How to Write: Engaging Characters

Characters are one of the biggest draws in storytelling. Often, even if the plot is dragging, readers will keep reading because they care about the characters. While all aspects of a story are important, characters are key.

An engaging character has these five aspects:

1. Capability

2. Weakness

3. Loved ones and priorities

4. The “shard of glass”

5. Internal conflict

These five aspects don’t always come in this order, but each main character should have a unique set of them. These aspects work together in each scene, whether for comedy, tragedy, or suspense, to further your story.

Capability

Capability, especially that which is hard-earned, is likely to win the reader’s respect and admiration for a character. Depending on the length of the story, each main character may have a number of skills. These can include most anything, such fighting, childcare, deduction, or negotiation.

To introduce a character as hyper capable, show them succeed in a small way, then show their weakness, and then show them succeed in a bigger way. This recipe will make the reader more likely to be rooting for them, admiring them, and believing in them throughout the rest of the story.

Weakness

A weakness is any area of life where the character does not excel. It doesn’t necessarily have any moral or derogatory connotation. It could be a wound, a disability, or illness. It could also be a character flaw, trait, or an area where they have inexperience.

Balancing strengths and weaknesses within each character and varying them within each cast of characters will create engaging dynamics and conflicts to further your story. Just like with capabilities, the longer the story, the more weaknesses the character will need to overcome, compensate for, or cope with.

Loved ones and priorities

One of the best ways to get readers to care about someone is to either make someone else care about them or make them care about someone else. While often love interests, a main character may have loved ones who are their community, family members, friends, mentors, neighbors, and pets.

When a main character prioritizes and cares for an object or location, that object or location is usually representative of someone or something else. Perhaps it’s their father’s watch, their family’s ancestral home, the forest where they met the love of their life, etc.

Perhaps there’s a deeper or more abstract meaning. They care for a flower because to them it represents hope. Or they care about furniture because to them, furniture is what makes a home. The possibilities are endless.

All characters have values or outlooks on life. These can include prioritizing freedom, hope, or an idea like “people can change.” Their outlooks can include philosophies such as “finders keepers” or “fortune favors the brave.” These more abstract values should become tangible in your story so we can see the character interact with their values in a real, hands-on way.

The “shard of glass”

In screenwriting, the event in a character’s past that still causes them pain is often called the “shard of glass.” The event or series of events hurts for the character to even think about, let alone talk about. This is why the character often keeps it a secret. Even before the secret is revealed, the reader should be able to see the impact the shard of glass has on the character’s life, raising questions about “what happened.” The shard of glass should hinder the character in some way.

Sometimes, it’s more strategic to introduce the shard of glass from the outset of the story. This is usually if the character has traits that may be seen as unlikeable. If the reader knows why they act the way they do, they may have more sympathy and less annoyance towards the character.

Internal conflict

Main characters, especially in long stories, will have multiple priorities, strengths, and weaknesses. When these come into conflict with one another, the story gets more interesting. Many of us will have heard the old adage that “without conflict, there is no story.” Sometimes, there is not much, if any, internal conflict within a character until the story’s “inciting incident.” Now, they must choose between one priority or another. Sometimes, the character learns to compromise. In other stories, the character must learn to let go of one of their priorities.

Working Together: Comedy, Tragedy, Suspense, and Story

There are many aspects to an engaging character. All must work together, scene by scene, to tell a story. Most books have a combination of comedic, tragic, and suspenseful moments. Here are ways to create those moments using the various aspects of a character.

Comedy

Many screenwriters have touted that comedy happens when either an extraordinary character is in ordinary circumstances or an ordinary character is in extraordinary circumstances. It would be amusing to see a fierce and brutal warrior (capability) struggle to flirt (weakness) with her crush (her loved one). Just as it would be amusing to see her crush, a kind (capability) but average young man (weakness) struggle to lift the brutal warrior’s heavy ax to try to impress her (his loved one).

Tragedy

Tragedy comes from a character trying very hard to avoid an outcome and, in the process, causing that same outcome. To stretch the metaphor too far, this is usually caused by the character running from the pain triggered by the shard of glass rather than trying to heal the wound the shard of glass has caused.

Here is an example:

When the brutal warrior was a child, her average family was killed in front of her. There was no one to protect them. She became a warrior to protect others so she wouldn’t lose them. She loves the kind peasant boy and wants to protect him, so she leaves him to fight instead of staying to be with him. He, due to his own shard of glass involving torturous bullying, interprets her leaving him as her not wanting to be with him because he is a kind peasant and not a fierce and brutal warrior like her. While she is gone, he trains to become a strong mercenary warrior so as to impress her and get her to be with him again. They each fight in a terrible battle and fatally wound someone on the opposing side. Too late, they realize they have wounded one another and die, her unable to protect him and him unable to convince her to stay as the light fades from her eyes.

Suspense

Suspense is when internal conflict, external conflict, or both are at play to such an extent that readers don’t know which choice a character will make or which outcome will happen that will directly impact the character in a profound way.

Suspense is often associated with survival and danger, but suspense is a part of every story. Romance, for example, is rife with suspense, such as a near kiss before someone interrupts or an accidental brushing of hands that leads to uncertain feelings.

Writers often speak of character arcs in terms of what characters want versus what they need. These create some of the greatest conflicts and suspense. The want stems from fear. The character fears triggering the pain of the shard of glass. The need stems from what they could have if they had the courage to pursue it. This is the courage needed to heal or overcome the shard of glass.

The fierce warrior fears losing the kind peasant just as she lost her family. The warrior needs courage to confess her feelings and build a new life with the kind peasant. She needs courage to face the reality that it’s always possible we could lose those we love. She has the opportunity to choose happiness or continue to live in fear. She is internally conflicted. Rooting for her to choose courage and fearing she will choose fear, readers are held in suspense.

Conclusion

If there is an aspect or a type of scene you are struggling with, try making a list of aspects or scenes from other books or media that move you. Then revisit and analyze them to see why and how they succeed. What makes that cool character cool? What makes that comedic scene funny? This will help you learn more writing techniques.

Enjoy playing with character aspects and how they work together to tell your story.

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