How To Create Well-rounded Characters

So, how do you like your people? Round or flat? I have to say, I quite like mine globular. Ahem, pardon me. Characters. I meant characters. How do you like your characters? Well-rounded, or flat?

You know I’m not asking if you like your characters with a bit of flesh on them, although it’s absolutely fine if you do—characters come in all shapes and sizes. You’ve probably heard writers say ‘make your characters well rounded’ and are wondering how exactly you can achieve that when all you can think of is a name and a character who says ‘bless you’ when they sneeze. To consciously create well rounded characters, you need to understand what the term means.

Well-rounded characters are characters that are human-like. Simple.

Chances are, your favourite characters are well-rounded characters. This is because even though you know you are reading fiction, you expect to read about humans (or at least human traits if you are reading speculative fiction). You expect to find something you relate to or something you understand, like the feeling of indecision when faced with two options: going to an open mic event or staying home to read a book.

Well-rounded characters are characters who trick readers for the duration of the story into believing they could as well be existing a few states or countries away.

The term was introduced by E.M Forster, in his book Aspects Of The Novel. In it, he claimed that a way to test if a character is round is to see if they possess the ability to surprise readers in a convincing way. He wasn’t talking about plot twists or a character suddenly confessing they are a vampire. What he meant was that the character has to be human enough.

Humans are dynamic and complex, and we may know a person but still be unable to correctly guess what they would do in every given situation. I have lived with myself all my life but sometimes even I do not know how I’d react to a situation until I am in it. That is the complexity of the human nature. We think one thing then do another. Your character should have this unpredictability.

Well-rounded characters feel grounded, complex and are possessing of distinct characteristics. They evolve throughout the story as well. Just like you evolve over the years—how many times have you caught yourself cringing at a story or blog entry you made years ago?

Now that you know what well-rounded characters are, and why you need to write them, let us talk about how to craft them.

Despite what we like to think, no one is perfect. No one person on this earth is. Maybe you have the ‘perfect’ partner or the ‘perfect’ mentor, but though these people meet your needs just right and seem complete in their roles in your life, know that there are areas of their lives where they are less than ideal.

We all know we have our imperfections and things we struggle with, and we relate to people who struggle with similar issues because it assures us that we are not alone and that there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with us for having these struggles. Kind of a ‘misery loves company’ thing. When we read about a character who struggles in some areas of their life, even if we’ve never had those particular struggles, we sympathise and relate with their imperfection.

Perfect characters do not elicit any emotion from us. If a character is perfect by all beauty standards (impossible), have everything they need, and never makes mistakes, we are more likely to shrug and say ‘Okay, cool. Good for them.’ Flawless characters don’t excite us and it is hard to be invested in a story when you are indifferent to those who live it.

A characteristic of well-rounded characters is that they are human-like, and flaws are human. So, if you want to make a well-rounded character, don’t shy away from giving them flaws. Let us see characters who struggle with anger, who cannot keep to time, who are self-absorbed, who are stubborn, who are fearful of change. These characters feel familiar, and these flaws make for good catalysts in our stories.

Or go on a downward spiral. In any case, just make sure your characters are not static.

Everyone grows, and I’m not just talking about age. Our life experiences shape the person we become and this is the same for characters. In most stories, the characters want something at the start (motivation) and would do everything in their power to get it, facing hurdles along the way and growing as a result of confronting or avoiding those hurdles. This propensity for growth is a human trait, and one shared by well-rounded characters as well.

What is the point of going through hell and back if you do not grow by the end of it?

Oxford Languages defines the word ‘dynamic’ as ‘characterized by constant change, activity, or progress.’

Humans are always in one state of activity of the other, whether by their own doing or not. There are so many activities that take our time, be it running, cooking, bathing the pets, or trying to walk on water. A dynamic character should do things or have things done to them, but most importantly, they should change. You’ve heard the term ‘character arc’, which refers to the transformation a character undergoes throughout the story.

This is vital in creating round characters, because we would all like to believe that if we were to go through something monumental or a series of little highs and lows, we would come out the other side a changed person. Maybe your character starts out as a person who lets fear dictate their every move but says goodbye to us at the end of the story as a person who would forge on despite the fear they feel. When you make your characters evolve with the story, you have made a round character.

Well-rounded characters may be dynamic and ever evolving, but their actions also need to be consistent with who they are. Your readers should at least have a broad idea of how your character would react in a given situation. If your character is always late and they have a date by 9 a.m., your readers should go ‘ah, of course’ when they arrive instead by 10:27 a.m. They should expect them to be late, and question days they arrive on time.

If your character is a reserved person who is conscious of how they are perceived and you are trying to show them angry at an event, your readers would be put off by a blatant display of annoyance—breaking plates and screaming their discontent. It would feel out of character. Pinched lips and a heavy dose of sarcasm might be more in line with your character.

I don’t want black, I don’t want white—give me grey. Just like with creating ‘perfect’ characters, take care not to make your characters either black or white. Your villain should not be bad just for the heck of it. They should have reasons for acting the way they act, and those reasons should at least make sense to them if not to the other characters.

Do not write a character who is just evil and trying to kill your protagonist without cause—that won’t fly. We’ve all been the villain in someone else’s story, yet we don’t consider ourselves villains. The same goes for your story’s villain. Give them a reason to act the way they do, give them backstory, have them believe they are heroes if you will—just do not write them as evil caricatures and call it a day.

Alright, this got quite long so I will be cutting it into two parts. In part two I’ll discuss how to know your character, because all the tips I’ve given demand that you first of all know your character.

See you then, and I hope you found this post valuable.