Let’s face it. More often than not, you write a character that is so emotionally bland or awkward in a story that it can cause a huge disinterest in your story. We call these Mary-Sues and Gary-Stews. They lack depth, and your reader could care less about them.
So here are 7 ways make your characters more believable.
1. Flaws
People aren’t perfect. So it only stands that your characters aren’t either. They should make mistakes, they should have flaws. A perfect person offsets people, and makes some want to tear their eyes out. Is your character a huge jerk outside of work? Are they clumsy? Do they have a traumatic childhood haunting them? Fit it to your character, it’ll add to the depth.
2. React Realistically
You’re a kid on the play ground, having a good day. Suddenly, some big self-absorbed bully walks up to you and says “Hey you, four eyes!” and you say, “Oh, why thank you!”
Now, I’m fairly sure that nobody out there would react that way. Even if your character is always optimistic about things, they should be bothered about being called out.
Characters need to have believable reactions. Emotion should be caused. The actions of others should take a toll on the characters thoughts.
That brings us into….
3. Thought Process
People think. Well, most people. But even so, the thought process (or lack of one) should be illustrated in the text. Questions asked should be questions that spawn from what was said, and readers have to be believable that it came about that way. Realizations can’t be without cause. You can’t have your character pull an idea out of the air, without any thought process before hand. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to type out all the thoughts of a character. It means that there has to be believable evidence of a thought process. Whether that means a facial expression, or a change in body language, or possibly an exclamation. It’s up to you.
4. Lives
People don’t pop into existence just for the moments when you are in contact with them, then disappear. Same goes for characters. They don’t just appear for the story, then go away (unless that’s part of the story; I’ll get into that later though). Characters should have lives. It has to be believable that the character existed before the story began, and that they’ll go on after the story ends.
The only exception that I can think of, is if the character suddenly pops into existence as part of the story. As in, they suddenly find themselves in the setting, and are confused about how they exist, or who they are. Whether it be spontaneous creation, or amnesia, there still needs to be story behind it.
5. Physical and Mental Perfection: Impossible.
No matter how long you search the world, you will never EVER meet anyone perfect. Characters aren’t perfect either. This ties somewhat into #1. Balance a character out with good traits, and bad. If the most popular girl in school has absolutely everything she could ever want, she probably has a sick and wicked mind. That boy that nobody ever hangs out with is probably the kindest person you’ll ever meet.
Balance needs to happen, otherwise you get an unbalanced character. And unbalanced characters lead to an unbalanced and unbelievable story.
6. People Like Things.
Have you ever met anyone, ever, that hasn’t ever enjoyed something? No? Thought so.
Unless you want characters with the complexity of a cardboard cutout characters need to like things. Activities, ideas, books, ect. Don’t make your character live for one thing, and one thing only. That leads to them curling up in a ball and looking like the most pathetic character in existence.
Taking examples for literature. Hermione Granger, from Harry Potter, likes knowledge, her friends, reading, arithmancy, Hogwarts, and so much more. These likes, these things that characters enjoy, make them so much more believable. Chances are, that giving them ‘likes’ helps readers to connect with them.
7. People DON’T Like Things.
Adding on to #6, along with ‘likes’ comes ‘dislikes’. Whether it be a person, book, story, idea, or country, a character should dislike some things. Dislikes create CONFLICT, and in stories, conflict is the one thing you must absolutely have to have the plot make any sense whatsoever.
Make a character disagree with evil (or heck: good), or have a dissagreement with another being, or even life itself. Internal conflict happens too, and that’s often driven from something a character dislikes. Wouldn’t you be sad if your pet dragon was taken away from you? Or if your only son had to be left behind and grow up without you? Dislikes are just as important to the CHARACTER as they are to the Story.
Conclusion
There you have it. Seven ways to make your characters more believable so that your story is more believable! Now go an work out the kinks in your story!
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Oh, and special thanks to Sabrina Edwards and Sydnie Gilinsky for contributing to the tips!