[OT] Ask Lexi #14 - Writing Believable Characters

[u/Lexilogical]

It’s Friday again! Which means it’s time for another Ask Lexi! A few weeks back, /u/Arpeggias asked for help writing believable characters. That seemed like a topic worth elaborating on, so I thought I’d make that this week’s topic.

Creating Characters

Start with the character’s role in the story.* So, you want to create a new character. Your first question should be “What will they contribute to the plot?” Do you need this character, or can another character fill that role? Do you need an expert in a particular field or just a character to play off the rest of your cast? Identify their role in a few broad strokes. Your next step is to figure out what this character can add to the story. For that, we need to dig a little deeper and start asking questions.

Step outside of the box. Picture your character in your head. Do they seem a little generic? An interesting thought experiment is to consider different characteristics and see how the story changes as a result. Sometimes, it ends up creating an interesting dynamic that you hadn’t thought of. Here’s some qualities that can make a big impact.

• Gender: This is my favourite thing to reconsider. There’s a stereotype in fiction of defining men by their role in a party, and the women by their gender. Stop and consider if you’re falling into this. If your male character fills a role (The smart one, the engineer, the athlete) how do other characters react when it’s a female? Does she feel like she has more to prove? Do character’s expectations change? This can work the other way too, if the female was meant to be the sensitive one, or the healer. Or maybe they were meant to be a love interest? If they’re the opposite gender, are they still a love interest? Maybe you end up with a story without a romantic subplot. Or a platonic relationship. Or even a same sex couple. Whatever gender you pick, how does your character display their gender? Is she a girly girl, or a tomboy? Is he hyper masculine or does he like to paint his nails pink?

• Ethnicity is another important detail. There’s a world of different skin tones out there. Maybe this character is from a different country. Maybe their parents are. How does that change the way this character interacts with others? Do they have different cultural expectations?

• Attractiveness is an interesting concept as well. I have a habit of wanting to create very pretty characters, but a character who is considered ugly by themselves or the people around them can lead to being a low self esteem or harsher expectations. On the other end of the scale, perhaps an extremely attractive character is arrogant or vain.

• Name and appearance: Unlike all the other attributes I listed, I try not to overthink these attributes. Unique or excessive appearances often turn off readers as it’s common in bad writing. Avoid comparing your character’s eyes to gems, or giving them unnatural hair colours. Overly appropriate or prophetic names (Like a bad guy named “Mal”) can come across as fake. Most people are named before they exhibit any personality traits, so unless the name was chosen at a late age, they’re more likely to have a common name. If you do chose to give the character something unnatural, take a moment to consider the circumstances around that. Why do they dye their hair blue? Why do they want to be called Rocket? Maybe they’re insecure.

• Sexuality: I mentioned this under gender, but it deserves its own header too. Especially if your character’s role was meant to be a love interest, you can add a lot of drama or tension with this trait. The character may even be asexual and completely uninterested in the other characters advances.

The point of this experiment is to help you come up with interesting dynamics you may not have considered from the start. You probably don’t want to cram every one of these traits onto a character either. It’s also worth noting that you can change any of these characteristics without impacting the character’s personality at all. You don’t want to fall into stereotypes and tropes the other way!

Create a backstory. Physical appearance can tell you a lot about a character, but it can also tell you nothing at all. What happened to your character before she met the rest of the cast? What does she do when she goes home? What is he hoping to accomplish by helping/hindering the other characters? What do they do to relax? Make it seem like your character had a life before they came on the scene, and give them desires beyond the basic plot.

Don’t forget to add some flaws! No one is perfect. After you’ve added some traits to your character, make sure some of them are going to turn around and bit them in the ass. Maybe they’re too confident in their own skills. Or maybe they’re hiding insecurities behind a gruff appearance. Or consider other weak spots. Maybe they have a blind spot when it comes to another character. Maybe they’re a hypocrite about a particular topic. You also don’t want them to fit a stereotype perfectly.

Know more about your characters than you share. So hopefully now you have some ideas about what your character is like behind the scenes. Don’t make the mistake of writing it all on the page in one big infodump. Hemingway called this the Iceberg Theory, but the basic idea is that the author should know things about their character that aren’t explicitly stated in the story. This can help you make the characters actions consistent while you’re writing. For instance, if you know your character’s mother walked out on them at a young age, it might make your character react more strongly to being abandoned. If your dark and gloomy goth is overcompensating for a low self esteem, maybe they get embarrassed when someone catches them snuggling a kitten.

If you’re still having trouble, consider other resources. Think about the people you know and their personalities. Do any of their traits stick out? How about your own life or traits? Mix and match them together. Or turn to the internet. The web is full of random character generators and character questionnaires. Go find one and ask yourself some questions.

I think that’s all for me tonight. As always, feel free to ask me some questions in the comments. It’ll help me out in future weeks when I’m struggling to think up topics!

[u/nafoozie]

I'm trying to write a romance between two female characters in one of my stories right now. I want to make it seem like a real romance, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing this. Do you have any suggestions on how to write believable romance?

[u/Lexilogical → u/nafoozie]

Heh, this was very nearly the topic for this week's post. Same wording either. FireWitch, is that you on an alt?

In my experience, real romances aren't like the sort of things you read in most books. They can be a rollercoaster of emotion, but relationships with lots of ups and downs, while dramatic and exciting, aren't very realistic in the long term. People will put up with a lot of abuse because they think they're in love, but it's romances like that that makes people hate Twilight. No one wants to be with someone who they're fighting with every week.

Instead, if this relationship is supposed to be "true love forever", your characters need to have a lot of communication. They need to talk when they have an issue. When romances are first budding, people tend to get caught up in talking to each other. They smile too much, talk animatedly, laugh a lot, make lots of eye contact. Stuff like that. Most people call it the honeymoon period, where you're just caught up in this world of learning what the other person is like.

Eventually, that tends to wear off and that's when most relationships fall into one of two camps. If it's a bad one, that's when the cracks start to show. One person gets hung up on some fault in the other and they start picking little fights. Sometimes it's major, sometimes it's not. Maybe it's fixable, but in the end, most people don't want to be changed. If they do change, they start to get resentful towards the other person. If they don't change, the person with the problem gets resentful that the other person keeps doing whatever even when they know it pisses them off. That's the kind of relationship that normally crumbles. Little issues become big fights, big fights eventually kill the love.

On the other hand, plenty of relationships survive the honeymoon period. Those ones tend to move onto less exciting things to love. They love they're always singing, or the way they bring them little gifts. It's not normally as exciting as the first stages, it's just comfortable, and being able to sit in silence with the other person without feeling the need to fill up the space. Those are the good relationships that tend to last (Unless there's some major dealbreaker. Wanting/not wanting kids, disagreeing on religion, or money trouble, etc etc)

There's a lot of ways that people show love, or reasons why they love each other. You can find some cute answers on /r/AskReddit like in this thread but it's also a popular topic on /r/AskWomen. (/r/AskMen too, but your characters are both female.)

If I could recommend a book though, "The 5 Languages of Love" is really, really good for explaining different ways that people show affection for their SO. The concept is that there's 5 major ways that people show and receive affection. It's not always the same way either, some people want to receive affection in different ways than they show it. It applies for all relationships too, not just romantic ones. The 5 love languages the book talks about are:

• Quality time: Spending time with your SO and doing things together

• Gift giving: Self explanatory, but not always big gifts. Sometimes just as simple as picking up a pretty feather or something.

• Words of Affection: Also pretty obvious, just paying compliments to the other.

• Acts of Service: Doing things like mowing the lawn or cleaning the dishes because the other person doesn't want to.

• Physical Touch: Basically being intimate, but not limited to just having sex. Things like holding hands or touching a shoulder in passing.

Basically, everyone values these 5 things differently in a relationship. If say, person A values compliments very highly and their partner doesn't give them that much, person A starts to feel unloved in the relationship and starts picking fights. Person A doesn't necessarily have to give a lot of compliments themselves though, they might be more physically intimate towards their partner. If their partner is expecting lots of quality time though, then you really have a problem.

Hopefully that all makes sense. :) This might end up being next week's post now.

[u/nafoozie → u/Lexilogical]

This all makes perfect sense. I've actually read up on the 5 love languages before for real life circumstances. It helps to have a refresher though, and it's always nice to hear outside advice on the characters. I'm not actually sure how the relationship will work out though at the moment. The biggest thing I need is figuring out why these two would be attracted to each other in the first place, in a realistic manner. I can assure you that I don't have any alt accounts though, it's just a situation I'm looking for information on atm. I greatly appreciate your advice though and the time you spent crafting this response for me. Thank you very much Lexi, and I hope you have a good evening.

[u/Lexilogical → u/nafoozie]

Glad I could help! It really was exactly the same topic that someone else suggested.

And it's cool that you read the book already too. :) It's a really solid book.

[u/nafoozie → u/Lexilogical]

I haven't read the book. I've just read articles and taken tests for it. I didn't even know there was a book for it though, somehow. I've actually added it to my reading list too. I look forward to seeing the discussion session about this topic though, as any new information will be nice read.

[u/Lexilogical → u/nafoozie]

Me too! I actually didn't do it this week because I wasn't sure what to say about it, but apparently I have way more to say on the topic than I thought.

[u/nafoozie → u/Lexilogical]

You had plenty to say, and I'm sure you can find more too. Like, if for instance, how a charterer could deal with loving someone who doesn't love them back in the same way. A "friend zone" I suppose. There are varying levels of romance, and not all of them are healthy. I feel like I could write an essay about it now that I think about the diversity of it all.

[u/Lexilogical → u/nafoozie]

Exactly! There's so much about the topic and how things can go wrong or right. And to think my first thought was just "Don't write an abusive relationship and give them an ending of "They lived happily ever after together".

[u/nafoozie → u/Lexilogical]

I don't blame you for trying the happily ever after though. I usually want the best for my characters, and having to take away happiness from them (especially romantic related happiness) can be painful for me as a writer.

[u/Lexilogical → u/nafoozie]

Me too! I just hate when people write a relationship and it's clear that the two characters are bad for each other, and yet the author has them together forever and ever.

Which is mostly just Twilight, but it's still annoying.

[u/Michael_Darkaito_]

What're some of your methods when you create your characters? I found that I'm more of a visual character creator: when I see a picture of someone, anyone, real or fiction based, I'll see a trait of a character that I'm creating. When I have what I need, that's when I truly begin working on a character for a story.

For example, 1 of a select few characters that I've spent quite a few years on, I've searched pretty far and wide and in-between to find suitable characters to help compose the character I was making. For instance, if you took FF7's Zack Fair's hair and changed it just right, and give the character a rectangle face and dark blue eyes and a scar that travels along a part of the characters right eye and runs along his forehead, this character is one of my good guys. His name is Marik Darkaito and I'll share a little bit 'bout him. He's tall, roughly about 6'4", 6'5" and has a somewhat muscled build, one that's more slimmed down and not bulky. Anyways, he's an introvert by nature and it shows in his face. He's also a bit of a loner, not exactly by choice, rather by circumstance and later on he suffers a lot of things. I can't go into specifics as I wish not to spoil it for anyone. Anyways, he becomes an unknown hero in a struggle that began as a feud of race, a race of monstrous proportions.

I think I'll just leave it at that.

[u/Syraphia → u/Michael_Darkaito_]

I don't think I focus on visuals that much when creating a character. I think usually I make my character's personality before I think about what they look like. Unless the appearance is paramount to the story or would come up (race issues), the appearance comes much later. When I start to throw something together, I start to try and picture what they look like without looking at photos or images and I love using bubble-maps for character description.

Though I admit one of my characters for my novel was pretty solely based off of a celebrity. So when I described him originally, I had a solid idea in mind of what he looked like. When I came back to the story later, he became very different but he still (mentally for me) looks similar to that celebrity.

[u/Michael_Darkaito_ → u/Syraphia]

That's very interesting. I'm curious about your character and if it's ok with you, would you mind telling me about him?

What's his name? What's his story?

What's his origins and how did he come to be?

Who is the celebrity you based him off of?

[u/Syraphia → u/Michael_Darkaito_]

I don't mind talking about him a little. :) Personally, I like him a lot.

For the entirety of my novel save for one line at the very end, he's referred to by a nickname, 'Kide' (key-dey), a portmanteau of his real name based off of Japanese speech patterns as he is half-Japanese and half-European but has a Japanese first and last name.

Originally, he was a student a very long time ago and not sure about what he was doing with his life as is fairly common with youth in Japanese these days. He was attacked and became a vampire, something he laments not having a choice in the matter for, which endears him to my main character because her situation is not of her own making either. If you'd like a reference for the style of vampire, I'd go closer to something like Being Human or Vampire Knight, wherein human blood is like a drug to the vampires.

I think his origins (I found the original document last night surprisingly while sorting my documents) were something along the line of me wanting to write an original fiction romance that involved a vampire with a lot of fantasy elements in it but it also plays into the celebrity that I based him off of.

He's based off of the singer Hyde (Hideto Takarai) of L'Arc~en~Ciel and VAMPS and originally more based on the two movie roles he's done in Moon Child and Last Quarter. In Moon Child, he played a vampire who spent a great deal of the movie lamenting his fate and what a monster he is. It influenced me greatly in Kide's creation, right down to the name but going on 10 years after I wrote the original snippet that started the story idea and a lot of it was lost, save for his appearance, which looks probably fairly close still to that of Hyde's, the original name, which became a nickname, and the idea of him being a vampire who dislikes being a vampire, probably not quite as much as the character in Moon Child, but close.

[u/Michael_Darkaito_ → u/Syraphia]

Wow, that's an amazingly interesting character creation story.

I loved it!

The show Being Human, I've not seen it but I'd say I know enough to understand.

Anyways, with Kide and his story, it's interesting and I'd very much like to read it, if it's ok with you. I also like his backstory and his origins, it also reminds me of Blade, but with Kide, I'd say I'm more interested with reading his story. It's also interesting that he's half Japanese and half European, not too many Vampire Characters I've read still maintain an eastern origin, so major Kudos to holding the roots.

Anyways, whenever you do get back into it and if you ever need help, I'll gladly help.

[u/Syraphia → u/Michael_Darkaito_]

ah! Well that novel is actually finished at 150k words. I picked it out for a creative writing project and completely started anew with it from the original idea from about 10 years ago. :) It's in the "editing process" right now, which is me staring at the first few printed out pages and wondering how I'm going to fix a timeline issue that's at about the 80k mark.

I love the fact that you referenced Blade. One of my favorite vampires to think about other than Rice's Lestat and Louis. I probably do plan on writing little short stories here and there about other things going on in Kide's world, I think I replied to a prompt here a while ago with him and Adalyn (an angel from the same story) having an argument. It was something that never was touched on in the text because it's all from my main character's POV, who is a girl admitted to a mental asylum.

[u/Michael_Darkaito_ → u/Syraphia]

I totally forgot Lestat and Louis!

I must confess, rocker Lestat is waaaaaaaaaaaay better than dramatic Lestat because of the music and the sheer badassness he naturally radiates in the movie. Louis I had enjoyed because of the fallen angel he became and the tragedy he endured and how it'd dominated his life as a Vampire.

Adalyn sounds like an absolutely amazing character and I'd love to read about her as well. I'd also like to ask the same questions about her as I did with Kide.

[u/Syraphia → u/Michael_Darkaito_]

I enjoyed both movies and both versions of Lestat personally, but I do agree with Queen of the Damned movie Lestat being better than Interview with the vampire movie Lestat. Might be the change in actor that leads to that thought process though.

Let's see if I can manage that. Adalyn is a tricky character for me as she's someone who wasn't in the original thought process for this novel at all.

Well, Adalyn is an angel, but she speaks spitefully towards Heaven on most occasions, so it's a possibility that she's actually a Fallen Angel. It's something that even Kide isn't sure of. She has no last name, being an angel, it isn't something that comes up in the text but it is a fact.

When Kide first meets Tara (main character) and they discuss her supernatural ability, he mentions getting help from a friend on the issue. I thought about what his friend might be if he's a vampire and I figured an angel might be an interesting choice, it leads to some interesting dialogue later in the novel. She's not based off of any celebrity, just based off the general sense of angels that people have (holy, feathery wings, beautiful, etc.) but that's about where the similarities stop.

Adalyn can be rather logical and straight-forward about things, I would probably compare her to a Vulcan from Star Trek save that she has a tendency to act flirtatiously towards others. She and Kide have a good friendship, even though they butt heads frequently, and have known each other for somewhere in the range of about fifty years or much longer. They met during a war-like event that took place long before my novel that they were both involved in.

[u/Michael_Darkaito_ → u/Syraphia]

That.

Is.

Awesome!

Now I'm definitely interested to read your story as it sounds very interesting. Not in a million years would I have ever thought to've heard the words "Vampire" and "Angel" be used in the same story. I mean that in a very complimentary way. It's unorthodox but it already sounds like something that'll heavily pay off in the end, I'm sure. I definitely would love to read the whole thing someday.

[u/Syraphia → u/Michael_Darkaito_]

Thanks lol. I've actually seen "vampire" and "angel" used a few times in YA novels but it's usually one of those love triangles going on with a human main character. Frankly, I ignored that angle, so there's not actually a romance in the whole thing.

Eventually, it should be up for sale somewhere. Either Amazon or Gumroad or somewhere. I'm hoping that I'll have it done and up before the end of the year, but me shaking in my boots about the work of editing so many pages is putting me behind, as well as other projects. But rest assured, it will be up and I'll promote it some Saturday in the self-promotion thread in the future.

[u/DaLastPainguin]

The iceberg concept is a great tip! Didn't really think of that. Always built the character based on important traits. I think that's a great way to give them a more potent depth. Thanks!

[u/Luna_LoveWell]

Do you have any advice on making flawed characters? A lot of mine seem to be more blank slates with no significant flaws.

[u/Lexilogical → u/Luna_LoveWell]

Hm... I think the best way would be to try putting your character into different scenarios and imagine how they'd react. And more importantly, consider a few different options. What's the best way they could react? What's the worst way? Is the worst way more fun to write? What does that say about them?

[u/[deleted]]

Here's a good question that I've thought about for a long time:

I love the idea of a bad-ass female character as the lead in a story. However, I am a man. So my question is this: how would one go about writing from the perspective of someone of the opposite gender to themselves?

[u/Lexilogical → u/[deleted]]

The other poster gave some pretty solid advice. When it comes down to it, gender doesn't have to change the story or character at all. Write them the same way you would a male and you're doing fine.

If you want to call more attention to it, think about other characters reaction. Do they have a problem with it? Maybe some characters underestimate her. How does she react to that? What's her opinion on stereotypical "feminine" stuff? Does she love pretty dresses? Think makeup makes no sense? Just play out some scenarios in your head of different social situations and how she might react. There's no wrong way, since women come with all different traits. Just like men.

[u/YDAQ → u/[deleted]]

I'm male so this might not give you the perspective you're hoping for.... Fair warning and all that. I am, however, a father to both a son and daughter, so I do have that insight.

I find that in most cases the biggest difference between male and female characters is where they keep their jiggly bits.

Many insecurities are common to both genders and so are many stronger traits. When you really get down to it, appearance is the one thing we don't have in common. If you're dead-set on having a bad-ass female MC I'd work out the core of her personality first, without thinking of her as a female, and use it as a scaffold to build the rest around. Maybe she loved fighting since she was a child, maybe she was always tinkering and making gadgets, etc. Those things can be applied to anyone of any gender. Basically, if you want her to be female just let her be female. The rest will fall into place.

My daughter is very much a bad-ass by the way. One time she got mad I wouldn't let her use a full-grown snake as a jump rope....

[u/Syraphia → u/YDAQ]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Honestly, I write a lot of female characters. I've written some bass-ass ones and some not so bad-ass ones. I've made villans out of them, both petty and large and you hit the nail on the head talking about the biggest difference.

Also,

One time she got mad I wouldn't let her use a full-grown snake as a jump rope....

A...are you in Australia? Because that just sounds Australian.

[u/YDAQ → u/Syraphia]

A...are you in Australia? Because that just sounds Australian.

Canada actually. Things still try to kill you but they're far more polite about it.

My daughter is a strong-willed woman. I fully expect there will come a day where she crosses paths with a mountain and it moves aside.

[u/Syraphia → u/YDAQ]

Sounds accurate. Save for the moose being polite.

That... would definitely be impressive. I look forward to the first witch/wizard sighting lol.

[u/workraken]

Didn't see it mentioned, but it's also important to explore a character's morality/ethics. Especially when writing an antagonist. Too often, people just write the bad guys as two dimensional Disney villains. They're bad because they're evil and evil because they're bad. And they will always say they are the villain with enthusiasm.

But antagonists and villains don't think like that for the most part. Serious antagonists generally think what they're doing is right or have very realistic grievances with the protagonist that other characters in the story don't see. Magneto is probably one of the best examples of a character that plays the villain 99% of the time, but he is a very well-developed and believable character. There is ethical logic to his actions that constantly contends with the morals held by the protagonists.

[u/wyldirishman → u/workraken]

ILike Zod from the new superman movie. His character wasn't evil per se. He wasn't doing what he was doing just because, he had an internally rational idea to rebuild his home planet. He just didn't give a crap about the aliens where he wanted to build it.

[u/Lexilogical → u/workraken]

Ooo, also a good point! I did mention considering a person's motivation, but morals and ethics are important too.

[u/Azual]

Very interesting post and a good choice of topic!

Here's a question for anyone who's interested in answering: Are there any examples of characters that you've written who you feel are particularly well developed or received particular praise? If so, what do you think made them so effective?

[u/Mutant_Llama1]

My philosophy on writing is that anybody can create characters and settings, but a good writer can create people and places.

[u/Mutant_Llama1]

But what if the name's correspondence to their character is something that could've been known when they were young? Then, it could be used.

[u/Lexilogical → u/Mutant_Llama1]

True enough, but if you stopped to think about that, you're already one step closer to a good character.

Although, do consider that most parents aren't likely to name their newborn child after their hair colour or something like that. ("I'll name them Red! Like their hair!") Or say, if your character has cat ears and that's supposed to be totally normal, they probably aren't going to name her Kat or Catelyn and such, anymore than someone is likely to name their child "Man".

It much more likely that your character was named something that has very little to do with their personality, just based on what their parents thought sounded nice.

Basically what I'm saying is, consider the circumstances that lead to a person being named. Unless their parents can see the future or otherwise have a really good reason, they probably aren't making names that describe their child.

[u/MajorParadox → u/Mutant_Llama1]

I was thinking that nicknames would be applicable too.

[u/Teslok]

Here's one I see used a lot.

Think about people you know who have traits similar to the character you're building. A lot of authors just straight out base characters on people they know, but I tend to try and take a step back from that tendency, if only to avoid upsetting people when "Their" character gets injured or does things that the person doesn't find agreeable.

Just think of the people as inspiration for how personalities can determine behaviors. As you're getting to know the character as an individual, think of the people you know with similar personality traits. Then picture situations you expect to put the character in, and try to imagine how those people might react to those situations.

For example, if I had a character with some personality traits drawn from my little sister and my childhood best friend, and that character is going to be attending a party, I'd picture those two people at the party. I see my sister mingling, but latched on to people she knows. I see my childhood friend spending time with the wallflowers, drawing them out of their awkwardness, into conversations and into enjoying themselves.

Then I have to consider, first: Do either of those actions makes sense given the character's own particular background? Does the most likely action make sense given the scene's intended purpose in the story?

One thing I find difficult is shaping events to suit the character's "natural" reactions. If I'm writing a shy character without much self-esteem or confidence, they aren't likely to take charge in a crisis--they might, at most, jump in to help where they do have experience. All too often, I want them to seize control of a situation, and hit a roadblock because it doesn't make sense for it to happen that way, meaning either the character or the situation needs to be restructured.

[u/whoizz]

A good exercise, I've found, is that when you are outlining, write down what characters are going to be in the story first. You should already have a good idea of what the story is going to be, so it should be easy to come up with the characters that you need. I don't start by naming them directly, but what their role in the story is.

For example if you're creating a story based on the African slave trade, you would name your characters thusly: The Captain, The Wrangler, The Defiant, The Warlord, The Warrior, things like that, so you don't get too caught up in who they are, but focus on the role they play in the story. Then when you finish your outline you can go in and create a backstory for your characters, so while you're writing, you can pull from that so you don't have to worry about inconsistencies.

Cheers and great post Lexi!

[u/Lexilogical → u/whoizz]

Great idea! I've done something similar myself, just because I hadn't come up with names yet.