quietly? Are they a flamboyant leader or a steady right-hand person?

It’s important to get to know your characters. Your relationship with them will inform how your story progresses, how your character responds to the action and give you details about their backstory that can be used in the novel itself.

If you’d like to learn more about how to write character, check out what Roz Morris says about it. She’s an author of literary fiction and writes the Nail Your Novel series.

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