How To Build Realistic Characters

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Your characters should be the most relatable and realistic part of your story. Readers can't relate to killing dragons, but they can relate to the anxiety and pressure of battling adversity or a seemingly insurmountable task. Characters are the fabric of your story, find ways to bring them to life. Here are some ways how you can do just that.

Use Real People As Influences

There are traits in people, yourself included, that you can exaggerate and apply to your characters. Perhaps you have a little sister who is extremely picky or an obnoxiously sarcastic friend. Consider using these traits to build a foundation for your character. Deriving characteristics from real people is a great first step to building realistic characters.



Give Characters Flaws

It may be tempting to want your character to solve all the problems, never make mistakes, and just be perfect. Perfection is cool, but it’s the furthest thing from relatable or realistic. Allow your characters to have flaws, faults, and make mistakes.

Perfection is cool, but it's the furthest thing from relatable or realistic. Click to tweet.

Develop Them Through Character Arcs

We are who we are because of our experiences. Make your characters vulnerable to change. In other words, they shouldn’t be the exact same person at the end of the book that they were in the beginning. Their views, maturity, and personalities should change after the lessons they learn and the hardships they face. I’m not saying they should be unrecognizable at the end of your story, but they should be different for the better.

Write In Each Character’s Point of View

This is an exercise you can use for any of your characters, but especially your main ones. Write in their point of view to flesh them out more. For example, one of your characters may be a loyal friend. Take a blank sheet of paper and put them in a random situation and write through their point of view. Consider testing their loyalty or other traits. Perhaps you can write about their background and how they grew up. Be true to them and find out how they react to things. After having “been in their mind,” if will feel more natural to know their responses when you return to your main story. This also helps your characters to feel more individual and independent and not just objects used to develop your front character.  



Study Real-World Dialogue

This may sound a bit strange, but it’s one of the most helpful tips I have applied. Listen in on random conversations. Listen to how they interact and respond to each other. Many writers use the interactions they see in films as their influence. This is great and all, but there is no substitute for the real thing. Find out how siblings speak to each other. What about siblings with a 10-year gap? What about twins? Each may have its unique elements. You’ll be surprised by the information you observe and collect from just listening to the world in this mindset.

Bonus

I want to conclude this blog with a tip in the form of an invitation/exercise. Get into the mindset of one of your characters. Then take a personality quiz about them online. See what you find out. This is an easy way to picture your characters in a variety of situations. Doing this may seem a bit strange, but you’ll end feeling a lot more aware of the kind of character your character really is.

As always, keep writing.




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