By Janine Mick Wills
Have you wondered how your characters relate to plot of your story? Though a compelling plot is vital for your novel, establishing your characters is the first order of business. Almost all writers believe characters are the most important aspect of a story. Sol Stein, the author of Stein on Writing, says, “Characters make writing memorable.” If your plot is great, but you have paper-thin characters, you will produce a lackluster novel.
All good stories have a protagonist (the good guy) and an antagonist (the bad guy). You must first give your protagonist a great need or desire large enough to carry the entire novel (a broken toe or an unbalanced checkbook won’t cut it). Then do the same for your antagonist, but make sure his needs and desires oppose those of your protagonist. (Note: The antagonist does not have to be a person. It can be a character flaw in your protagonist, such as a Vietnam Vet’s flashbacks where his mind is the enemy or nature itself, such as a raging tornado). This pairing of opposites creates conflict, which is imperative to the plot.
Be sure the needs and desires of your protagonist and antagonist are immediate. For example, don’t give the entire backstory of a set of sixty-year-old twins, who became enemies when they turned fifty. It would be more effective to open your story with the characters’ sixtieth birthday party and later, through dialogue, narrative, or a flashback, show them as five-year-olds and how that led to their later conflict. Draw the reader into your story as soon as you begin it. This is known as a hook.
Along with your main characters’ needs and desires, they also need immediate and long-range goals. The immediate ones draw your reader straight into your story. The long-range ones keep him/her there. These goals are a gold mine of opportunity for conflict, especially if you keep them at the tip of your characters’ fingertips until the end of your novel. Your plot will partially revolve around their trying to attain them.
What makes for memorable main characters? They don’t have to be as rich as Midas or have the looks of a runway model. Those went the way of the dinosaur, even in romance novels, where that type of character was once the standard. Beautiful “perfect” people have a hard time lending themselves to conflict and without them, you have no plot.
Today’s readers like true-to-life characters, ones similar to themselves who they can relate to. But there is a twist. Within the normalcy of the characters, they must have quirks and characteristics that make them different, or they won’t be interesting. Sound like a contradiction? Here’s an example.
Which scenario is more compelling and fraught with possibilities: a gorgeous, six-foot-tall woman or an average-looking, short woman becoming a New York City model?
My first thought is how would the average-looking, short woman become a renowned model? Did she bribe someone or is blackmailing someone in the modeling agency? Did her rich father make it possible? Do you see how an ordinary person with a unique twist can be more effective?
This does not mean you can’t use characters who are rich and beautiful, but I would make them minor characters or the antagonist. Take the average-looking model we just met. Maybe she got her job because her best friend, who is a tall, gorgeous model, taught her how to apply make-up and how to dress. Now, this model is so jealous of her short friend that she hires a hitman to knock her off. Do you see the possibilities?
What if you insist on a bright and beautiful/handsome protagonist? Make sure there’s something about that character that can be used to incite conflict.
Let’s look again at our beautiful model. What if a plastic surgeon is responsible for her comely face and is pressuring her to marry him against her wishes? If she refuses, he is threatening to tell the world she’s not the natural beauty she claims to be. Conflict abounds here.
How about a rich-as-Midas, handsome male character? What if he inherited his wealth by killing his millionaire father? Or makes money by embezzling from his company? Do you see how we can add elements of conflict to our “perfect” people?
Whichever way you choose to go, one thing is certain. Your protagonist and antagonist must have both good/likable and bad/despicable characteristics. This not only makes them more interesting, but it lends itself to possible conflicts, which are the backbone of your plot. To add even more mayhem, make the good and bad qualities of your protagonist clash with those of your antagonist and visa versa.
For example, what if your antagonist is horrid to everyone but his aged grandfather, whom he adores? This same antagonist kills the protagonist’s family. As our hero seeks revenge, he finds the antagonist’s grandfather alone. What should he do? Kill the man in cold blood and stoop to the level of the one who murdered his loved ones? This scenario allows you to display a softer side of your antagonist as he interacts with his grandfather and also shows the possibility of evil in the heart of the protagonist as he points a gun at the antagonist’s head.
Your characters don’t stop with your protagonist and antagonist. In writing, just as in sports, you need bench players or minor characters too. Without them, your plot would be dull. These people can aid the protagonist or work in cahoots with the antagonist and help make your hero/heroine’s life miserable, thus creating even more conflict. But remember, they’re minor figures. They should not carry the full load of or take over your novel.
You also need “extras” for characters. Just like in the movies, these people circulate in the background and are relatively unknown, sometimes even nameless. They might be the elevator operator who gives your heroine a cheery “good morning” as she goes to work or a roomful of people working in your hero’s office. Their only function is to add depth and texture to your story without intruding into it. They may not even physically appear. Your main character may only mention or think of them in passing. (Your hero walks by a bakery and remembers his great-aunt, who baked him apple pies when he was a boy. The mention of her reveals something about our hero that we did not previously know.)
After you have considered your cast of characters, the next step is creating a biography for each of them. This can be time-consuming. You may even be tempted to cut corners by foregoing this step, but it’s important to chart their physical, emotional, and spiritual characteristics and to give them a past. A person’s future is firmly grounded in his past. Without it, he has nothing to base his existence on.
Who are his parents? Does he have any siblings? Was he an only child? What about his extended family? What type of environment did he grow up in? What was his economic status? Was he ever in love? Did he have any unfulfilled dreams?
These are just a few questions you can use to start your characters’ background sketches. You won’t need all of this information when writing your novel, but it’s a good frame of reference and gives your characters more depth and credibility.
I hope you now understand how your characters relate to the plot of your story. They may change and develop as your novel progresses just like real people, but you will have an idea of who they are, their good and bad qualities, and an idea of their past so you can successfully plot what they will do and what will happen to them. Your goal is to create such memorable characters that readers demand a sequel to find out what happens to them next!
