Give Your Character Depth
Add some flesh to them!
Character evolution is at the soul of any great story. Whether it’s the protagonist or the side characters, character evolution is the whole point of fiction at the end of the day. The modification—the journey from one mystical/emotional/knowledgeable place to another—is the tale of humanity. As a writer, our main job is to learn how those important changes work in the real world and how you can then exhibit them in your fiction with enough practicality to interact with your readers.
And the initial questions tend to be what will the personality look like? Many writing standards will tell you to shun extended physical descriptions, and in the story, this is good guidance. But distinguishing what they look like can help you dig deeper into who they are at heart. How? External appearances frequently do indicate inner depths.
What are the main points about a character?
When we think about ourselves, we’re composed of everything that has ever occurred to us, plus our family upbringing, our values, faith, our view of the planet, and a lot more. The same principle applies to your characters. We may ask why we have to fret knowing our character’s life story and who their relatives are. Some authors favor writing their way into a character's life and keep adding things as the story progresses. But as soon as you make a past for your character, the minute you know where they originated from, you will find that all they do in your story has included significance and sense, not to mention regularity and believability.
No two people are identical. This is what makes them captivating and what every so often makes the character the central point of genre fiction. Crime fiction readers love Sherlock. The stories need to be decent, but the characters we are attracted towards, in a similar way certain people entice us as buddies. As soon as you’ve figured out the basics, the more profound work on your character begins with a dilemma. How do you make their personality, making them an individual, without going crazy?
Some crazy characters work — like Mourning Myrtle — but others estrange readers. Characters that are always the grouchy party poopers put readers off. You will be told that your protagonist must be agreeable, and it’s factual most of the time, but that just makes it tougher!
One of the most critical things you need to know about your characters is their inspirations — why do they act in a particular way? More prominently, what do they do in a catastrophe? Psychologists say that we will return to how we handled things when we were kids in our most life-threatening moments (particularly after we reach our forties). What was your character like when they were a kid? Did they have outbursts, or were they mature and handled things sensibly even then? More prominently, you need to explain why they acted that certain way.
If your character saw someone being mugged, what would they do? Jump in immediately and attempt to save them even when they don’t have a weapon at hand? Or would they just watch? Will they call someone for help? Or would they just avoid the situation and make a run for it? One of these days, your character will face a huge challenge in your story, either outwardly or on the inside (if they don’t, your novel will have no high point, and you're going under), and a lot of minor challenges and hindrances along the way. Therefore, it is essential to recognize who your character is, how they will react at the decisive moments, and why. Even if you wind up writing your way into this to realize, it will still be the core of the character and the tale.
What is character agency?
Character agency is fundamentally about giving characters selections. It’s also linked to the notion of making realistic, well-defined characters. Characters with ambitions and imperfections make worthy and awful decisions. Character agency is the management bit of that; it’s letting the characters force the events in your stories. So how can you give your character agency?
Use objectives to push the character, both all-embracing and instantaneous.
Lack of well-defined, tough goals is repeatedly the reason for a character whose onward impetus fails. Even if you know what your character wants in the future, the central goal he is striving toward during the story—Harry Potter wants to defeat Voldemort; Gandalf wants the One ring destroyed; Katniss wants to get out alive. They should also continuously have an instant one: what they want or require in every single situation. And the accomplishment of which is often paving their way towards their central objective.
For example, Katniss has to gather equipment; then, she has to make allies, and eventually, she has to kill others to survive. Each of these clear-cut immediate goals causes her to have to take uninterrupted action to make it occur. Therefore, make unquestionable the story's impetus is unswervingly driven in quest of that objective by your character’s selections, activities, and conduct.
Use determination and purpose to give drive to characters who are trapped.
Your character might not be able to bring about the changes they want to make or pursue their objectives instantly, but displaying their eager desire to do so can fill in for the action itself and give booklovers something to cheer for. At least for a short time, though, we need to see the character overwhelm that conflict and gain control at the end of the day.
Keep the action primeval and instantaneous.
Even where characters are taking a straight role in their destiny, it doesn't read as a robust agency if we're not envisioning it happen personally. Pen down all the action for your readers. Readers need to know every move she makes to uncover the truth if your protagonist is looking for clues to see who sabotaged her big office project. Telling us about character agency through the grapevine and after the action makes it loses its impact. And it also leaves readers feeling uninvolved in action.
Test Your Character’s Agency
Testing for an agency is very easy. Probe:
Would it develop precisely the same way if you put any character into the act? If so, that's an indication that the central character isn’t making the plot but trailing the plot.
If you altered the character's drives, would the scene develop an identical way? If yes, that’s an indication that the character’s aims don’t truthfully matter and aren’t influencing the plot.
If you took the character out of the story all in all, would the plot be modified? If not, that’s an indication that the plot is going on without any effect from the characters whatsoever.
If you notice an indication, use some time to improve the characters. Work out how they settle into the story and how their selections, driven by their ideas and requirements, can influence that story. Of course, you might have to change the plot a little too, but it will be beneficial.
What Is a Character Arc?
A character arc is a track a character takes over the progression of a story. A character’s arc includes hardship and challenges and some modifications to the character, which eventually leads to conflict resolution. Character arcs usually progress in partnership with a customary three-act story arrangement. The greatest protagonist character arcs begin with the inciting incident that augments the central conflict the character is going through. The way the arc grows from there hinges on what kind of story you are telling and how the character operates.
Ways to write a character arc with a positive change
When the protagonist overwhelms exterior problems and interior imperfections to become a healthier person, we can designate this as a positive arc. It’s frequently used in story constructions, for example, in the Hero's Journey.
At its basics, this arc is composed of three points:
The Objective: Every character needs to have an objective. It might be to be the best at something. Or it might be to make someone fall in love with them. Whatsoever the aim, their journey will be hindered by a lie.
The Falsehood: A grave misapprehension about themselves or the world keeps them from attaining what they want. To reach their objective, they’ll need to recognize and overwhelm the Lie by facing the truth.
The Truth: While the character might have their own strategies, the positive change arc has its own objective: making oneself better. This is attained when they learn to discard The Lie and accept The Truth.
Ways to write a character arc with a negative change
Not all and sundry always come out feeling good after facing challenging times. Humans are vulnerable beings, deeply influenced by the state of affairs. That means that tussles can make us feel detached and unhappy, and fiction that precisely portrays a person’s downward gradient can be very touching and absorbing. Characters don’t permanently change inside in a bad way in this kind of arc. from time to time; it's their world that is damagingly affected.
A negative character arc covers the same three rudimentary features as the positive one:
The Objective: Identical to the positive arc, they will have an objective. On the other hand, instead of being stalled by it, the goal will become pushed by the Lie.
The Falsehood: The certainty that attaining a particular goal will generate a positive outcome. Intending to reach their objective, the characters either meaningfully or unintentionally believe the Lie, driving them away from the truth.
The Fact: Whether or not the objective emerged from cruel intentions, the actuality is that it was unhealthy: laying a role contrary to their real aim.
How to Write a Fascinating Character Arc
As soon as you understand how character arc works and the comprehensive groups that most character arcs are categorized in, it’s time to brood over how you’ll make your own character arcs. Whether you’re writing a first-class character who will go through an undesirable character arc or vice versa, here are some guidelines to consider as you orchestrate your character’s arc and elaborate your character development:
Mull over the genre. The genre often notifies the way that your character arcs will evolve. If you’re writing a misfortune, your central character will most likely go through a negative arc—finishing the story at a much minor point than where it started. If you’re writing an inspiring story, you’ll perhaps have a character alter for the better and trail a positive character arc.
Think through the character’s part in your story. Some characters have more sumptuous character arcs than others. A decent story usually has a sturdy set of nicely crafted characters and the protagonist. Distinguishing what role characters play in your story will help appraise what character requires and what profile their arc will take. For example, if your story has a specific protagonist and an antagonist, they will probably have conflicting character arcs.
Have a solid story outline. It’s significant to have a durable outline with a perfect first act, second act, and third act before you begin making character arcs. Characters transform together with your bigger narrative. Distinguishing where a significant plot point or defining moment might be will help you work out an analogous character arc.
That’s where discovering the correct balance of interior and exterior aspects of our characters materializes. The superior we are at harmonizing the inner vs. outer layers of the characters, the more multifaceted we can make them without fretting about characteristics seeming fickle when elements don’t arrange in basic stereotypes.
With a decent balance, we can keep book lovers in the story and give them exceptional, three-dimensional characters to have your fingers crossed for and relate to.
That’s It!
Do you attempt to write believable characters? What methods do you use? Have you thought about this internal vs. external layers viewpoint before? Does the notion of trying to poise the layers add up?