A novel, a story, a tale, a story have characters in common. There is someone to whom something happens and the reader seeks to know how it is evolving and avoiding the problems that the author himself throws into it. But, how to create characters that are really good?
If this is what you were looking for, then you will find the answer. It is not something easy, nor is it something that has to be followed to the letter. But yes it can help you to know what are the bases to give consistency to a character and, above all, to improve and make your story good.
what is a character
Before diving into the advice we can give you to create characters, you should understand 100% what a character is.
According to the RAE, character is:
"Each of the real or imaginary beings that appear in a literary, theatrical or cinematographic work."
In other words, is that being that is within the story and that acts in the plot in some way, well living history, telling it, etc.
Really the character is one of the most important elements in every story. Because it is part of it. It may be that the story that is narrated happens to him, that he participates in some way (secondary or tertiary character) or that he tells it (narrating character).
How to create characters
Now that you are clearer about what a character is, we are going to talk to you about what you have to control so that this is one of the best in the world. And believe it or not, a bad character can ruin the whole story.
What should you pay attention to?
realistic character
Many times it is said that a character has to have a name, qualities, physique and little else. But is it realistic?
Imagine you are going to write a Scottish historical novel about a bloodthirsty warrior. And you say that he is very educated, that he reads books, that he speaks politely... Would you really believe that such a character exists?
With this we want to make you understand that the character cannot be «Superman» and have all the good. You have to know this character thoroughly but, above all, be realistic. If you don't believe your character, why should a reader?
Physical description
Before starting any story, We always recommend that you make a file as extensive as possible talking about each of the characters that you will haveespecially the most important ones.
In this file, a very important aspect will be the physical description. This will help you create that character in your mind and you will be able to know what features he has: long or short hair, a beard, a scar or tattoo, etc.
All this It will allow you not to mess up when you are writing it and change the features to the characters.
Give him a quality in which he succeeds and another that is his fault
The characters, whether they are protagonists, secondary characters, villains... they cannot do everything well, because if they do, the novel is not believable. And what you want is for the reader to follow through to the end. So, if you offer him a utopian vision, he won't believe it.
What yes you can do is give it a quality that makes it very good, and that it has at least one defect. You already know that real people have something we do well and many flaws.
Well, you should do the same in the case of building characters for a book.
with everyday problems
Often we make mistakes when building the characters because we don't really think about the day to day, but because we want to make them "idyllic", we tend not to see them in everyday situations.
For example, if a character travels back in time, how is he going to communicate with other people from the past? Will she understand her language perfectly? Or will she have to go through a language learning process?
Well, this seems logical, many times it is forgotten.
So you have to try to give it consistency with everyday problems: meeting friends, phone calls, going to the bathroom, problems getting up...
characters that evolve
In a novel, the plot makes the characters evolve and are not the same at the beginning and at the end. Well because they fall in love, because they tell part of their past, because they change their minds... There are many factors that make them transform.
Keep in mind that you are not the same before you encounter a problem. For example, before falling in love, before seeing yourself immersed in a police plot... Even if it is minimal, there will be things that change.
Assemble his past, but without going overboard
By this we mean that he must have a past, something in his life that has made him the way he is. If not, if he comes out of nowhere, he is left more empty. That doesn't mean you should always give him a past. Sometimes you just have to show that character as he is, and understand him.
But in that understanding, sometimes it may happen that you need to give that way of being a reason. And that's where the past comes in.
Within the past, you have to be careful about going over. In other words, a reader is not going to be interested in everything about the character's past, but only the most important and relevant thing that has made him the way he is. Everything else can be interpreted as "chaff".
Don't obsess over all the advice
In this case we are going to break with everything we have told you before. And it is that the characters, so that they are really good, so that they succeed and so that they are believable,o first thing you should know is that they are "human". Even when they are on your mind.
That means that you must create a character as if it were a human. Visualize that person and give him the traits, personality, daily problems... in other words, think of him as if he really exists and as if he is telling you his story. The only things you should add are the actions it does and the physical descriptions.
Keep in mind that professionals and publishers believe that if a novel has a lousy plot, but the characters are solid, it can be fixed. But if these characters are not good, no matter how good the plot you have, the readers are not going to get a good reading experience.
Do you have more doubts about how to create characters?