Self-Assessment: 5 Ways to Boost the Quality of Any Character
I’m going through a revision stage for my current WIP. As I revise, I am focusing heavily on plot, which has left some of my characterization feeling flat.
The problem is, good characters make stories, and flat, uninteresting characters break them.
So I wanted to spend a little time with the question:
What makes a good character?
As I thought through a few of my all-time favorite characters, as well as a few of the characters I’m currently interacting with in the books, film, and series I’m consuming, I realized that each of the “good” characters (the characters that really pop, that feel colorful and interesting, that I’m happy to spend time with) have 5 things in common.
Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, but distilling a character down to 5 checkboxes has been useful for my writing. And I always like to share the things I’m finding helpful.
So, here are the 5 qualities that each of the characters I looked at had in common. You can use these qualities to assess your own characters.
Character Trait #1: They feel and express emotion on the page/screen. ESPECIALLY vulnerability and/or insecurity.
Emotion is interesting. But someone stomping around in anger, laughing in ecstasy, or hiding in fear is amplified a million times if those emotions are anchored at some point in your story in vulnerability and insecurity.
(I talk about this in the Writing Emotion series all the time, so you can check out this post or this post if you’d like to dive deeper into this theory. )
The basic idea is that we have to see your character feeling and expressing vulnerability.
We have to witness that moment when their facade falls and we can see through to the tender areas beneath. To the thing they’re afraid to show. The thing they try to cover with anger, ecstasy, or even fear.
If you need direction, ask yourself this simple question:
What is my character afraid is true about them?
For example, they might secretly believe:
I’m a monster
I’m not lovable
I’ve been wasting my time
I can’t measure up to my mother/sister/friend
I’ll never be good enough
Once you spend the time to get clear on a sentence that captures their deepest insecurity (aka, their Lie), you’ll be able to:
Anchor this vulnerability by crafting a scene that gives us as the reader a clear view of this insecurity
Bolster your story with scenes that show a rainbow of other emotions they use to mask this insecurity
Character Trait #2: They are persecuted for their personality.
Sympathy and relatability are incredibly important components when it comes to creating an interesting character. If we as the reader don’t connect, then the rest is moot.
One simple way to establish sympathy is to persecute your character.
But let me clarify: while it can certainly be effective to show a character struggling through difficult events, it’s more relatable to show a character that is persecuted (whether it is in minor or major ways) for being who they are.
Note: I didn’t say for being what they are - race, gender, job title, sexual orientation, or—perhaps in a fantasy world—species are all interesting things to explore, but that’s not what I’m talking about today. I’m referring to being persecuted for the traits and characteristics that make up their personality.
Why does this work?
It works because it plays into our insecurities as a reader.
We sometimes worry that we’re too boring, unintelligent, eager, nerdy, shallow, etc. So giving someone a trait like this, and then having them persecuted for it, automatically garners our empathy and compassion.
But let’s take this even deeper.
It’s one thing to be persecuted for being annoying. It’s another to be persecuted for being so thoughtful that others find it annoying (see the Ron Swanson meme below).
I find that the best characters encompass the idea that our strengths, overused, become our weaknesses.
Let’s look at a few examples to drive this idea home:
Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation) is organized, enthusiastic, and thoughtful. And people love her for it.
But it’s also the thing that gets on their nerves.Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter) is wise, pensive, and talented.
But these are also the traits that earn him enemies and make his friends second-guess him.The Wizard Howl (Howl’s Moving Castle) is ambitious, image-conscious, and imaginative.
But these qualities also garner disdain when he pushes into being vain and immature.
What are some of your character’s best traits? How can they sometimes overuse these strengths to the point that others feel and express irritation, outrage, resentment, disgust, or disapproval for those very characteristics?
Character Trait #3: They are a walking contradiction.
Humans are walking contradictions, so it would follow that interesting, three-dimensional characters would also be walking contradictions.
Chris Traeger from Parks and Recreation is the most optimistic and friendly person you’ll ever meet - but he also is the one responsible for unpopular budget cuts and employee disciplinary measures.
Albus Dumbledore is the only wizard that the Dark Lord fears - and yet as a boy he fell in love with both the man and the ideas of a different dark lord.
Severus Snape is willing to sacrifice his life for Harry Potter - but he also hates him.
Sophie Hatter is shy and content to quietly live her life the way others deem she ought to - but she also bosses around strangers and finds ways to free them from their shackles.
Finding the situations, circumstances, and scenes that exploit these contradictions will lead to a great story and interesting characters.
Character Trait #4: They have a clear goal.
There’s nothing less interesting than a passive protagonist that simply lets the plot happen to her.
I talk about this all the time, so I’ll keep my point short and sweet here: give your character a clear goal that they spend the story proactively pursuing.
But, to dive just a little deeper, here are a few more guidelines:
Pay special attention to the motivations behind your character’s goal. You want their motivations to be:
Human (based in vulnerability and yearning)
Believable/Non-irritating (don’t make them a martyr for the sake of being a martyr or a bad guy for the sake of being a bad guy - we want three-dimensional motivations)
Relevant to the plot (a quick and dirty way to bore your reader is to make a character pursue something that is irrelevant to the plot at hand—you invested them with the promise of your plot, so make sure you follow through on that promise in every scene).
Character Trait #5: They use their agency to make self-serving decisions.
You read that right.
Even the best people are selfish sometimes—it’s human nature. Ironically, it’s not only interesting and relatable to see characters make self-serving decisions. It can even be comforting.
This is because seeing their selfishness in small, relatable moments makes us feel less alienated for doing the same thing.
Howl’s Moving Castle is my favorite book of all time. It’s an interesting story filled with great characters. One of which, is the Wizard Howl.
Howl selflessly uses his power and resources on countless occasions to help his friends Calcifer, Michael, and, of course, our protagonist Sophie.
But, he also essentially blackmails Sophie into helping him get out of working for the Queen. He tires out Calcifer by making him heat up water so that he can feed his own vanity. He runs like a coward from the curse that was placed on him, placing others in danger’s way. And, he manipulates young Michael into doing his dirty work.
He’s selfish. And we still love him. In fact, we love him the more for it.
Don’t think that by making your character selfless, you’re making them more likable. Moments of selflessness are great. Even selflessness as a defining trait can be good.
But it all becomes more impactful if we also get to see your character sometimes succumb to human nature.
If you haven’t read Project Hail Mary, I highly suggest it. I won’t spoil anything, but there is a moment at the end of a long line of selfish decisions where the protagonist makes a choice. And that choice landed with such a gut punch for me that I was in instant tears. The protagonist was a human, who wanted to look out for himself, but he also had moments of growth and self-sacrifice that were all the more impactful because we got to see his human nature rear its ugly head on more than one critical occasion.
BONUS HOMEWORK: Watch Season 3, Episode 11 of Parks and Recreation: Jerry’s Painting.
I recently rewatched it, and it provides a good example of this final idea.
In the episode, Leslie is feeling powerless and dejected. So, in a moment of selfishness, she steals a painting that is actively offending other characters. Succumbing to this selfishness gives us an interesting story. And it’s only because of the learning that comes from her selfish decisions that Leslie is able to ultimately come up with a creative (and sneaky) compromise.
In addition to the trait of selfishness:
Leslie starts the episode feeling upset because she is unable to have something she wants (a relationship with someone she likes). Throughout the story, we also see her shocked, empowered, dejected, and, ultimately, victorious (trait 1: emotion on the screen—including vulnerability).
Leslie’s boss gets angry when she overuses her strength of tenacity to the point that she is actively breaking the rules (trait 2: persecuted for her personality).
Speaking of which, Leslie is a character known for loving rules, and yet, in this instance, we see her throwing caution to the wind (trait 3: walking contradiction).
Leslie’s goal throughout the episode is to feel more in control of her life, which she tries to do by saving the painting she loves (trait 4: proactively pursuing a clear goal with human motivations that are believable and relevant to the plot).
Story Implementation Questions:
What is my character afraid is true about them?
Do they have an impactful moment where we get to see this fear in all its glory? This will result in deep vulnerability and insecurity on the page.
What are my character’s strengths? How do they sometimes overuse those strengths to the point where they become a weakness? This isn’t to say that they should never be appreciated for their strengths—they should be. But when those strengths get overused and pushed to the point of being a weakness, exploit that in your story.
Are there moments in my story where others persecute my character for these aspects of their personality? Look at the small moments to get the biggest bang for your buck here. Think: when does my character’s personality irritate, anger, put off, or disgust someone else?
Does my character contradict themself? Is there something about them that is ironic? For example, in The Vampire Diaries, Damon Salvatore will happily sacrifice people for his own personal self-interest. Often without a second thought or drop of remorse. BUT, he also loves more deeply and loyally than almost anyone else.
Does my character have a clear goal? Does it come down to more than being a martyr or a bad guy for the sake of it? Is it relevant to the main plot?
Does my character use their agency sometimes to make self-serving decisions? I emphasize the idea of agency here for a reason. Again, let’s look again at The Vampire Diaries. Stefan Salvatore is only self-serving when his actions are outside of his control. Meaning, he’s only selfish when he’s not operating from a place of agency (i.e. when his emotions are turned off or in the moments when he is a victim of his addiction). These decisions of selfishness can still be interesting, but they are far less so than if he was making selfish decisions with all of his faculties in place. I’m just saying. There’s a reason that Damon is a more compelling character, and it often comes down to his unabashed selfishness.
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