The ‘Why’ of Great Characters

Characters are without a doubt, the core of great fiction.  The closer we as writers are able to emulate real three-dimensional characters within our work the stronger our work becomes.  There are many guides available for assisting an emergent writer in the process of creating unforgettable characters and these guides provide a strong support in our writing journey but I wanted to touch on a facet of characterization that I personally feel needs more attention. 

Most character creation guides will tell you that the more you know about your characters the better they become.  I don’t think this is enough.  You can know what she looks like, her marital status, likes and dislikes etc and still fail to develop a character that functions authentically within the confines of a story.  I believe the strongest tool to creating authentic characters lies in understanding why your character is the way he or she is.

Start asking yourself why your character dislikes jazz music or the color blue.  Ask yourself why your character reacts to things the way she does.  Rather than run through a list of attributes your characters have, try creating a personality profile that explores and identifies the way your characters react and look at why they react the way they do.

Two different characters can have the same list of attributes and yet function in completely different ways.  Say, for example, we have Jane and Jill, two fictional characters.  They both dislike dogs.  On the surface they appear the same and if they come across a dog may react the same but if we examine these characters and start asking why then we discover some very important personality traits that will affect how these two characters react to different events. 

Jane dislikes dogs because she was chased by a dog when she was younger.

Jill dislikes dogs because they are smelly and messy.  She had one as a pet and it drooled all over her stuff and covered her clothes in dog hair.

So if we put these two characters in a scenario where they see a man who assaulted them years earlier we can expect they will react differently.  Jane will have a strong emotional response because past traumatic events tend to stay with her.  We know this because she still dislikes dogs after being frightened by one in her childhood.

Jill may still be fearful but is less likely to show a strong emotional response because she doesn’t form emotional attachments to events to the same degree.  We know this because Jill’s strongest memory of her pet dog is not one of fondness but rather disgust at its drooling and shedding.  She is able to distance herself emotionally.

Although this example is very simplistic you can see how by asking why the character dislikes dogs we develop a depth to them and a greater understanding of their motivations.

Once you can identify the motivating factors that drive your characters then you will find they will also drive the plot.  It doesn’t matter whether you will ever use the details you uncover about them, what matters is that they respond to events in your story in an authentic and believable manner.

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