Creating Strong Characters

When you’re writing your story, it’s generally centered around a who, since that is the perspective the story is told. Whether it’s first, second, or third person, there are characters involved in the story and making them strong and developed is the key to a successful story.

I know that I tend to struggle when it comes to creating well-rounded, non-cliché, realistic, and fun characters.

So, I have a helpful tool that I’ve learned that have helped me out with strengthening my characters, and I hope you can find this helpful if you’re struggling as well.

When writing a story, especially a longer work like a book, it’s important to take time to really think about your characters. Start with the main character of course. I feel as though this is the hardest character to create.

You want to make your character everything you want, whether that’s brave or vulnerable, or exceedingly heroic, or whatever charcateristic you choose. (I’m sure they’re all great)

But your character also has to be believable, so that the reader doesn’t get that “Oh here we go again” feeling as they read your story.

I have learned that especially with clichés, you need to be careful when writing them in your story. You don’t have to omit them completely, but you should rewrite them in a way that is fresh and new, and makes the reader go “Ah, that’s different. I like it.”

How do you do this?

You write. And plan. And write some more. And then edit some. And then write. And then plan again… do you see where I’m going with this?

A good place to start is by filling out a character resume for your main character. I came across this on one of my favorite author’s pages. Although this isn’t her idea, she did share the idea of writing out a resume for your main character. Writing down anything and everything that makes your character themselves. Crawford Killian does a good job in guiding you through what makes a really good character and makes you think of things you might not have incorporated into your story!

I feel as though a story us only as great as its characters. When I’m reading a good book, I want to follow the character, anticipate what they might do next based off of their personality and character build up. I’m only able to do this if I have concrete knowledge of who the character is.

The character resume includes things like physical characteristics, to personality traits, family history, and other interesting facts and things to know about your character.

I strongly recommend that you fill this out if you’re struggling with creating strong characters. Go ahead and try filling this out for your main character, and let me know how it goes!

Happy Writing and Happy Holidays!