My Top 5 Tips For Creating Dope Characters
- Keldrick Mobley
- Jun 28, 2018
- 4 min read
Your story is cool. Your characters suck. That's not how its supposed to be. We may enjoy reading love stories or watching movies with tons of explosions but its the characters that we really fall in love with. Think of your favorite movie or book and you may find that it was the character that really drew you in. Die Hard is great but John Mclane is who we come back for. (Over and over and over and over again.) These few tips will help you create characters that are not just more realistic but also very memorable. Get ready to be awesome.
1 - LINE'EM UP
Imagine a police line up. You've got five strangers in front of you and you're trying to recall which one stole your money. Describe that person to the best of your ability. Did they have a scar, did they walk funny? When they spoke, what did they sound like? Of course things like skin and hair are going to come into play but even these physical attributes have subtle touches that make them unique to the person you're describing. Giving the reader a good physical description helps paint the picture and that is important. No-one is going to remember or more importantly care about a bland character. I watch a ton of anime and the characters with the funny colored hair are usually the main ones. Keep in mind that a physical description can also help when fine tuning their personality as well. That leads me to...
2 - LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP
Okay, so we know what they look like and that is a good thing but we're not gonna feel anything just by having a picture of them. It isn't until we can feel something about a character that they become truly memorable. So how do you make us feel something? Try to think about cooking for a second. When you're in the kitchen cooking from scratch, you're gonna be using a seasonings and ingredients to make the meal you want. The best way to do that is to sprinkle the seasoning without over doing it. Little quirks say a lot about a person. Maybe they chew with their mouth open, maybe they like grape soda more then the average person. Either way the little unique things are what draw us in. How much seasoning you use will determine if they are good or bad. Yeah, the guy likes grape soda, but does he like it enough to kill? You tell us.
3 - "WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION?"
Okay, so Neo is stuck in a computer program that is sucking the life out of people and keeping them trapped inside it. He wants to break out and free everyone. WHY? When we know what drives a person we get to understand them better. The why is such an important factor that sometimes gets overlooked. The 'why' can be simple. I'd argue that the more simple the 'why' the better. A simply reason for why doesn't mean its easy to figure out either. The 'why' is the base at to which your character does whatever it is they do. The reasons become more complicated along the ways they travel on the journey you create for them. Neo wants to get out because he is the One. That may be true but dig a little deeper and really he just wants to be free.
4 - FLAWLESS IS BORING
There is a reason Superman movies have sucked as of late. He's kinda perfect. For reasons I can't explain we don't like to see perfect people. We want them to be like us in a way and we are flawed. Having flaws makes your character relatable. When they can't quit smoking or when they get angry at being cut off in traffic, we get it and trust me, getting it is good. Once again, we can argue over how flawed they should be but keep in mind that eventually we want to see them win in some way, shape or form. It doesn't mean that they lose those flaws, only that they are able to overcome whatever is tossed at them even with the flaws.
5 - EPIC FAIL
I watched a TED TALK recently about how when people are given a task to do and they are given a score should they fail, then they will most likely not want to try the task again. On the other hand, people that were given the same task with no risk of losing points tried over and over again until they got it right. It says a lot about people and the human condition. Failing is a part of succeeding and the bigger one fails, the bigger they succeed. Keep in mind that your characters journey needs to have obstacles that at times stop the journey while your character or characters tries to figure it out. When we fail we learn and if your character never fails then they never get better. They simply coast by not impacting the story at all. Nobody would be satisfied with a story where the character gets to the end and hasn't overcome anything. Neo learns early that he's the One so fighting the Agents is no big deal through the entire movie? Lame. Make them fail. Make them fail HARD. This way, when they win we love them even more for it.
I guess that last one can be applied to life as well. Failure is a part of learning and growing. If you see failure as a bad thing then you'll never understand how it feels to win. Keep writing my friends!
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