A special thank you to Julie for having us as her guest today. She was very gracious to
squeeze us in on her calendar! Mwah!
Nothing gets a rejection faster than unrealistic characters.
From the opening page, everything revealed about them builds expectations. And
a story falls flat when the characters fail to uphold those expectations. The
result is a contrived story that will make readers put your book down…and
that’s the last thing we want!
Behold, 3 Valuable Tips for Creating Realistic Characters
Tip #1—Give Your Character Personal Motivation
Only one thing drives a story forward: Character motivation. A plethora of
authors make the mistake of drafting detailed storylines and plugging their
characters into place. Though a storyline may give direction, Alan Watt advises
we should hold our stories loosely in his book The 90-Day Novel: Unlocking the Story Within.
If the character isn’t motivated to achieve something
personal, the story drags. In other words, if your characters don’t care,
neither will your readers.
Storyline with No Character Motivation: Tad Smith is determined to
follow family tradition and climb Mount Everest—both his father and grandfather
tried and succeeded. Tad and his crew encounter trials and tribulations on the
treacherous journey and Tad even loses his best friend George along the way. In
the end, he reaches the top…but at what price? Tad learns a hard-knock lesson
in priorities that forever changes his life.
While this is nice, there’s not really anything driving us
to read this story. A bunch of guys climb a mountain, stuff happens to them
along the way and in the end they learn a lesson. But there’s nothing to care
about. Let’s revise a little, shall we?
Storyline with Character
Motivation: Tad Smith’s father believes he isn’t strong enough to carry on
the family tradition of climbing Mount Everest…but Tad is determined to prove his
father wrong and gathers a crew who are just as resolute. With his best friend
George at his side, Tad and his crew encounter trials and tribulations on the
treacherous journey, but giving up is not an option. If Tad accepts defeat, his
father will be right, and the crew is determined to conquer the mountain for
fortune and glory. George is fatally injured and, with his dying breath, tells
Tad he can do anything…he just needs to believe in himself. Tad demands his
crew turn back. He won’t lose anyone else to his personal ambitions and vows to
continue alone. George’s sacrifice will not be in vain. The crew refuses to
abandon Tad and they all agree to continue. In the end, they reach the top and Tad
can finally gain the respect of his father...but his father doesn’t care and refuses
to acknowledge Tad’s achievement. Only then does Tad realize the truth—he
didn’t need his father to believe in him; he needed to believe in himself. The
crew receives honor, glory and riches for their efforts, but their victory is
bittersweet as they toast to George’s empty chair.
This revised storyline is more about the characters’
relationships versus a bunch of guys climbing a mountain. It’s about
brotherhood and learning how to believe in yourself. The story has potential
because the character motivation is linked to personal goals.
Tip #2—KNOW Your Characters
Many authors make their characters do things with the sole
purpose of driving the storyline in a certain direction. All authors should ask
themselves one question as they write: “How would my character respond in this
situation?” Let’s say you’re writing a sci-fi story and a vicious, drooling
alien is about to attack a defenseless child. Your shy, bookworm heroine suddenly
finds hidden courage, draws the nearby Samurai swords on display and hacks the
alien into sushi. You may need your
character to do this, but unless you establish a hidden strength in your shy
character early in the story, the actions come off as phony.
Here’s another way of putting it. Imagine someone you’ve
known most of your life (e.g., your overprotective, neat-freak grandmother) and
plug them into your latest story. Now rephrase the question, “How would Grandma respond in this situation?” Grandma
might glance at the swords, but in reality she would pick up her trusty broom,
stand like a lioness in front of the child and scold the alien for the slimy mess
it’s making before whacking it into submission. The point is you wouldn’t have Grandma
wielding Samurai swords and hacking the alien into sushi because you know
Grandma hates sushi. All joking
aside, you get the point?
This is the level of depth you must establish when creating
your characters. You must know
them—inside and out.
Tip #3—Listen to Real Dialogue between Real People
Dialogue is a great way to reveal information in a story.
However, a lot of authors take this tip to an unrealistic level. Let’s use Tad
for our example and engage him in some dialogue with his father.
“I’ve told you a hundred times, Tad,
you’re not strong enough to climb Mount Everest. You’ll never have the honor of
achieving the family tradition your grandfather and I obtained.”
Tad clenched his fists at his side.
“You’re wrong, Dad! I’ve been training for years, just like you and Grandpa
did. I’m going to make you proud. You’ll see!”
“It has less to do with physical
strength, son.” Jeremy poked his finger into Tad’s chest. “Have you forgotten
you were in therapy for three years trying to recover from your mother’s death?
Don’t you remember how your grandfather almost died climbing that mountain? He
trained for ten years and had two failed attempts before he succeeded. Everest changed
him. He experienced hallucinations, lost friends!”
Question: if Tad’s
whole purpose is to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, doesn’t
he know all this already? Two people don’t rehash information they both already
know. The only purpose of this dialogue is to inform the reader about their history. It sounds stilted, forced and
contrived. Also, there’s no mystery to make the readers want to keep flipping
pages. Let’s try again:
Jeremy crossed his arms and
narrowed his eyes. “I talked Bradley out of sponsoring you.”
“You did what?” Tad clenched his jaw, waiting
for an explanation, but his father offered none. He steadied his breath. “I have plenty of other sponsors I can—”
“And I’ll talk them out of it,
too.” Jeremy stalked forward until he was nose-to-nose with Tad. “You know how I feel about this.”
“What more can I do prove I’m ready
for this? Don’t you think I’ve trained hard
enough over the last ten years?” Tad crossed his own arms in defiance. “I’ve
endured—”
“You don’t get it!” Jeremy threw
his hands in the air. “Conquering Everest isn’t about physical strength, son!”
He stabbed his index finger into Tad’s chest. “You’re not strong here! You’re not like me, and that
mountain will kill you like it almost killed your grandfather. That’s why he was never the same after
he came home.”
Tad fought the stinging in his eyes
and inwardly cursed when tears slipped down his cheek.
“See what I mean? You can’t even
handle a simple truth about yourself. You couldn’t even deal with your mother’s
death.” Jeremy stomped to the door. “You’re not going,” he said over his
shoulder. “That’s final.”
This dialogue reveals their feelings for each other while leaving
many things unsaid that scream through the undertones of their behavior. Also, keep
in mind the information left out can be woven into the story later where it’s
more appropriate. The most important thing is to let the dialogue unfold
naturally.
We Can Help!
There is so much more that contributes to realistic,
believable and even memorable characters: backstory, foundational behavior that
establishes a character’s personality through actions, psychology and human
nature. The list goes on and on.
This fall, Mystical
Press Services is releasing a list of classes geared toward character
development: Character Development
Essentials (CDE) Power Class (coming soon) and Crafting Believable Characters (CBC) Class
Series (available for pre-order
now). We have another class coming in
early 2013 titled Creating Memorable
Characters (CMC). Why so many? Because crafting believable characters is
paramount to writing a great story. When you register on our site, be sure to
let us know which blog referred you so your hostess will be recognized.
Registered users will be informed when new classes are added to the catalogue.
Prizes!!!
We encourage you to share some of your experiences with creating characters or valuable tips you may
have learned along the way. If you have any questions, please ask! Leave a
comment or question and we’ll enter you in a drawing for a $25 eGift good
toward any services or classes at our website. Good luck and thanks for
participating!
Editor Bios
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Mystical Press Services is the
culmination of two authors and professionally trained editors—Arial Burnz and
AJ Nuest—who help authors bridge the gap between the form rejection letter and
publication. In fact, we believe in this venture so passionately, our tagline
is “Helping authors achieve their
dreams.” We also assist authors for self-publication. Come dream with us!
Be sure to ask questions, or comment on what they've said!
Until next time, take care!
♥ Julie
