Character Spirals

Rob Kelley here, exploring real-time character development, which I didn’t think was about characters spiraling out of control, but maybe it kind of is.

My initial character creation process has evolved some since my first novel in which I did detailed character studies and then tweaked them through the editing process. Now I tend to create a backstory that leads up to the moment of their introduction. Nothing super complicated, none of those character sheets with what food they like, what clothing they wear, or what astrological sign they are. That stuff I usually discover in the drafting, if I find I need it at all!

But when I’m doing the first hard edit of my manuscript there is an important character development test that I now perform on all of my point of view characters to ensure that I’m giving the reader the best possible experience. I call it “the complexity test.”

This is learned behavior for me after one of my earliest agent and editor submissions for Raven (High Frequency Press, 2025). A very generous acquisitions editor sent my rejection back with a few insightful observations, the most important of which was that she thought the protagonist was too passive, not driving action, not deeply characterized enough. She liked the other point of view characters, the secondary protagonist, the antagonists, even the secondary characters. But I’d failed to fully depict the tough, resourceful protagonist who rises to threats from a murderous colleague, the FBI, Boston’s Irish Mob, and agents of the Soviet Union, all while staying out of prison.

The backstory and the plot points weren’t enough. The reader needed to see my protagonist struggle and emerge victorious at every turn, both through her own native talent and her growth in the face of adversity. So, each time a decision had to be made, a challenge faced, a potential disaster dodged, I had the opportunity to strengthen her character. That’s what I worked on in the character edit for my protagonist.

In the untitled novel I’m currently doing that first hard edit on, I am introducing a new point of view character who is a Maine State Police Trooper. I have a good background story for her, and I have put her in a situation in which her personal values are challenged by circumstances and institutions. Good start. Now what? I know what purpose she serves in the novel, what key events she will be present for and what the impact of her decisions will be on the plot. But who is she, really? I know her motivations, but I need to see her in action to really know her. I was finding that I was writing her taking actions and moving around the room, but she wasn’t a character, a person. She was a placeholder.

In thinking about how to fix it, I came to the metaphor of a spiral. There’s the core, which is the background story and her inciting incident. She’s placed in a difficult situation and we wonder what will happen next for her. But I found that in subsequent chapters I had that same problem I’d had before. This character moved around the room, but was too lifeless. In Raven, I had all the challenges set out, I just needed to make sure my protagonist was at the center of them, growing from each hard decision she had to make, and dealing with the usually unfortunate consequences of those decisions.

For this new character I needed to invent new challenges for her in every chapter in which she is the POV. Some could be small–frustration with a superior, a friend who is being put in a difficult situation–but then her decisions in those moments could lead to future interactions–the superior makes questionable decisions, the friend’s life and liberty may be at stake–that both propel the plot and complexify the POV character. That’s the spiral, increasing threat for the thriller, increasing complexity for the character.

To be fair, I’m still in the early stages of this revision. I may return to you, dear reader, with a different view altogether in a few months!