6 Hints for Creating Great Characters

One thing many writers ask is "How to I create a character readers will love?"


Here are my 6 tips for creating a good character.

1. Love your character

To start, you have to love your character. Whether they're the hero in shining armor, or the villain that cooks crystal meth, you have to love them, somehow.

Love how they change the scene, love how they drive the story, love how clever they are - you don't have to love them for being nice. Everyone loved Darth Vader. Why? Because wherever he went, he won. He only ever lost once, at the end of episode 4. Even at the end of Episode 6, when he lost, he still won. Wherever he went, he rolled over everyone. The audience thought, "Well, the good guys are screwed now. Dark Vader is here to take everyone out."

And he did. He was loved because he was a great, sinister, and intimidating villain.

That's why so many people love Walter White from Breaking Bad. He started out good (or so it seemed), but became a horrible person while maintaining the attention of the audience. Why? Because he was clever, smart, and there was that glimmer of good left in him that interested the audience.

Of course, I'm very much oversimplifying it. Also, no one likes a whiny character. Remember that. It doesn't matter if they're sixteen and angsty. It still makes a character irritating.

2. If they are good at something, there should be a reason

This is where many Mary Sues and Gary Stus appear.

They're characters with no flaws, or at least those that impact the story. They are good at everything, and everyone loves them.

Usually, we don't get to see why they're naturally good at everything, except that they just are.



Let's use Walter White again. He's a high school chemistry teacher. How exactly does he know how to cook crystal meth? How can he outsmart the drug lords over and over?

Soon we find out that he was once a shareholder in "Grey Matter," a company started with him and his two friends. Before it got big, he sold his piece and quit. He was a very brilliant chemist, but he found a wife and settled down into a steady, standard job.

Walter is very intelligent, which is one, how his meth is so pure, and two, how he outsmarts other dealers. However, Walter does mess up on multiple occasions in the beginning.

One very interesting plotline is the one with him and Gus, his boss at one point in the series. It puts extreme pressure on Walter, as Gus is also very, very intelligent. It takes Walter a long time to overcome this obstacle, and there are very unfortunate sacrifices that he makes to do so.

Someone shouldn't just naturally become good at sword fighting, or shooting. They shouldn't be able to do university calculus if they never took grade 8 math.

Another example is Will Hunting from the movie "Good Will Hunting". He's extremely brilliant, yet he never went to college. It's because read an unbelievable number of books. He is a Savant, yes, but it is clear that he put time into his learning, such as the confrontation at the bar where he upstages a grad student's knowledge; Will read the books the student was quoting.

One interesting thing is that the Force, from star wars, is a Mary Sue generator, in a way. People are randomly amazing at sword fighting and shooting, because they feel the force, and know how to react. I don't think it makes them Mary Sues, though. Being a jedi usually takes a lot of mental strength and training.



3. Flaws make them interesting

Everyone always says a character should have flaws. It's true. Everyone has flaws, so why wouldn't the protagonist?

They do make the character more interesting. When a character is presented with a conflict, it is interesting when the flaw gets in their way.

Imagine your protagonist is cowardly and afraid of confrontation. They are presented with a situation: try to save their friends who are being attacked by something (a mugger, a dragon, etc.), or run and protect themselves. This decision changes many things - they may not actually survive if they try to help, but if they don't, their cowardice is revealed, and the friends lose their respect for the protagonist. Or, the friends die, and the protagonist must live with their choice.

This creates a story/character arc, where we discover what the consequences are of the protagonist's choice.

A flaw should affect the character during the plot. It shouldn't be something that's sort-of useless with respect to the plot. If someone is clumsy, it should have a consequence.

Sometimes physical flaws are shown, but they may serve little real value. Some see Tyrion Lannister's physical flaws (Dwarf, mangled) as actual flaws, and while they are since others disrespect them because of it, he has so many more personality flaws. (Bitterness because of it, self-loathing because of his love life, hate from his sister who never lets him forget it, alcoholism and more)

Make them a coward. Make them too proud to notice disloyalty. They could be too bull-headed to see their life is a lie, too uncoordinated so they lose battles, too immature so they lose the respect of their comrades, too dedicated to a cause, so they kill and hate themselves for it.



4. They change over the course of the book

When you create a plot, and it changes over the course of the book, your character should change with it. They shouldn't change completely, but they should grow from the experience. 

Take Walter White again. Walter was a good man (or so it seemed), but he changed his methods and went to crime to pay for his medical bills, because he was too proud to ask for help.

Slowly, over the course of five seasons, he became a horrible person. Maybe that was him all along, but it was obvious how he changed. His pride owned him.

We grow over a year. Our opinions change, and our characters should change, too - for better or for worse.




5.  They change when others enter the scene

One thing I learned as I wrote, was that there was an exponential number of styles of speech based on who was in the conversation. 

Think of it this way:

Jack and Jill are talking. They are friends, good friends, so they talk about more personal information.

John enters the scene.  

Jack is good friends with John, but not as much as Jill, so he holds a little bit of information back. 

Jill hates John, but Jack doesn't know. She heavily restricts the personal information she divulges, and talks to John with a hint of disdain. 

Jack then becomes confused, and changes the way he speaks, since he's confused. 
John speaks a little less boisterously than normal, since Jack is acting strangely, and he also feels self conscious since Jill is speaking a little rudely.

That was only three people. Every time a new person enters the scene, the number of conversational changes exponentially increases. 

Each character changes the way they talk when around different people. 


Now, for the final and most obvious and commonly said way of creating a good character:

6. Give them a goal which drives the plot

A character should have a clear goal. Not always, but in most circumstances, a clear goal is a surefire way to have a reader like your character. When I sent my first book to beta readers, I got one obvious note back: they didn't like one of the characters very much, and it was a major one. 

Why? Because that character didn't have a solid goal. They had a general goal, but not a solid one that would cause most people to drive the plot in the same way - which causes a lack of investment for the reader.

So I changed the goal, made it more specific, and the readers liked the character much better. They made choices due to their goal, which drove their story forward. The decisions made a real impact in the world they live in.

So should yours.



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I hope my post was helpful! I went with a few stereotypical ones, and a few points that I don't see often online. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Off the Walls

You sit in your seat, bouncing off the walls. “How is that possible?”, one would ask.

You sit, or you would seem to, yet you bounce all over room, shaking, maneuvering, bouncing. You can’t calm down, you can’t come to. Anxiety grips you.

You shake, you clatter and clank.

Why is it all worth it, you ask? The secret lies between the lines. It’s worth it because you want it.

To write, to live, to love.

You wish to feel safe, yet safety comes in numbers.

One. The clothes in which you wear.

Draped over you like a cloak, a shield. Warming you from the colds of the world, the frigid fear that grips you day-by-day.

Two. In the door you close.

You close the door to the room, drowning out the sounds of the world, barring others from entering, from speaking, from badgering you with any word you wish not to hear.

Three. In the music you seek.

Phones set to your ears, echoing sounds with soothe whether they are harsh, calm, mellow, or rugged. Not only do they alone soothe the mind, but to drown out the sounds of the outside, the world, the workplace, the schoolyard. These are the most vital of your count, the most important of your guard. They enable you to delve into another world, formed within your imagination, through the images, people, voices you create from the tones transported from speaker to eardrum.

In all, you feel safer. The shaking stops, your mind calmed, your soul refilled.

You slip into dreams, of fire, of gods, of kings, so the next day you may awake, to brave the world once more.

To bounce once more, off the walls.

Final Words

"The date is January 6th, 2095. You stand convicted of spreading false knowledge and belief to the masses. Your sentence is death by the electric chair. Do you have any last words?” The Judge said, standing before the man in the chair.

“Yes, your honour. I wish to apologize for what I’ve done. I apologize first and foremost for the evil things I have done this past year. I have evaded taxes, insulted friends, yelled at family. I have sat in my cell, moping to myself, not recognizing the crimes I have committed against humanity. Why didn’t I see my folly before? Why didn’t I see my foolish ways? Was it because of the history of my work? The changes in laws? I beg you, your honour, look at the past, look at what we’ve become. We live in a society where a man such as I, as foolish as I am for breaking the laws, is convicted of a more severe crime in the eyes of the state than murder, rape, perjury, and many others. How could I do this to all of you, you ask? It is an important question, a necessary question that I ask myself every day. I sit in my home waiting for my daughters to come home. They come to me asking about our world and what is at the end. ‘What’s off the end of the world, daddy?’ They would ask me. It is a crime to go against the beliefs of the state, so I committed this crime day by day. I told them, no girls, the world isn’t flat. We did land on the moon. Vaccines are good for you. Yet, our society has been so paralyzed by fear, so cynical of science and real facts that they can’t see the truth. Our world is round. We did land on the moon. God dammit, vaccines saved millions of lives, and now we live in an age where diseases like measles, polio, and so many more are rampant, ravaging communities and populations in the country. We lose thousands and thousands a year to these diseases. Why? Because no one is vaccinated. Because we don’t believe in doctors, antibiotics or painkillers. Because ‘natural’ things are better. Want to know what else is natural? Cyanide. Opium. Multiple poisons that kill in seconds. We don’t understand the consequences of what we do anymore. No one sees the pain, the death and the sorrow we cause by not believing in fact, in evidence. Those are my last words, your honour. Asking you, all of you, to believe in evidence. You once asked me if I felt sorry for putting these vile thoughts of science in children’s minds..do I? Sure, I apologize for trying to educate everyone on the importance of reality, evidence and truth. Gave mercy on all your souls.”
    The judge stood at beside him on the table, nodding to the guard who would flip the electrocution switch. He furrowed his brow, showing no sign of kindness. “May god have mercy on yours, heathen.”

"I am."

I am.

What can I be, what do I wish to be?

Such questions envelop the mind, but are ridiculous in nature. “You can be whatever you put your mind to.” A ridiculous thought. You have your specialties and limitations. But you can be something. You must focus on different parts of life differently, each necessary for a full life.

Remember your past, focus on the present, consider your future.

I am.

What have you become?

Look at yourself and see what you are and what has made you. Whether it be before birth, childhood, adolescence or adulthood, each step is important. Remember and learn from what has been.

Remember your past.

I am.

What are you?

Don’t forget to define who you are. What you do, where you go, who you associate with. Never lose the focus. Do not focus where you’ve been or where you’re going more than you need. Keep goals, small ones, so that one day you will reach the summit you see. Each step is important.

Focus on the present.

I am.

Where will you go?

Look to your future. What do you see? How will you reach the summit of your mountain? Each step is important, and each goal takes you to the next level. You cannot truly know your path without seeing what is in the distance. Is it in a chasm? Or atop a grand mountain? Remember to consider the consequences, but do not focus on it, do not let it out of reach.

Consider your future.

I am.

Three views, three differences in focus. Each necessary for life as a whole.

But now ask yourself. See your past, present and future. Who are you?

I am.