3 Major Strategies for Creating Believable Characters That Readers Will Love
Do you worry that the character you are creating might not be believable? Would readers connect with such a character?
Writing believable characters is essential to good storytelling. Here are things that may help in creating believable characters.
Create a Backstory
Every character has a life before the story began. If your story starts when the character is 15 years old, what was her life before she turned 15?
Ask yourself basic questions about her choices, family, friends, and relationships. Other questions could be about her professional life.
The answers to the questions will tell you more about the characters in the story. Through the process, you may create new, interesting characters that are key to the story.
Be Careful with Generalizations
It’s easy to assume a group of people or a generation behaves in a certain way. Examples of generalizations are:
‘Yoruba women can’t cook’,
‘Igbo men are stingy’,
‘All white people are smart’.
While some generalizations are close to being true, don’t assume characters that fall within that group must also behave that way.
Don’t create a kind-hearted Igbo character that is also stingy because many people believe all Igbo men like money and hate to part with it. (Which tribe doesn’t like money?)
You will confuse your audience and make them wonder, how can a kind man be stingy? The exception is if the character is pretending to be kind.
Writing your character based on a generalization may seem smart because people will connect with it, but it could be the reason they won’t connect.
Watch your use of generalization when creating believable characters.
Give Voice, Goals, and Motivation to your Character
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water–Kurt Vonnegut
As humans, we wake up every day and go to work, get a drink, or send a text message to a loved one. We want to achieve a goal. Your character should also have a goal that is difficult for them to achieve.
Let your characters make decisions that put them in trouble and motivate them to find a solution.
Through the process of motivations and goals, characters show their true nature. He speaks in a voice expected of his age, attitude, and emotions.
An illiterate cannot speak like a Professor, and a 5-year-old boy should not sound like a 35-year-old angry man.
Conclusion
Creating believable characters is important if you want the audience to root for them. Whether the character is a hero or a nasty villain, write them so people can see themselves in those characters and fall in love with them.
It doesn’t matter whether the character is human or animal; give the characters relatable attributes and voices.
You cannot write a story without characters, but if the characters are not believable, you don’t have a good story.
