How to Write Characters That Leap Off the Page
Photo by Peter Conlan on Unsplash
Last week, I talked about the need for writers to be bold in their work. This week, I’m going to switch the focus to characters.
Readers love bold characters. These are characters who may be larger-than-life from the get-go, or who grow into their boldness gradually. Why do readers like them?
Because they do things.
No one wants to read about a character who just sits around and ruminates all day (well, unless you’re a fan of Proust). We want to see characters taking action, overcoming obstacles and challenges, dealing with conflict. Even superhero-type characters who solve all their problems easily and face no real consequences become dull very quickly.
Writers have a tendency to mollycoddle their characters, but it’s their struggle that makes the character compelling. It can be hard to punish your characters, to make them hurt, to put them in real jeopardy, but the fight to overcome their challenges is what makes them bold and interesting.
I’m re-reading some of Louisa May Alcott’s books, currently the almost-forgotten Eight Cousins, which falls into two fatal traps: no narrative arc, just a bunch of episodes; and no real inner or outer conflict. In contrast, Little Women has remained compelling for generations because of the character Jo, who constantly struggles with poverty and an inability to fit into external-world expectations, and inner conflicts over controlling her temper, her relationship with Laurie, and her desire to be a serious author. She’s bold, even if she sometimes gets it wrong. The struggle – and her continual attempts to resolve her problems - are what keeps us reading and rooting for her.
How do characters become bold?
By dealing with their inner wounds and fears in order to grow and become the people they need to become in order to solve the crisis in their lives.
Give them a wound: This is often, but not always, something that happens in childhood that sets up their belief system later on.
Give them a fear that develops from that wound: That something will happen, or won’t happen, that will cause them pain
Give them a need that must be met as a result: They need love, or security, or to learn to trust themselves or another person
Give them a crisis: Put them in situations where they have to overcome their instincts to hide or maintain the status quo in order to heal their wounds, overcome their fears, and get their need met. This involves outer and inner conflict: the outer situation forces them to deal with their inner conflicts or weaknesses
One example that always leaps to my mind is Scarlett O’Hara. Yes, Gone With the Wind is a flaming dumpster fire of racism and whitewashing (literally) nostalgia of the South at that time, but as a character? You cannot get more kick-ass bold than Scarlett. (Even her name rocks boldness. She was supposedly originally going to be named Pansy. Can you imagine?)
At the beginning, she is spoiled and selfish, raised to believe her wealth and charm will get her whatever she wants in life (wound) – then BOOM, the Civil War hits, and her biggest tragedy goes from not marrying the pretty but useless Ashley Wilkes to actually having to work her ass off to avoid starvation (fear). She never really gives up the old Ashley dream, however, until the very end, when she finally has him and realizes the only thing she does want is the man who just walked out the door, Rhett Butler. The whole novel is her scheming, planning, lurching from crisis to crisis (and husband to husband) in her fight to get what she wants – love and security (needs). Which is why we root for her, even though she’s a pretty terrible person.
Think of some of your favorite books. What boldness keeps the characters compelling, even when you know they are making a mistake or not being their best selves?
Now think of your main character in a work in progress. Look at questions 1-4 above. Apply them to your character. How do the situations of your story move them from wound to fear to meeting their need (i.e., their character arc)? How can you make them suffer more in order to really force them into bold action to resolve their issues? Remember, they can (and should) try things that don’t work first. They need to learn, have setbacks, make bad decisions, and grow so they solve their internal and external problems by the end of the book. That is what makes a bold, compelling character that readers remember long after they finish the story.
