Playing God; the Art of Crafting Memorable Characters.

Characters are the lifeblood of any story. Without them, a writer has nothing to work with. Creating well-rounded, three-dimensional characters is crucial, and character profiles are a great tool to help create them. Here are some essential elements to consider when playing God; there’s an art to crafting memorable characters. These elements will help you bring them to life in a more authentic and engaging way. Let’s explore the essential components that every new and emerging writer should know.

Imagine the array of people you encounter in your day-to-day – coworkers, fellow transit-riders, family, friends, baristas, wait-staff. What makes each of them stand out? Are they witty, charming, crass, spacey? What quirk, interesting detail, or personality trait makes them who they are? In my ‘Death by’ series, protagonist, former FBI agent, Samantha Harris is the sole survivor of a kidnapping/murder when she was twelve years old. This event shaped her alpha personality, sharpened her sarcasm, and hardened her will. What doesn’t kill her…better run like hell!

When crafting well-rounded characters, a detailed physical description can bring them to life on the page. Essential details such as height, weight, build, and distinctive features can paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. For instance, Samantha sports a small scar above her lip, a remnant from her rogue Bureau days. Capturing these little visual elements in your character profiles ensures they leave an impression on your readers.

Moving deeper, beyond surface appearance, delve into your character’s personality traits. What are their strengths, but more interesting, what are their weaknesses? What drives them forward; what holds them back?  Do they have interesting habits, or weird quirks? These details help to breathe life into your character’s emerging existence.

Additionally, delving into their backstory gives understanding of their motivations and actions. Past experiences, both positive and negative, shape who they are and influence their present choices. Triumphs can give them confidence, while traumas can create emotional scars that impact their behavior. Understanding their backstory provides insights into their fears, desires, and the driving forces behind their goals.

Consider providing details about their family dynamics, educational background, occupation, and income level, as these factors can influence their relationships and interactions, knowledge, skills, and lifestyle. Hobbies reveal their interests, passions, and how they spend their leisure time. In the ‘Death by’ series, former FBI agent Samantha is closer to her dog and guns, than she is to humans, save for her best friend and neighbor, Mole, whom is a worldclass computer hacker sitting comfortably at the top of the Bureau’s Most Wanted list for Cybercrimes.

Although not all of these details may surface in your story, considering these influences will help shape your perspective of your characters as the writer. It allows you to see the world through their eyes and experience the story firsthand alongside them.

Infusing your characters with flaws and weaknesses adds depth and relatability, making them more authentic. Drawing upon your own experiences and identifying your own imperfections can serve as a basis for creating believable and compelling characters. These imperfections can manifest as personality traits, internal struggles, or external challenges that complicate their journey.

The relationship between flaws/weaknesses and backstory is significant. Often, character flaws can be rooted in past experiences or traumas. These flaws can become obstacles that characters must overcome to achieve their goals. By intertwining the flaws and weaknesses with the character’s backstory, you create a richer narrative that explores their growth, resilience, and ability to confront their own limitations.

Every character in a story has a specific role, whether it’s as the protagonist, antagonist, or supporting character. Their role influences the narrative and shapes the relationships between characters. Each undergoes a personal arc, evolving and facing challenges as the story progresses. By connecting their role in the story with their arc, characters become essential elements, enhancing the depth and progression of the plot.

Every short story or novel I write, begins at the character level. They introduce themselves to me before they usher in the story they want to tell. I get to know their nuances, fears, drives, and doubts. Interestingly, their physical attributes are the last to arrive, but I get inklings.

I might be directed through life and fiction by a voice only I hear in my head, but I’m a visual thinker; a pantser who needs lists to keep things organized. Storyscraps is my personal process of managing all of these details, ideas, and points into a cohesive plan. It’s where storyboarding meets scrapbooking, and it begins with various art supplies, scissors, adhesive, and a new composition notebook.

In this notebook I begin building the details of my characters though sketches, printed photos and articles – when Samantha was created, I heavily researched the FBI, Quantico, the Hoover Building, firearms, etc. All of this research was added to my notebook, along with printed photos of actors or public figures who possess bits of personality, or physical traits my characters want to adopt. This helps me internally visualize my character in a more three-dimensional way. Samantha Harris has the personality of Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft, the femineity and fighting skills of Ronda Rousey, and the lethal shooting accuracy of a sniper. Yet Samantha Harris is her own character.

Everything related to a work in progress goes into a composition notebook so that by the time the story is published, I have an overstuffed, three-dimensional roadmap of how the story came to be. There’s a great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction looking over these notebooks long after the books they created are occupying shelves in people’s libraries.

Crafting well-rounded and memorable characters is a crucial aspect of storytelling. By considering the essential elements such as physical appearance, personality traits, backstory, flaws, and role in the narrative, you can create characters that are authentic, relatable, and engaging. Remember giving your characters unique quirks, interesting habits, and complex emotions make them interesting and captivating to your readers. Every character has a story to tell, and as writers, it’s our job to give them the voice to do so.

~Dani