A Real Character

Have you ever wondered why you like someone immensely when you've hardly seen or spoken to them? Or even the complete opposite. Maybe you just detest them but you can't really figure out why since you barely know them? We have a tendency to do this all the time in life, reading books and watching movies. I like to call these characters "real characters" because they truly elicit a feeling (negative or positive) from us.

Think of a movie or book whose character really stood out to you. Part of that could be just great acting and another part could be great writing. I easily remember Joker from Batman, especially played by Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger. Great acting aside, Joker is just a character to remember. I'm not fond of him because he is a villain but I can't help but admire how he stands out.

Another character I'm quite fond of is Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  The fact that she and Mr. Darcy start off at odds is no surprise in the world of romance but her "renegade-like" ways and the fact that she would rather have ended up an old spinster than settle for Mr. Collins only made her all the more real to us readers.

Another recent character who holds a lot of appeal is Katniss Everdeen from Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy. From the get go, Katniss is a rebel concerned with the primary survival of her family, consisting of her little sister and her mother. Katniss even goes so far as to volunteer in her sister's place for the Hunger Games—a games to the death involving children from various regions of their country Panem.

So what makes these last couple female characters so real? Well, quite frankly they are faulty. Some may say they are admirable because they fight for something worth fighting for but the truth is that in their world or the world created by their authors, they are imperfections—something that makes them very real and very relatable.

Now what about you all? What makes your characters in your writing real? If you have trouble in this area, there are a lot of books and resources out there to help in the building of your characters. The other key is to really be able to step back and take a good evaluation of your character—are they someone you like? Do they seem 2-dimensional or do their personalities really stand out on paper (not only in your mind)? I know, doing this evaluation is easier said than done (sometimes beta readers can help) but the end product will be that much better for your readers.

Filed under: Characters, Toni Kelly