Posted: January 23, 2024
When writing fiction, you’re building worlds. Whether you’re recreating the real world as a setting for an imagined story, or inventing a new world altogether, you choose what details are included in the world. The same can be said for the characters you incorporate. Are they real people from history, or imagined characters of your own?
Most of the time, it’s the latter. Sure, they may be vaguely based on people you know or see, but characters are, more often than not, entirely fictional. They are agents of storytelling, ad as such, are built for the purpose of conveying your message.
So how can you make fake people feel real?
This is the basic information about your character. You may have an idea of what they look like, how they act, where they come from. Create this shell around their core. For the minor characters in your story—the ones who might show up for one scene then disappear again—this is all you need. For other characters, you need more.
Every character, like every person, has a key desire, something that pushes them forward. Some people seek power and control; some seek love and acceptance; some want adoration; some want reputation; some want to sow unadulterated chaos. Whatever your character wants should be the reason behind everything they do.
I’m not just talking about something physical or emotional that the character is actively pursuing (though they can be consciously taking steps to do so), but something that drives the character forward.
Loki, Norse god of mischief and lies, younger brother to Thor, is a character who, for his entire long life, has only wanted love and acceptance. He was always cast into Thor’s shadow as a child, the second choice for the throne, the second choice in the eyes of “their” friends—always second. He felt unworthy of his family’s love, a notion which grew more bitter as the years went by.
Eventually, he found out that he was adopted, which was the reasoning behind his neglect as a child, and this caused him to snap. He took outrageous action in an attempt to make Odin proud, to prove himself a true Asgardian, but when even that wasn’t enough, he gave up. He let himself fall to his death.
He didn’t die. His later pursuits were for a throne and connecting back to his primary motivation for love and acceptance, and the apparent rejection of his family, he sought to take that acceptance by force by assuming a throne on Earth. This plan failed due to exterior circumstances.
Loki has always been a character who does what’s best for him, and this is because he has learned he cannot trust others. However, he still carries that desire within him, which is seen in his continuous return to his brother’s side, as seen in Thor: The Dark World and in Thor: Ragnarok. One scene in Thor: Ragnarok has Loki sweeping in with an escape ship announcing, “Your saviour is here!” which blatantly shows how he wishes the citizens of Asgard to view him—as a saviour to be showered in gratitude and love.
This Loki is eventually killed by Thanos in his final attempt to save his brother’s life, but another version of Loki lives on in the TV series Loki, after the time-travelling interference of the Avengers. Loki is taken to the TVA, and because his expertise is needed, he joins the team under Mobius.
Shortly after their meeting, Loki admits to Mobius that he scares people so that they feel small. He is admitting his vulnerability to Mobius—he was a child abandoned and taken in, but he believes he’s never felt unconditional love. He himself feels unlovable and small, and his way of protecting himself is by putting others down to build himself up. Luckily, this belief changes.
Throughout Season 1, Loki is trying to take over the TVA—another attempt to grab power not for the pursuit of power but to be admired—but as he grows to care for and respect the people he works with, he becomes truly happy for the first time in his life. A large realization he comes to in Season 2 is that he doesn’t really care about whether the world is destroyed or if he has a throne to be worshipped and admired from—he just wants to be with his friends again, be truly accepted again.
Here, we’ve come full circle. Whether he knows it consciously or not, every step and misstep Loki takes in his life is in pursuit of love and acceptance, and by the end of his journey, once he realizes that he has achieved this feat, he is able to do what needs to be done to save the world—all worlds.
Now, not everyone is going to be saving the entire world once they achieve their motivating desire, but they will achieve great things in the pursuit of it.
Once you have a character’s shell and deeper desire mapped out, you can work on the smaller details. Try putting together a character bio. Is this character important enough to have their backstory laid out? Do you need to make a timeline to explain to yourself how they got to where they are and how they will continue? Do you need to map out how they interact with people and their different relationships with the characters in the story around them?
Nothing is worse than inconsistencies in your characters—especially for the sake of the plot. Some authors will admit that their characters will act of their own accord, or they’ll try to get their characters to do something and the character just puts their foot down and refuses. This is a good instinct to have. If you don’t have this gut instinct (or even if you do), knowing the ins and outs of your characters can help you avoid making mistakes.
One glaring example of a character acting inconsistent comes from Snape in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, when the plot moves forward as Harry discovers Snape speaking with Filch in the teacher’s lounge as he bandages his leg. Snape is speaking to Filch, asking, “How are you supposed to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?”
This, in hindsight, is entirely out of character for Snape, who for some reason is bandaging his leg in the teacher’s lounge instead of his office (it can be assumed that he didn’t go to the hospital wing so as to hide the injury from the other staff); who is speaking to Filch (though a close relationship is never established between them before or after this event); and who is speaking aloud about Fluffy the three-headed dog just so Harry can overhear it.
Now, this whole front of the chapter is a bit contrived for the sake of moving the plot forward, but it’s in large part due to Snape’s actions that it feels unconvincing.
Once you have your characters created for their introduction to the story, where do you go from there? Consider whether your character changes over the course of the story. Do they learn new lessons? Do they grow as a person?
[Related Article: What is Character Development?]
If the answer is “yes” that means they’re undergoing character development, which is different from character building. Instead of learning how your character has gotten to where they are now, development is how your character is affected by the plot of the story, in either a positive or negative way. (Yes, negative development is possible!)
How will your character behave?
Top 10 Tips for New Writers
Top 10 Tips for All Writers
Top 10 Tips for Writing Captivating Stories
Writing Good Characters
Writing Compelling Villains
Pixar’s 22 Storytelling Rules
What is a First Draft? [writing]
What is Plot? [writing]
What is an Outline? [writing]
What is a Timeline? [Writing]
What is Character Development? [writing]
What is Worldbuilding? [writing]
What is Beta Reading? [review reading — pre-launch]
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