Download Article

Download Article

One of the biggest challenges for whatsoever fiction writer is creating realistic, or believable, characters. A well-written character will make your reader care about what happens to them throughout the unabridged story. Ideally, a realistic grapheme feels interesting and unique, but also relatable and likeable. This is a tricky residuum to achieve, but fiction writers have come up with several approaches to creating characters that feel realistic and credible to the reader.

Sample Character Descriptions

  1. ane

    Proper noun your character . A large identifier of your character will be their name. Remember nearly people you know in existent life who remind y'all of the character or who inspired the character. [1]

    • Yous can also play on an existing name you experience fits with the character; attempt using a variation of the name or irresolute the spelling. For instance, Kris or Chrissie instead of Chris, or Tara instead of Tanya.
    • Be careful with making upward names. Made up names may make your character less believable. Additionally, avert making up names for character's from some other (nonfictional) culture. It will probable be unrealistic and may offend.
    • Wait for names that fit with your character'south background and don't seem odd in terms of your graphic symbol'south part or position. Try looking up historical name trends to find a name that fits your character's time period.
    • At that place are several character name generators online that y'all can also utilize, filtering past background and gender.[2]

  2. 2

    Note your character's gender, age, height, and weight. If your grapheme was to fill out a census or a grade at a medico'southward function, what would they specify? Though you may not use this character data in your story or novel, your graphic symbol'south gender, and age will affect their character vocalism and their signal of view.[3] [4]

    • For example, the young child character, Scout, in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird will view the world of the novel differently than her father, Atticus Finch, an older homo.[5]
    • These don't take to be exact in most cases; "young teen" or "mid-thirties" volition usually suffice.

    Advertisement

  3. three

    Depict your grapheme'southward appearance. It's important to specify your character'south physical characteristics. Often, description of characters focuses on hair colour or middle colour, and these details can assistance bespeak to your reader that your character has a sure ethnic background or appearance. These descriptions tin can also signal a sure type of character.

    • For instance, describing your character's physical appearance as: "She had dishwater blonde hair and greyness eyes that glazed over when she was bored" not only gives your reader a articulate concrete description, it also shows the character's personality.

  4. 4

    Create distinguishing markers or scars on your character. Harry Potter'southward lightning bolt scar is a good instance of a distinguishing mark that identifies his character and makes him unique. You can as well employ birthmarks, similar a mole on your character'southward face, or a marker due to an accident, like a burn down mark or a scar due to stitches. These scars or markers tin brand your character feel distinct to your reader. They tin too tell the reader more about your character.

    • In To Impale a Mockingbird, Scout's brother Jem is characterized on the first folio of the novel through a description of his broken arm: "When he was most thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem's fears of never beingness able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom cocky-conscious almost his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his manus was at correct angles to his torso, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn't have cared less, so long every bit he could pass and punt."[six]
    • Harper Lee uses the injury, or concrete marker, to introduce Jem'southward character and tell the reader that he has a shorter left arm, a distinguishing characteristic that makes him a more nuanced and conceivable character.

  5. 5

    Note your graphic symbol's fashion sense. Vesture can be a great manner to show the reader more of your character'due south personality and preferences. A character who wears punk t-shirts, blackness jeans, and Doc Martens will come across as a rebellious character, while a graphic symbol who wears a sweater set up and loafers may come beyond as a more conservative graphic symbol.

    • Be specific when you are describing a character's clothing, just don't repeat descriptions too much in the narrative. Establishing your character's way of dress once will create a articulate picture show in the reader'south mind that they can refer back to.
    • In Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, the main character Philip Marlowe describes his article of clothing in two concise sentences: "I was wearing my pulverisation-blue adapt, with dark blueish shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it."[7]
    • Chandler uses very specific detail to pigment a clear paradigm of Marlowe and he injects the description with Marlowe's vocalization, "I didn't care who knew it," adding more depth to the description.

  6. 6

    Make up one's mind your character's background and grade. Your character's station in life will affect how she navigates certain situations and how she volition react to everyday occurrences. A young African American man living in Washington, D.C. will have a different feel or perspective than a young Southern man living in Little Rock, Arkansas. A middle class adult female living in New York will accept different daily experience than a adult female living on food stamps in New York. Your character'south background and class experience volition be an integral office of their perspective as a character.

    • Though it is non essential that you announce your character's background and class to the reader, your character will feel more realistic and true if their station in life factors into their indicate of view. The characters in the fiction of Junot Diaz, for example, utilise vernacular terms that indicate class and background to the reader.
    • In Diaz's brusque story "The Cheater'southward Guide to Love" he notes: "Maybe if you'd been engaged to a super-open-minded blanquita you could have survived it—but you're non engaged to a super-open-minded blanquita. Your girl is a bad-donkey salcedense who doesn't believe in open anything; in fact, the 1 thing she warned you lot about, that she swore she would never forgive, was cheating."[8]
    • In this story, Diaz uses Spanish terms to indicate the character/narrator's background, without having to tell the reader directly that the narrator is Spanish.

  7. 7

    Carry research on your graphic symbol's profession or career. Another way to make your character more believable on the page is to delve into the details of their profession or career. If you are writing a grapheme who works as an architect, this character should know nearly how to design a building and may see a metropolis skyline in a unique way. Or if you are writing a grapheme who works as a private detective, this grapheme should know bones P.I. protocol and how to solve a case. Use library books and online sources to brand your grapheme's career convincing in your story.

    • If possible, try to speak to someone who is in the profession of your character. Interview them about their daily habits at work to make certain you are getting the details of their profession correct. They may even be willing to give feedback on your writing.

    Advertisement

  1. ane

    Give your grapheme a purpose or desire. One of the most distinguishing aspects of your character should be their purpose or want in the story. Your graphic symbol'due south goals should drive the story and their goal should be unique to their character. For example, your character might exist a young African American man who is trying to get into the NBA. Or your character might be an one-time woman who is trying to reconnect with her long lost son. Making your character'south purpose or goal specific volition help them seem more realistic and believable.[9]

    • Another central aspect of your character's goal is that your character should accept a small-scale goal, such as trying to get a girl, and a large goal, such equally confirming love is real. Try to give your grapheme small and a large goals so their story feels specific and also general, or universal, to your reader.

  2. 2

    Consider your character'southward strengths and weaknesses. A hero with no flaws or a villain with no middle will be flat characters on the page. Give your graphic symbol strengths and weaknesses to create a well rounded character who is also relatable to your reader. The protagonist'south weaknesses should be out weighed just slightly by your character's strengths, particularly if they are going to be the underdog or underachiever in your story.[10]

    • For example, your character may exist shy, but has a good listen for solving riddles and puzzles. Or your character may struggle with acrimony or rage, but tries to maintain control over their emotions.
    • Balancing your character's strengths with weaknesses (and vice versa) volition make your character more endearing and relatable to your reader, which will and so make the character feel more realistic.
    • Overly perfect characters who unrealistically lack flaws are called "Mary Sues".

  3. three

    Give your character a backstory. Non all characters take to be motivated by a by trauma or fear, just creating a backstory for your graphic symbol with events which may take harmed or damaged them can create tension in the graphic symbol's present life. A backstory is events or moments in the grapheme'south life that happens before the story begins.[11]

    • A backstory can also allow you to make the character more believable on the page. A character who refers to previous events volition widen the scope of the story and give the graphic symbol a more well developed presence in the story.
    • For instance, in Diaz'due south short story "The Cheater's Guide to Love", the reader is told of backstory, the narrator's by transgressions while he was with his girlfriend. This backstory becomes the reason why the narrator's girlfriend leaves him. Then the backstory is doing two things in the story: it is showing the reader more about the narrator and it is a major plot point in the story. It likewise widens the telescopic of the story, as the reader is dropped into the narrator'south firsthand drama (the girlfriend leaving him) only this drama stems from past events that the narrator must face up in the present.

  4. four

    Create a nemesis for your graphic symbol. Another manner to create a more realistic character in your story is to create a person or force that is working confronting your grapheme. A nemesis volition add an chemical element of reality to the story, equally in real life, we are often faced with opposing forces or challenging individuals.[12]

    • The nemesis could be in the form of a nosy neighbor, an annoying family member, or a troublesome partner. Your grapheme'due south nemesis should correspond with the grapheme's purpose or desire.
    • For example, a character who is trying to land a basketball game scholarship may have a nemesis in the form of a rival teammate, or an overbearing passenger vehicle. A character who is trying to win dorsum a girl he cheated on may take a nemesis in the form of his inability to command his own desires or be monogamous.

    Advertisement

  1. one

    Don't be afraid to utilize colloquial terms in dialogue. Colloquialisms are informal words, phrases or slang.[13] Your characters should sound as unique as the individuals you encounter every twenty-four hour period, and that includes whatever slang or informal terms they might utilize. For instance, two teenage boys likely will not greet each other with: "Good solar day, sir." Instead, they may say "What's up?" or "What'south goin' on?"

    • Be careful most using too many vernacular terms in your dialogue. It can begin to feel distracting or gimmicky if it is overused. Strive for a balance between proper English language terms and slang or colloquialisms.

  2. two

    Recall about code switching. Code switching is a language shift fabricated by a character in response to who they are speaking to.[14] It occurs oft in everyday life, particularly for individuals from different backgrounds or classes who are trying to assimilate or blend in.

    • If you are writing a graphic symbol from a certain groundwork, setting, or class, y'all should consider how they will might use local slang in their dialogue and description depending on who they are speaking to in a scene. A Jamaican human being speaking to another Jamaican man, for case, volition likely use patois and slang like "Yah, mon" or "Stay ire". But the aforementioned Jamaican man speaking to a white constabulary officer may use more than formal speech like "Yes, sir" or "Stay cool".

  3. iii

    Use dialogue tags. Dialogue tags, or voice communication tags, are like signposts. They aspect written dialogue to characters. Some of the more commonly used dialogue tags are "said" , "asked" and "told". Dialogue tags don't need to exist fancy or overly descriptive. Their primary purpose are to evidence which characters speak and when. But you tin also build believable characters through dialogue tags.[15]

    • Each tag should contain at least one noun or pronoun (Scout, she, Jem, he, you lot, they, we, the homo, etc.) and a verb indicating how the dialogue is beingness spoken (said, asked, whispered, remarked). For example, "Scout said to Jem…" or "Jem whispered to Scout…"
    • Yous can add adjectives and adverbs to tags to provide more information well-nigh the speaker. For example, "Lookout man said quietly to Jem" or "Jem whispered harshly to Sentry". Adding an adverb tin can be a quick and useful way to indicate a certain mannerism or emotion in a grapheme. Simply be wary of overusing adjectives and adverbs in your dialogue tags. Endeavor to just apply one adjective or adverb per scene for 1 graphic symbol's dialogue tag.

  4. 4

    Read the dialogue out loud. Your character's dialogue should feel unique to their character and representative of how they collaborate with others. Good dialogue in fiction should exist doing more than simply telling the reader how a grapheme gets from A to B, or how the character knows another character. Read the character's dialogue out loud to ensure information technology sounds like speech a person might say to another person in the scene. The dialogue should also sounds true to the character.

    • For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses dialogue to distinguish the characters in a scene. She too uses vernacular terms that represent children living in a small Southern town in the 1950s.[16]

      "Hey."
      "Hey yourself," said Jem pleasantly.
      "I'm Charles Baker Harris," he said. "I tin read."
      "So what?" I said.
      "I only idea you'd similar to know I can read. You got annihilation needs readin' I can do information technology…"
      "How old are you," asked Jem, "four-and-a-one-half?"
      "Goin' on 7."
      "Shoot no wonder, and then," said Jem, jerking his thumb at me. "Spotter yonder'due south been readin' ever since she was born, and she ain't even started to school yet. You wait right puny for goin' on seven."

    • Lee makes Jem's dialogue distinct from Charles Baker Harris' dialogue and Scout's dialogue by using slang terms and colloquialisms. This establishes Jem as a grapheme and creates a dynamic between all three speakers in the scene.

    Advertisement

Add New Question

  • Question

    How practice I make the reader feel as if they are actually in the scene?

    Community Answer

    Effort and movie the scene in your mind. Use sensory words (relating to smell, affect, sense of taste, sight, and hearing) to really help add dimension. Expect at a picture and describe some features you similar in the movie if you are stuck for ideas. Don't forget to find bully adjectives in a thesaurus!

  • Question

    Is the name Mckenna Liu realistic?

    Community Answer

    Yes, the proper name McKenna Liu is a realistic and memorable name.

  • Question

    Is the name Victor G realistic?

    Community Answer

    Yes. Any name you come up with could be realistic in the right state of affairs.

  • Question

    How practise I slip in a backstory to an audition if the graphic symbol doesn't know about it?

    Donagan

    You could divulge the backstory through another graphic symbol involved in it (or at to the lowest degree aware of it).

Inquire a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Advertisement

Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

References

About This Article

Thanks to all authors for creating a folio that has been read 176,418 times.

Reader Success Stories

  • Nadine Travers

    Nadine Travers

    Aug thirty, 2017

    "I liked that it told me most how I tin add together interest to a character in their advent without just the idea of..." more

Did this article help you?