Writing Fiction: Realistic Characters

Writing fiction can be compared to baking bread. If you don’t add yeast, the dough won’t rise. If you forget to add the flour, you won’t have a loaf of bread no matter how hard you try. You must have all the ingredients, in the correct amounts, to make a successful loaf of bread just like you need the right “ingredients” in writing fiction. Make sure that you add action, description, plot, and character growth in the right amounts for perfect combination that will make your fiction come to life.

Some stories are plot-driven, while others are character-driven. If you choose to write a character-driven story, you will need to know that character inside and out. It isn’t enough to know what physical characteristics a character has, you need to know what internal motives he has. What drives him to make the choices he makes?

Of course, you will need to know his physical characteristics so you can describe him, but you need to dig deeper.

Many writers use a character sheet to keep track of all of the details for each character. An example might be:

• Height:
• Hair Color:
• Eye Color:
• Age:
• Hairstyle:
• Clothing style:
• Body Shape:
• Voice:
• Strengths:
• Weaknesses:
• Strongest Personality Trait(s):
• Fears:
• Dreams:
• Relationship to Family:
• Mother:
• Father:
• Education:
• Religion, if any:
• Pets:
• Habits:
• Likes:
• Dislikes:

The more categories you can fill out, or add, the better. You probably won’t need to include a lot of the information on the character sheet, but knowing this information will help you to create a more realistic character that will make believable choices. Make sure that you never create a completely good or completely evil character. Temper the good with some flaws and the evil with some decency. The more complex a character, the better. A good protagonist that fights against a temptation to do something wrong is much more realistic than a character who never does the wrong thing.

When writing fiction, get to know your characters as well as you know yourself. Think about them, write down bits of conversation they have with you, understand what motivates them. Most of all, make them real.