Without great characters, fiction would be dead. Who can forget Gollum whispering to himself and slinking through the shadows of Moria in Lord of the Rings? What about the seemingly dark and mysterious Severus Snape in Harry Potter and how it’s not really clear what side he’s really on? Or the moustache twirling and eccentric detective Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries who understands people’s motivations but is so odd himself?
There are characters that literally dance off the page and “bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses” to quote Snape himself. The more the reader connects with great characters, the more invested in the story that they feel. This ultimately is important in the story’s success.
Why are strong characters important?
A good character with personality, a backstory, motivations and ideals that inform their actions or decisions is a recipe for success in any fictional story. Strong characters don’t have to be the hero in the story, but a driving force that also pushes the narrative arc along. For example, it is Lord Voldemort’s evil plans that force Harry Potter to strive to defeat him. In Rebecca, the strange housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, brings the dead Rebecca to life to torment her boss’s new wife. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the repressed nature of the main character becomes the issue that drives the story forward.
Often, characters with nuances of positive and negative, and even various character flaws, make for relatable and strong figures in a story. Readers relate to people that are similar to them—someone who might be shy, courageous, intelligent, greedy, pessimistic, jealous and insecure.
Aspects of well-developed characters
Let’s take a look at some of the key aspects of writing a compelling fictional character.
Motivations and goals
All characters should have motivations and goals, or wants and needs. This helps map out their psychological space and gives them room to grow as the plot progresses. For example, in The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby desires to be reunited with his childhood love, Daisy. He thinks he can win her back by attaining wealth and status. So, the plot moves forward with parties, inviting her to his lavish home, and his attempts to recreate the past and achieve the dream.
In Great Expectations, Pip is driven by a desire for social advancement and a better life. This is fuelled during his childhood when he meets the rather lovely Estella, and the encounter encourages him to climb the social ladder, improving himself through education and manners.
Flaws and strengths
Knowing a character’s motivations and goals is one thing, but the pursuit of them should not necessarily be a smooth ride all the way. Giving them some strengths and weakness helps form part of their character arc, and makes them a far more believable character. For example, perhaps they’ll hit a personal obstacle on the way that will hinder them in the attaining of that goal. These internal conflicts can threaten to drag a character down, and it might be something they have to rise above to achieve their end goal.
In Lord of the Rings, Frodo seems to fall prey to the ring’s power right at the end when he must destroy it in Mt Doom. However, it is the power of the ring over Gollum that leads him to fight Frodo fight on the edge of the volcano. When Gollum is victorious in that tussle, he trips and falls into the cracks of the mountain. Hence, Frodo is saved, perhaps by Gollum’s obsession and the ring’s own power.
In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby cannot recreate the past, and so his desire to win Daisy is doomed to failure. Daisy also does not possess the perfection Gatsby believes she has, and even the narrator concludes she and her husband are “careless people … they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” However, Gatsby is living an illusion and completely consumed by his desire for wealth and status. In the end, it is revealed he achieved this, briefly, through criminal means, and his manners were affected and his wealthy history was just a fabrication.
In Great Expectations, Pip’s ambitions and desire for social improvement motivate his best and worst behaviour. As he climbs the social ladder and leaves behind his working-class origins and those who love him, he faces an internal conflict. This ultimately leads him to some self-discovery in which he comes to appreciate loyalty and genuine relationships over the superficiality of social status.
Show, don’t tell
Instead of explicitly stating a character’s motivations or personalities, it is far more effective to show them through their actions and behaviours. For example, if they are brave, get them to step into the face of danger. In Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee never deserts Frodo even on Mt Doom when lava erupts around them and Frodo seems near exhaustion. He recognises he can’t take the ring from Frodo, but he can carry the ringbearer, hence the line, “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.”
Showing rather than telling can be done by focusing on sensory details and subtle detail like a flushed face to reveal anger, anxiety in pacing back and forth, and eyes full of tears to depict sadness. This engaging type of storytelling gives the reader room to interpret the details and thus form an impression of where the story is going.
The power of backstory
Giving characters a backstory provides them with depth and dimension. It’s a great way of drawing readers in and helping them understand and care about the characters. These details can include things like their age and gender but also their cultural background, socioeconomic status, education and childhood experiences. These things have helped form this person into who they are now, and perhaps influenced their motivations and goals in the plot. The backstory should be important to the plot, and not just small irrelevant details.
Backstory is used to great effect in fictional characters. Huckleberry Finn and his various adventures are better understood when we know he was brought up in a poor, uneducated family and we begin to see how that has shaped his perspectives of life and society. The obsessive love Heathcliff has for Catherine and his sullenness, anger and vengeance are perhaps better understood in Wuthering Heights when we know he was an orphan found on the streets of Liverpool.
Conclusion
Compelling fictional characters are great assets in any story. Develop them as best you can and they will help write your story. Appearance, voice, mannerisms, gaits, tells, communication and a plethora of other detail can help form the character. Then give them a backstory, motivations and a few flaws and they may become unforgettable.
