My 3 Ways to Create Believable Characters
Some of the main protagonists of my book.
Claire Bailey (an actual character in book) is a 21-year-old University student. She gets straight A’s, has a black belt in every martial art, and is President of every club. She also a world-class pianist and can knit a sweater in under an hour (an extra-large sweater btw). She never makes mistakes, has flawless skin, and is loved by everyone she meets. Guys flock to her and gets praised by all her peers. Claire is perfect in every way.
See the problem here?
You probably already guessed it but Claire’s too conveniently perfect. She has no flaws. She has somehow won the lottery in every way—has flawless beauty, is intelligent, physically fit, and has an attractive personality. This is a classic example of making a character unrelatable, boring and importantly, unbelievable. If you want readers to engage with the characters, even put themselves into a protagonist’s (and antagonist’s) shoes, you have to give your characters depth and flaws. (The actual Claire Bailey in my book is imperfect, FYI).
We are all FLAWED!
Create a character bible.
Emotion, emotion, emotion!
1. Humans are naturally flaweD
No one is perfect. Perfection is non-existent. So, have inherent flaws in your characters, especially your main protagonist. The hero of your story has to have some character ‘defects’ in order for them to grow, learn and become a better person by the end of your story.
Readers want a character that learns from their mistakes, uses their flaws to their advantage and overcome their situation (on top of defeating the villain if there is one). It becomes stale if you the character is so perfect, that any action they take are the right ones and don’t result in a mistake. That’s no fun. That’s boring. That’s a DNF book right there (Did Not Finish).
The key point is to make your characters realistic. And how do you do that? A couple of ways:
Use your own experiences:
This may bring back cringey and awful memories, but think about the mistakes you’ve made. How did it make you feel? Think about the embarrassing moments you went through. What did you do and again, how did it make you feel? Think about the interactions you’ve had with people. Were they great interactions, awkward at times or downright horrible. Additionally, how did you react to any of the experiences you had? How did you react when your bike or wallet got stolen? How did you react when you got a parking ticket? Simply looking back at your experiences—even the experiences of others—can help you gather enough content/information to create a believable character.
Draw from the books you’ve read:
Probably the easiest you can do, is to simply open up your favorite book (or your current read). What flaws do those characters have? How did they outgrow or overcome them? Did they make any decisions that caused them more trouble than good? How did they react from their mistakes and what actions did they take afterwards?
Based off your experiences and the interactions you had with people, should be more than enough content to generate a believable character. Again, it’s about growing and learning. We are all flawed but makes a character engaging is how they overcome those flaws.
2. Create a Character Bible
Ah yes, the sacred texts. A character bible is a document where you list all your protagonists, antagonists and side-figures and for each of them, then write everything there is about them. And I mean everything. Don’t leave anything out. Write what they look like, what they eat, where they live, what they wear, what triggers they have, what flaws they possess etc…This list can be long but the more the better.
Here's an excerpt from my character bible featuring Pedro Martinez, one of the five Guardians.
In the example above, I extensively wrote beyond Pedro’s appearance. I wrote his sensitivities/triggers, his relationship with his family and friends, his weaknesses and more. That being said, creating a character’s background like this doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Meaning, it’ll require some first-hand experience and knowledge gained through interacting/observing with your peers.
By putting effort into writing each character’s background, you create a world of depth for readers to step into. In return, your readers will thank you with their engagement and hopefully a great review!
3. Use Emotions!
Emotions are seriously important. You don’t want your character coming off as a robot—unless that’s who they are but even robots can show some feelings. Emotions lie at the core of every character’s decision. It drives them to take actions, and say things that could have irreparable repercussions. Without emotions, your characters—and the story—become bland and dry.
Show don’t tell!
An example of emotions with action from my book, "The Last Guardians Of Atlantis"
Readers want to have an emotional experience. They want a rollercoaster of drama. As stated many times, readers want to connect and engage with your characters. Think about it, did you relate to a character’s emotional reaction and found it to have meaning in your life? I know I did. And that what makes a great book: the connectedness we feel with characters.
But emotions don’t just come out in words; they come out non-verbally. Thoughts, feelings and emotions can be expressed through our body language, like facial cues and physical reactions. As said before, it can be hard to come up with likely reactions to things, so you’ll have to draw upon your powers of observation and experience OR use the book below.
The Encyclopedia of Emotions!
If you’re having trouble coming up with Non-verbal cues, purchase this Emotion Thesaurus by Ackerman & Puglisi. It has become so invaluable to me and I use it all the time.
Well that’s it! I hope this blog helped you gain some insight into generating believable characters. Remember the good ol’ rule of writing: show don’t tell. Readers don’t want to be told how a character feels. They want it shown so they can feel it! Check out the video below for more info on creating life-like characters!
🔥 Are you ready, Guardian? 🌟 Prepare yourself for an epic journey in “The Last Guardians Of Atlantis”. Click the link below! ✨
Need inspiration for characters? Join me LIVE on Twitch from Monday to Friday, 9:30 AM - 3:30 PM EST! 📚✍️ I’ll be working on my second book, and together we’ll tackle tasks using the Pomodoro Method for focused work sessions. Bring your to-do list, and let’s boost our creativity side-by-side! 🚀
