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What Makes A Character Interesting?
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Nick
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Dec 05, 2013 03:53PM
Big feet...
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I think we relate to imperfect characters because we are imperfect. Not too many Mary Sue characters are well liked :-)I think what happens to the character is also interesting. How they react to life situations says a lot about them.
Depth. You know, the opposite of shallow.
I also think it depends on the story. If the story is about someone struggling to overcome personal problems, then they will have a lot of flaws, or else their struggle wouldn't seem realistic.Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" was wholly unlikable, but he had to be a ruthless delinquent in order for the story to be told.
These are one of many examples.
Yeah, I like anti-heroes. I don't have to like them to appreciate them either. They make for the most human characters, and teach us things about redemption, guilt, and forgiveness. They make for good conflict.
To me, an interesting character has life and personality. He acts more than he reacts, and usually fails more than he succeeds, but at least he's trying. And the most interesting characters of all possess a good sense of humor. That doesn't mean he has to be a jokester, but he is able to laugh at his own foibles.
Dianne wrote: "New Blog! Want To Know What Makes An Interesting Character? http://ow.ly/ruuuX "I can't believe that one of the things that readers said makes a character interesting is if they are interesting.
smh
Easier for ones I don't likeThe flawed policeman, who is completely incompetent in private life but a brilliant detective yet still gtes the gorgeous girl????
The teenage hero/heroine who run rings round adults but have never been kissed. Younger ones are fantastically grown up when dealing with wayward parent who is often a flawed policeman
The bad guys who despite being trained assassins can't shoot straight when shooting at the hero
I like my leads to be less than perfect, to have moral ambiguities. I like them to be human (including aliens with human traits) to make bad decisions in other words to have character flaws.
I am a little tired of alcoholic cops. I like a character who experiences some type of discernible personal growth during the story.
Depth and believable actions given the character's personality. I really dislike stories where a character's actions is dictated by the plot (i.e. the author forces something to happen so the story can move in a specific direction), instead of the plot being determined by the character's actions.
Kevin wrote: "Depth and believable actions given the character's personality. I really dislike stories where a character's actions is dictated by the plot (i.e. the author forces something to happen so the story..."This is so true. (I've had some of my characters come in and completely derail my plotlines--usually for the better!) Whether a character is the protagonist, antagonist, or a sidekick, they MUST be realistic enough to make the reader believe they are real.
I like those little details that make a character different. For example, I adore Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, with her Jersey hair, the fact she keeps her gun in the cookie jar, and collects penguins. It's those little things that bring a character to life.
Judy wrote: "It's those little things that bring a character to life."A twinge in his kidneys announced the onset of cold turkey. Chang put down his paperback novel, ordered a bottle of mineral water from the friendly blonde stewardess, and dug the arthritis pills from his carry-on bag. According to the pharmacy label, the pills contained three percent morphine and twenty percent codeine, while the actual amount of morphine was closer to sixty-five percent and the codeine content virtually non-existent. Two would sustain him until he arrived in Amsterdam and put his hands on some brown heroin.
The stewardess returned with a bottle of Sourcy and a plastic cup.
Chang swallowe the pills and picked up his novel again, searching the page for the last paragraph he’d read. Bought in a bookshop at Hong Kong Airport, the ‘critically acclaimed blockbuster’ was not half as interesting as the drawing on the cover. After struggling through four more excruciatingly dull and unimaginative pages, he gave up and stuffed the novel in the pouch with the security pamphlet and airsick bag.
Waiting for the morphine pills to do their work, Chang cranked back his seat, his gaze taking in the inflight movie. He didn’t bother donning the headphones. Through half-closed eyes, he watched a silent argument unfold between the main character and the female lead, and wondered if the actors themselves considered their expressions natural and realistic. To Chang the whole frantic cast appeared in dire need of sedatives. The dialogue would most likely be stuffed with snappy one-liners, rapid fire ripostes more irritating than funny.
Despite the ventilation, the cabin air had a stilted quality composed of sour breath, body odour, sweat and that faint fragrance Chang always associated with the low-level panic that imbued cramped spaces filled with too many people. He closed his eyes, ignoring the slumbering ache spreading through his abdomen, and sifted through his memories for pleasant recollections.
A child started bawling behind the tourist class curtain and his mind sent him the soldier, splashing awkwardly through a Cambodian rice paddy towards the safety of the lush forest, holding a bawling infant over his head as a shield against sniper fire. Chang sat in a tree, tracking the soldier in the cross hairs. Near the edge of the paddy, in the shade of the trees, the soldier lowered the child against his chest, exposing his head. The crack of the rifle followed a second after the 7.62mm bullet tore into the soldier’s brow and the back of his head exploded in a cloud of torn brain tissue and skull fragments. Not much blood, like with a neck shot, but a spasmodic twisting of limbs as the soldier fell headlong into the swampy waters, crushing the infant under him. The shot echoed against the green hills while the child drowned under the weight of the dead soldier.
Chang opened his eyes. That one had been counted as one confirmed kill.
From Peccadillo: A Katla Novel
Kevan wrote: "For me, it is uniqueness and some (not too much) imperfection.Sherlock Holmes, for instance, is incredibly unique, and has one or two flaws (cocaine, emotionless). So also Hercule Poirot - his fl..."
I remember reading a book about books a few years ago and the author took it as a given that everyone wants to read books about someone like themselves.It made the book largely useless as I don't feel that way at all.
I use a technique that helps me to fully develop my characters. Interview them, ask questions unrelated to your WIP such as if you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? Who would you like most to have dinner with, living or dead. You're going for conversation starters that will take you beyond the plotline of your work. Attitude appears, quirks and hidden secrets. Take it as far as you like. Most of it will never show up, but you will know it. I swear it helps me to put each character in any situation. I don't do this for minor characters. They serve a specific purpose and leave, stage right.
So to answer the original question, well-rounded personality with interesting opinions, quirks or fears.
L.F. wrote: "To me, an interesting character has life and personality. He acts more than he reacts, and usually fails more than he succeeds, but at least he's trying. And the most interesting characters of al..."Right. That's a big part of it.
Rebecca wrote: "I use a technique that helps me to fully develop my characters. Interview them, ask questions unrelated to your WIP such as if you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? Who would ..."I use interviews very often. They really help a character take shape. During the writing, they'll often do something that doesn't seem to make sense. Later, the reason becomes clear, when you need a plot detail to tie things up and WHOOPS! there it is.
L.F. wrote: "I've had some of my characters come in and completely derail my plotlines--usually for the better!"I was recently struck with an outline of the third part of my post-apocalypse series after never using an outline before. Then I tried writing the story based on the outline and kept finding that it didn't work because the characters have minds of their own. lol
I just hope they're derailing my intended plot for the better. I wonder what's going to happen next. Little bastards.
Characters with depth, a few humanizing virtues (Save the Cat stuff), unpredictable, but not chaotic, with a minimum of PC spewing. Doing stupid things turns me off. Consistent in traits; no "Suddenly, Gro went fey," making a character rush off into the underbrush, away from the story line.
I make my characters out of people I have met and countries I have visited, you can get great info from just observing people and places, then i join the two.I have met people from all walks of life gangsters, perverts, hotel employees,directors, managers some stars and some actors there are many ways to make your book seem alive, I wrote a book and the publishers said to me how many times have you been to New York, my answer was never, he was blown away as he thought i was a New Yorker, do your homework and research get info on the internet, my research is mainly Europe as I have been many times, but now I live in Australia, now i do new research on Australia.
Edward wrote: "L.F. wrote: "I've had some of my characters come in and completely derail my plotlines--usually for the better!"I was recently struck with an outline of the third part of my post-apocalypse serie..."
This is not without danger. Characters can sometimes have a disruptive personality that pushes the plot into dark or problematic directions. I think the solution to that may lie at the scene level:
In any scene with x number of people, each will have his/her own objective. That doesn't mean there are only x wants present; there are x+1. YOU, the author, get a want, too. You should always get what you want out of a scene. If not, re-examine the characters' needs and wants and your own objective, then rewrite as most appropriate. Don't automatically give in to a character. If you do, be prepared to rewrite, later.
In Sail Away on My Silver Dream, a character wanted to keep a particular object early in the book. Another character stepped in and helped him. I had no idea why, but I let him. Fifty pages later on, I found out.
I'd like to throw in that this works both ways. A short story I worked on recently just didn't work with my original fun-loving protagonist. So I made her smarter and more tragic, and it went great.
Good idea. If it works for you, it works for me. Love to read it. Anyway I can do that? Published, printed?Stephanie
angelsay@ptd.net
fraser or kevin, I like uniqueness in a character if it contains another person and has comedy with both. Makes everything intriguing and funny. I see humor in everything. Hope I'm not creating insults. If I am, oh well, maybe next time.
Stephanie wrote: "fraser or kevin, I like uniqueness in a character if it contains another person and has comedy with both. Makes everything intriguing and funny. I see humor in everything. Hope I'm not creating ..."No, not at all insulting.
I find interesting those little tics, or mannerisms, that a character has, which makes them different from the other characters in the story. I also like it when a character finds humor in an unlikely/serious incident, and this puts an entirely new slant on the situation.
There is a minor character that I've remembered for so long I can't recall for certain what book I saw him in. IIRC, he's possibly either from Claire Huffaker’s "Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian," or Dan Cushman's "Stay Away, Joe." "She'll-Come-Back-Pretty-Soon" is an American Indian in a small, dusty Western town. Every morning he sits by the road, waiting for his pretty wife to return from a trip to the city of many years before. He waits there all day, but she never comes. At dusk, he goes home, saying, "She'll come back pretty soon."
Write me characters like that.
Dianne wrote: "Made me want to read whatever book it is!"It should, Dianne. I can't remember anything else about the book or even the title, but it left a lasting impression on me. Our love of a book is about more than character. It's also about theme, a question or statement about the human condition, looked at from all sides.
Sometimes it's motif or a general feeling that the prose itself imparts. I read the World of Ā in junior high and recalled it as intricate and fascinating. I picked up a copy about 10 years ago and it was nothing like I remembered it.
A lead character has to be engaging. Giving the details of them and their lives causes us to know them: how they will be; how they will react. Sometimes we have to write the story/read the story to know the characters.
Layers. I like characters who are "shades of gray" not all vanilla white or evil black.The best characters have dimensions to them that relate to people because they are realistic in nature.
Often I give my characters flaws just to keep them grounded and far from being perfect. In other words, human.
Vicki wrote: "I like your analogy. Gray is good. Human's have flaws and that makes a character relatable and real. Love that."Thanks Vicki!
Developing characters is probably my favorite part of writing. And as such I tend to study people all the time to pick up little nuances, etc.
I often warn people, "you might wind up in a book someday" just from my subconscious remembering little things about someone.
Great backstory that is revealed by pulling away one layer at a time. I like flawed characters. Characters who regret things they have done or that are scarred by what has been done to them.
I also like not giving too much backstory, but having readers cobble an image together from little snippets in conversations or mannerisms.
Yes, I like learning the character as I read the book as I would when I first meet someone in real life. Too much descriptions from the beginning does not impress me.
I like a character I can feel sorry for who can come out on top. An underdog, I guess I should say. I also like nice villains.
They have to be active NOT passive. If the are good characters they must have flaws. If they are bad characters they must have at least one good trait.
Joanna wrote: "They have to be active NOT passive. If the are good characters they must have flaws. If they are bad characters they must have at least one good trait."Amen, villains should be nuanced. Cardboard cutout characters, good or bad, don't sell books.
OTOH, I don't see flaws as an absolute necessity for all genres. Detectives usually don't have much of a character arc. Their "flaw" is often something tiny, like Poirot's vanity, or, more typically, presuming something about the case early on. I can't watch Wallender at all; I find his angst merely tiresome.
But for most genres and mainstream novels, bring on the imperfections!
And yes, the worst thing you can do is make a protagonist passive. Yet I've seen it again and again. It's about as bad as trying to make a hero out of a victim. Pity alone is rarely sufficient to hook the reader. There has to be some other quality.
J. wrote: "Joanna wrote: "They have to be active NOT passive. If the are good characters they must have flaws. If they are bad characters they must have at least one good trait."Amen, villains should be nua..."
Hi J, It often depends on the author of the detective novel. PD James and Ruth Rendell's detectives are three dimentional.
Joanna wrote: "PD James and Ruth Rendell's detectives are three dimentional."Ditto Colin Dexter. But "3 dimensional" isn't congruent with "flawed." A detective can make human mistakes without being necessarily flawed.
I suppose an academic could study classical detectives and rate their "flawedness" from the time of Poe to current day. Do modern readers want their detectives brought low, to be part of the masses? I think not. I hope not.
Vicki wrote: "I like a villain that in any other setting would be likable. One that almost convinces you that what they're doing is right. The whole Hannibal Lector character changed for me when I read Hannibal Rising..."Villains certainly convince themselves that they're doing something noble. In real life, this leads villains to think that anyone who opposes them must, ipso facto, be evil, and that the end justifies the means, including lying, spying, and people dying.
J. wrote: "Joanna wrote: "PD James and Ruth Rendell's detectives are three dimentional."Ditto Colin Dexter. But "3 dimensional" isn't congruent with "flawed." A detective can make human mistakes without bei..."
I think it was one of the Rebus books I started to read. The detective took a roll or cake or something trival from a corner shop and didn't pay for it. I hated that so much I didn't read anymore and will never read any of his books.
Joanna wrote: "I think it was one of the Rebus books I started to read. The detective took a roll or cake or something trival from a corner shop and didn't pay for it. I hated that so much I didn't read anymore and will never read any of his books. ..."In one of Tony Hillerman's books, his Navajo detective destroyed evidence of a crime, saying, "The insurance company will pick up the cost." I haven't read another of his books since.
In my personal opinion a character HAS to be convincing to be interesting. The more convincing the more interesting the character.
Marcus wrote: "In my personal opinion a character HAS to be convincing to be interesting. The more convincing the more interesting the character."You're right. Even if they are an extreem character they must be convincing.
Marcus wrote: "In my personal opinion a character HAS to be convincing to be interesting. The more convincing the more interesting the character."Okay, what makes a character convincing?
In a book it's dialogue...it's all about dialogue.
J. wrote: "Marcus wrote: "In my personal opinion a character HAS to be convincing to be interesting. The more convincing the more interesting the character."Okay, what makes a character convincing?"
Even if they behave in a bizarre way what they do has to be believable. The reader has to imagine that they might behave like that in their situation. Gentle people might murder someone given enough provocation. A murderer might go out of his/her way to rescue an animal or child, but their has to be a strong reason for their actions.
True...when a writer can use a character to put the reader in a position where he or she HAS to GENUINELY ponder the situation and circumstances, then ask themselves what they would do...that's what makes a writer great, and that's what makes a character convincing. That's ultimately what makes a story interesting.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Beautiful and Damned (other topics)Biggles (other topics)
Peccadillo: A Katla Novel (other topics)
