7 Easy-ish Steps to a Good Character

Characters are lots of fun, and can be one of the most interesting aspects of a story - IF (and that's a big if) you do them right. Nobody wants to read something like this:

"Esmeralda was a beautiful princess. She had long, golden blond hair and sparkly blue eyes. She was so kind and perfect that everyone loved her and did anything she asked. She also had magical powers that let her transform into anything or save anyone if the need arose. Not only did she have epic, unbeatable powers, but she was a natural at sword-fighting and could even defeat the king's finest knights."

I don't know about you, but that sort of description makes me want murder that character. Honestly. On the other end of the character scale, we have this, which nobody wants, either:

"Jane was terrible at everything. She had messy, black hair and ugly bloodshot eyes. She was depressed and moody, and nobody ever wanted to be around her and mostly left her alone. She failed every subject in school, was lazy and rebellious, and never tried to please anyone. She was very clumsy, always broke the most valuable objects, and was always the worst at sports as well."

Okay, so where's a good spot in the middle of all that? Although it's fairly easy (and somewhat funny) to write a character like either of the above examples, you need to write a character that takes a little more effort. For example, I'm going to give you a very rough outline of one of my favorite characters, then give you steps to help organize your character.

"Peregrine was an eager magic apprentice. He had vivid red hair and bright green eyes. He was ambitious, eager to please, and a little reckless. He was training in transformation magic and was still somewhat of a beginner, but could do basic transformations without too much trouble - and bigger ones that went horribly wrong. After some of his reckless actions had terrible consequences, he learned to think before acting."

(In case you're wondering, Peregrine is nine years old.) That seems a little better, right? Here's how to make a balanced, middle-of-the-road type of character.

1. Give your character a name. (See my earlier post: Naming Characters - What and What Not to Do.) For example: My character is named Peregrine.
2. Decide your character's role in the story. Are they a main character? Do they only show up for a few chapters? Do you ever write from their point of view? How will they forward the story? For example: Peregrine is a major supporting character that's in approximately half the story, probably a little more. Although I'll never write from his point of view, he's crucial to the plot and sets up a major conflict that is absolutely necessary for the "big idea" of the series.
3. Decide your character's other basic information. Age, physical appearance, temperament, all that sort of thing. Write it down, either into a narrative, as above, or a list of traits. For example: the first three sentences of the above narrative.
4. Now it's time to decide your character's strengths and weaknesses. In general, I like to have one major weakness for every two strengths. To continue with the Peregrine example, he is ambitious and pleasant to be around but reckless, funny and daring but a little naive, etc.
5. Set up the types of things your character does, or their powers, and have they mastered them? For example: the fourth sentence of the above narrative.
6. Now for what is arguably the most important step: designing the character arc. How will your character change throughout the book? What events cause these changes? Is it a gradual change, or is there one major turning point? If so, what is it? For example: In Legends of Light, Peregrine learns to be less reckless and to think before acting, mostly because running off by himself has drastic consequences for most of the major characters. Most of the changes happen in the course of two hours or so, the most important turning point for him being when... (Sorry, I can't tell you. It's a big spoiler, you see.)
7. Arrange this information in an organized fashion. Make a character sheet, put all your character arcs into one file, whatever works for you. Have fun!

(By the way...what do you think of Peregrine? He's one of my favorite characters so far.)

~ Sophia-Rose