Capturing Readers' Emotions: Building Strong Characters Who Will Make or Break Your Story

You’ve probably read books where you had no idea what was going on, but you were so attached to a certain character, you had to keep reading just to find out what happened to them.

This is the kind of character that you, as a writer, need to learn how to create. Too perfect Main Characters or evil-for-evil’s-sake villains are underdeveloped characters and a common turn-off signal for a reader. If your characters are well-developed, then your plot has a chance at survival while you work through the learning curve, holes and self-doubt stage of your plot.

What I’m saying is that if I only finished watching all three hours of Fiddler On the Roof because I enjoyed the development of the characters, you can create realistic characters that will make somebody finish reading your novel.

Prepare to Write Things Down.

I like a basic character sheet when starting out to make a new character. Mine looks something like this:

Name —

Occupation:

Appearance:

Siblings:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Pets:

*Song:

*Car:

Skills:

Speaks:

Use mine if you like. Expand it as you feel the need. I usually end up adding a section labeled, “other” or “history” (or sometimes both) to keep track of important notes for that specific character.

I would also recommend keeping a blank page for general inspiration for the story at large. If you don’t like holding information in your head like I do, it can come in very helpful. Make sure you write your spontaneous ideas as soon as you can. I find that I forget ideas if I don’t write them down and forgotten ideas don’t like to come back until it’s too late.

Now Start People Watching.

This is a favorite hobby of mine. If you’re on lunch break, eat it in the staff breakroom (or wherever you can watch your co-workers). If it’s your day off, find a coffeeshop or park, and sit yourself there. If it’s your date night… you get the idea. You can discover patterns and behaviors in individuals around you and turn these into realistic actions and behaviors for characters.

I enjoy looking at peoples’ cars and car decals, where a person chooses to sit, what they wear and what age they look, and things like that. Try doing this too, and you’ll notice things you can use.

If nothing else, someone will slip on a banana peel and you’ll get to go home with a realistic slapstick scene in your novel outline.

Observe People’s Body Language

Body language, as I define it, can mean facial expressions, habitual routines, or even speech patterns.

Humans like to methodize everything so they feel in control. It’s why when you spill your coffee on your work shirt, you freak out instead of calmly explaining the stain until you can get cleaned up.

If nervous, a character may stick their hands in their pockets to make themselves feel secure or restful, becoming fretful when they don’t have pockets (I do). They may adjust their glasses, or shift from foot to foot.

If feeling mixed emotions or trying not to cry, they may try to go expressionless, pressing their lips together, appearing to be angry, and their speech (if they speak at all) may be terse.

Good body language can tell a reader a lot of things in a very small movement — and in a smaller word count.

Listen to People’s Speech Patterns.

“Y’all ain’t right” conveys a whole different tone of meaning than, “You all are not right.” They also have different implications of dialect and geographical location. (Please bear with my talking like an English dictionary — I almost said lexicon.)

If you’re from the northern U.S., you probably talk faster than somebody from the South. If you’re from the South, “Y’all” is a commonplace phrase and “ain’t” is a guilty pleasure. If you’re from another country, you may have an accent, avoid contractions, or be bilingual.

Speech can also reveal things about a backstory. To use a rather comical example, take one of the songs in Mary Poppins.

Chimney sweep Bert tells us that, “Because I was afraid to speak when I was just a lad, me father gave me nose a tweak and told me I was bad.” He then goes on to say that, “Then one day I learned a word that saved me achin’ nose.”

Because poor Bert was tired of having a sore nose, he learned to use the word, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

This reveals something about Bert’s backstory.

Now Develop the Character’s Backstory.

People’s past experience and environment will always effect their actions and reactions. Remember Bert and his big word? Yeah, that.

If you’ve ever stepped on a lost lego brick while barefoot, you might start wearing house shoes indoors all the time.

Any repeated activity will create a path in the brain. Even the weird things. Your morning routine is an excellent example. You may eat a full breakfast, you may have a granola bar, maybe you skip it entirely and wait until you can have brunch.

However, having a backstory may also mean striving to “break” these patterns.

District Attorney character Jessica Nolan makes a point to never take the same route to work more than a few days in a row. She specializes in white collar crime prosecution, and makes a lot of enemies who would love to see her get in an accident, so she flips a coin when she needs to change routes, to ensure total randomness.

She also keeps a drawer full of teabags and a teakettle brewing to ensure she never has to stop for her favorite drink at the same place every day.

Her environment makes her wary. Her backstory makes her smart.

Without showing the backstory that made her choose to become an attorney, though, she just seems paranoid.

Last But Not Least… Practice Writing What You Want.

When you can, write extra scenes for characters, developing them in situations not planned for or likely to occur in your novel.

The important thing is to write something about your character when you have time.

Life occurs on many scenes and scales, and informing yourself about as many of these as you can is worth the extra time and effort you put into it.

It’s also a great way to engage your hobby without getting stuck behind a desk, well on your way to becoming the next new species of hermit crab.

So there you have it. Get off my lawn and don’t come back until you have ice cream or a puppy. I have a character that likes puppies.

Just kidding, see you soon!

Brooke Johnson, out.

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*[usually one that reminds me of the character's backstory or of their goal or personality]

*[can be exchanged for other methods of transport, like a horse]