How To Create Well-Rounded Characters Part 2

Part two, as promised. We’ll dive right in.

You cannot write what you do not know, and this is true for your characters. Like we discussed last time, a well-rounded character is a character who feels real and nuanced. They feel like just another person, and you are invested in their story because you want to see how this person overcomes their challenges or gets what they want. You want to see them grow, you want to see them thrive and you want to cheer for them through it all.

In part one we talked about how you can make sure you are writing well-rounded characters. One of the things we spoke about was giving them flaws and making sure they remain true to their character throughout the story. In case you missed that, here’s a link: well-rounded characters. You can read that and then return to this post.

Today I’d give you a few tips on how to get to know your characters so you’d be able to make them well-rounded.

I used to ‘just write’ because my stories took shape after a while and my characters did what felt natural, but I’ve learnt that by leaving my character creation to chance I was missing out on the opportunity to create more nuanced characters. My beta readers agree that Amara (from my novella Happy Stories) is a dynamic character, and they love the different parts of her they see. I’m glad about it, but I also regret not getting to know her better. I feel like she would’ve been an awesome person to know.

When I wrote the story, I had a vision for who I wanted her to be and what I wanted her to do. I imagined the opening scene while I was waiting for a church program to begin and that was it—I wrote a story. If you ask me who Amara is, outside of the confines of the story, I will have no answer for you. If you were to ask about her motivations for doing certain things, what she must have thought about while acting, or even a simple ‘give me a breakdown of her backstory’, I would fumble.

You may think all these are not necessary since I still ended up with a good story, but there is something about knowing your characters inside-out that makes the writing process a tad more intimate.

We are all motivated by something. We all want something—be it abstract or material. And this desire, this thing that motivates us, informs our actions. To create well-rounded characters, give your characters a deep desire. When they desire something deeply, they would do everything in their power to get that thing. Place in a few obstacles here and there, and you’ve got your story.

Knowing what your characters really want would help you direct their steps and flesh them out. If you don’t know what your character really wants, you could fall into the trap of following their every whim and confusing your reader at the end of the day. To know why a person acts the way they do, you must first know what they truly want.

Sometimes this desire comes with the idea of the story. Other times you must ask your characters or let their actions inform you. If your character wants a red bicycle, you should ask why. Why a bicycle? Why a red one? Why do they want it so badly? They may want one because they believe a bicycle means speed, and speed means escaping a beating, and escaping means freedom. Why a red one? Maybe they saw an ad with a red bicycle and believe only the red ones can take you very far, very fast. What motivates this character? The desire for freedom.

You can play around with this—asking questions at every turn and making sure your character’s motivation moves from being material to being something abstract. Try this and see what you unearth about your character.

Be familiar with them, with the way they think. Get to know them like you would an actual person. You could achieve this by interviewing your character, by journaling in their voice, or if you don’t really like stress, by fantasising about them during your free time. I fantasise a lot—sometimes I am a fly on the wall while they have conversations with other characters, and other times I am in my story world as that character, just being.

Thinking about a character so many times in a day familiarises you with them and gives you insight into the kind of person they are. Sometimes, just imagine how they would react to a real-life situation. Would they ignore it if someone mispronounces their name, or would they correct the person? How would they go about this correction?

When you are doing this, have the character’s backstory in mind so you don’t mistakenly give the character reactions that you feel are ‘appropriate’. They should react in ways that are ‘appropriate’ to them, not to you.

You would learn a lot about a character from their background. Our background and experiences are what shape us.

Your character should not exist in a vacuum. Even though we meet them at the beginning and say goodbye at the end of your story, they are not bound to just that timeline. Your readers should have the feeling that they just peeked into your character’s world. This means that your character should exist beyond the bounds of your story—your readers are the ones on borrowed time. Your characters are coming from somewhere, and though we may not remain with them till they take their last breath, they are going somewhere.

Just as the experiences you’ve had have shaped you into the person you are, your character’s experiences shape them into who they are. That is why backstories are important—they give us an idea of why a character acts the way they do even when the character may not know why.

Why does your character hate the sight of dog leash? Why does she cringe at the word ‘commitment’? What was her family like? What was it like growing up as an only girl in a house with seven men? Snow White or a nightmare?

The entire backstory doesn’t have to make it into the book, but some information should. Your readers should be able to glean something about your character from their backstory and go ‘Oh, so this is why’. You can keep the bulk of the information in your drafts and only refer to it when you need to be sure you are staying true to your creation and that they are not acting out of character.

Look around you right now. What do you see? What does your living space look like? What does your office space look like? Do you have clothes strewn around your room? Is your ‘not too dirty for the basket but not clean enough for the wardrobe’ pile staring accusingly at you? Do you have flowers in your room? Posters? Motivational quotes?

Now, read your story and look around your character’s room. What do they have in their room? Did you even mention their surroundings at all? If your character is a person who loves everything fitness, a nice yoga mat leaning against the wall will not be out of place.

When the image of your character first came to you, was their room gloomy? Do they keep their curtains down or do they allow the sunshine through? A person’s immediate surroundings, especially where they spend most of their time, can tell you a lot about them. Your character’s surroundings should tell you something about them.

Maybe your character has a dumbbell next to their bathroom door. You could ask why they have that. Maybe it is there so that once they go to have their first pee of the day they would remember to workout. Maybe they are a person who needs such reminders. What does that say about them, and how do they remind themselves about other things?

Maybe they dropped the dumbbell there after a workout session two months ago and just forgot to put it back. What does this say about them now? Your character’s environment is a really good way to get to know your character.

This is an advice I am likely to follow so I’m putting it out here for you. Sometimes trying to ‘know’ our characters might keep us stuck. For some people, once they outline their novel, they lose the desire to write it. It might be the same for you when it comes to creating characters, so rather than follow all these processes only to burn out, maybe just write.

Just write the story as it comes and let your characters decide how they would turn out. Besides, you could always feed them some protein during your second draft or editing process.

If you ever find yourself questioning why your character doesn’t seem as nuanced as you would like though, maybe you need to sit them down for a proper conversation or try out one of the options I’ve given. No harm in trying.

I hope you got something valuable for when you need to create well-rounded characters. Let me know your thoughts about this, and I’ll see you next time.