Crafting Realistic Characters

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. ― Ernest Hemingway

Making realistic characters can be a difficult task, but it can be rewarding when done correctly. With a realistic character, your readers will find them and their actions believable. The story will pull them in, and they will root for the characters, find joy in the character’s joy, and sadness in their sadness.

A believable and realistic character is one of the most important aspects of a story. So for today’s article, we will be going over a few simple ways to improve your characters and make them more realistic for your story.

Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash

A Few Simple Ways to Craft Realistic Characters

Flaws and All

They should never be perfect. It’s really that simple. Balance your character's flaws along with their strengths. If a character has too many strengths, it’s unrealistic. Too many flaws can also be unrealistic at times. Try to keep the two balances, and allow the two to make sense together.

For example, a character who is kindhearted and gentle to everyone may also be unable to say no and get into trouble often. A character who gossips often may have anxieties and be a control freak because they don’t want others to gossip about them.

Giving a character flaws makes the real, and makes them relatable. Even if the flaws make them seem “bad”, no person is perfect. So why make perfect characters? There is not much of a story if a character has no flaws and makes no mistakes.

Your Actions have Consequences

Give them consequences for their actions. This goes along with having flaws in the way that if there are no consequences there is no tension in your story.

Allow your characters to do something, and it can seem good or bad but allow this action to have repercussions. This not only allows your character to feel more realistic but allows for a far more entertaining and captivating story.

Vulnerability

Give your characters vulnerable moments. Show different sides to the characters sometimes. In the first person, is the easiest way to write a vulnerable moment. In this, it would be “Me Centered Narration,” in which the character can express what they desire everyone to view them as while their feelings and actions show the complete opposite.

For example: A girl who is loud-mouthed and often positive tells everyone that everything is fine but can’t control herself crying. This would initiate a vulnerable scene where the character has to reveal a different side of herself.

Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash

Losers

Don’t hesitate to take something away from your characters. Allow them to lose. Let them lose challenges, let them lose things, let them lose allies. I think this quote from Kurt Vonnegut is an excellent way to understand this.

Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them ― in order that the reader may see what they are made of. ― Kurt Vonnegut

It really drives the point home. By allowing your characters to experience losses and other bad situations, we get to see the character in their most raw and beaten form. We can see how they bounce back if at all from the pains of their journey in the story.

The character is more realistic for experiencing pain, problems, and losses like the rest of us. This keeps the reader’s attention as they desperately want to see how the character will react. Will they get past this? Or will they be beaten?

Something to Care for is Something to Lose

Allow your characters to care for something or someone. Portraying this accurately not only will make your characters more realistic but also allow for better buildup and payoff if you allow something bad to happen to this character. This is a lot like the loser section but instead focuses on developing a relationship between characters so the loss hits harder.

Weaknesses

Give your characters weaknesses, and exploit them. Do they rise to any challenge? Challenge them often. Are they afraid of failure? Let them fail. Are they the gossiping type? Let them get in trouble for this.

Not all the problems your characters face will come out of nowhere. Some problems will be of their own creation from their weaknesses, or their weaknesses will cause problems to seem worse for them.

In Conclusion

Crafting a realistic character takes time, devotion, and work. You aren’t just crafting a character, you're creating a whole person. With a backstory, emotions, likes and dislikes, and much more. It is important to take time with your characters to make them realistic so they can be memorable to the readers. It can be a bit of work but it is very rewarding in the end.

I hope this article helps you in writing the characters in your story. Happy Writing!