Sometimes you read a book and you realize at some point
although what’s happening to the protagonist is interesting, you don’t really
care. That’s often when a reader puts down a novel or a script reader puts down
a script.
It’s easy to forget that what matters isn’t just what happens, but the impact of what happens on the emotions of the characters and, by proxy, the emotions of the readers.
If your character is hanging by his fingertips from the ledge of a tall building but I don’t like or care about that person, the incident isn’t going to engage me either.
Some writer try to fix this by making more stuff happen. Instead, they should make us care more about what happens. A few ways to do that:
- Show us the character’s vulnerabilities. Even
Superman has Kryptonite. What worries this person? What has she done that she’d
rather keep a secret? We relate better to the imperfect than to the perfect.
- How is this character not a stereotype? If you
protagonist is a typical private eye, show us some facets we don’t expect (but
that make sense). However, don’t automatically go to the opposite of what we
expect; that has become a cliché as well.
- Put this person into a situation to which we can
relate. Sure, your version may be more dramatic, but if it’s a bigger version
of something we have experienced or think we could experience, it will
resonate.
- Let the character’s mask slip. We all try to present our best face to the world, but sometimes the parts we’d rather not expose to the world sneak out. These are not always bad aspects—the tough guy may not want the world to see that he’s a softie inside, for example. When we catch a glimpse of what’s behind the exterior, often that draws us closer to the character.
E M Forster’s distinction between a story and a plot sums it up nicely: “The kind died and the queen died” is a story. “The king died and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. He was referring to the need for causality in a plot—something happens, and because of that something else happens. It also underlines the role of emotion in drawing us in.
Who could be better than Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, and Jane Austen to advise you how to create vivid characters? You'll find their advice in my newest book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.