How to Create Great Characters!

By Melanie Anne Phillips

Strangely enough, what makes a character "Great" has little to do with what makes a character dramatically sound. This is easy enough to see if you consider the differences between the characters Austin Powers and James Bond. Both could be seen as Protagonists, and both could even be seen as heroes, and yet their personalities, mannerisms, interests, and attitudes are quite dissimilar. What makes them the same is their dramatic function; what makes them different are their personalities.

Dramatic function is part of a story's logistic structure. Without a function, a character is little more than window dressing. Yet, even the most strongly drawn structural character is quite forgettable without a charismatic personality. Stucturalist writers tend to start with the function (Antagonist, Protagonist, etc.) then build a personality on that foundation. Intuitive writers usually want to get to know their characters first as individuals, then determine what function they should play in the structure.

No matter which kind of writer you are, you will eventually need to develop your characters' personalities. So, here's a great trick to brainstorm your characters and perhaps even learn something about your plot along the way.

This method is called, "Mix and Match."

More than likely, you remember a childhood toy that was a book with pictures of faces, each cut into three pieces: top, middle, and bottom. The top section of each face had the hair, the middle section covered the eyes and nose, and the bottom section displayed the mouth. By flipping parts of each page, you could create all kinds of different people, swapping the hair of one with the eyes of another and the mouth of a third.

We can apply a similar concept to character attributes and physical traits to create dynamic personalities. As an example, lets start with two ordinary, forgettable characters with only three traits each (Gender, Age, and Role) and mix and match to create more memorable characters.

Character #1  Male, 38, Mercenary

Character #2   Female, 9, Shoplifter

Pretty forgettable, right? Okay, let's mix and match:

Character #1  Female, 38, Mercenary

Character #2   Male, 9, Shoplifter

Now think about how these characters changed their personalities, just by swapping a single attribute from one to the other. A Male Mercenary, age 38 simply has a different "feel" than a Female Mercenary, age 38. Why? Due to our cultural indoctrination., we expect certain things of men and certain things of women. We therefore expect a Male Mercenary to have a different personality than a Female Mercenary. In other words, it would require a different personality of woman than a man to become a Mercenary in our society. So, we (as creative authors) tend to subconsciously assign those personality traits to the character, even though we have really only spelled out the character's role and gender.

Let's try another swap:

Character #1  Female, 9, Mercenary

Character #2   Male, 38, Shoplifter

Again, we impose our own subconscious expectations of each character's personality upon him or her so that we have a completely different feel for each than we did before.

Let's try one more:

Character #1  Male, 9, Mercenary

Character #2   Female, 38, Shoplifter

Once again, the personalities change.

We might find that one of these characters strikes our fancy as being interesting to develop and put into play. But more than likely, we haven't found the "Great" character we are looking for. What we need are more traits and attributes, and more characters to swap them among.

What I usually do is list various traits and attributes on 3x5 cards, cut them up into individual items and then assemble them like the Face Book to create potential characters for my story.

For example, I might have a group off different traits/attributes in each of the following categories:

Name Age Sex Height Weight I.Q. Hair Color Hair Style Mannerisms (graceful, clumsy, abrupt, etc.) Physical Impairments Physical Enhancements (keen eyesight, etc.) Physical Quirks (i.e. twitch) Religious Affiliations Religious Beliefs (not necessarily the same as affiliations) Hobbies Skills Talents Accent Speed of Speech Place of Birth Marital Status Previous Marriages Special powers Job or Role Pets Siblings (alive and dead) Personality Traits (sourpuss, practical joker, deadpan serious, etc.) Sound of Voice (deep, high, breathy)

Well, we could go on an on with this list, but you get the idea. The best way to compile a list of categories like this is to read the newspaper, watch television, or sit in a coffee shop and look out the window.

Now, in each category, you need to come up with as many different items as you can.

For example, in the first category, Name, we might have the usual Joe, and Sally, but also Zippo, Teaser, Tweezer, and Mulch. The weirder, the better.

Let's take our Female, 9 year old Mercenary and name her Sally. Now how does her personality change if we name her Tweezer, or Mulch instead?

In tangible reality, there is no indicated difference between Sally, the 9 year old Female Mercenary and Tweezer, the 9 year old Female Mercenary. And yet, we cannot help but feel they are different because of our cultural indoctrination.

As a brainstorming technique for creating "Great" characters, the mix and match method is a powerful way to break out of the same old forgettable stereotypes.

Become a Master Storyteller:

In the space below, list your characters by name, vocation, gender, and age to start. Then try the mix and match method to make them more interesting as people.

Once you find a combination you like, add some additional traits such as religious affiliation, race, intelligence level, and mix and match those as well.

You'll be surprised how many intriguing characters you can easily create that are quite unlike any you have ever brought to life before.

NOTE: This article was excerpted from our Master Storyteller software, which is designed to improve your overall skills as a writer. You can download a demo of the full version of Master Storyteller at Storymind.com