As a writer, you’ve likely read about how you need to make your characters three-dimensional. Adding dimension to a character involves more than just making them unique. It’s about what makes them interesting. The actions they perform and beliefs they uphold give them complexity that not only adds dimension but also gets your readers interested in what happens to them. But how do you make a character interesting? How do you grip your readers? Read below to find out!
Give Them Conflict
When you create a story, you need conflict. At the same time, your character needs to engage with that conflict. Otherwise, your story and your character don’t develop. So when you introduce a character, the first thing you want to do is introduce the conflict along with it, and have your character be aware of that conflict. Their main goal will be to try to solve that conflict in whatever way necessary, but which correlates with the traits that you’ve given them.
As the story moves on, your conflict should do two things: become more important to the character and cause the character to become more desperate. When you up the stakes with your conflict, you contribute to the rising action of your story, which is when you head toward the climax. When your character goes through their first try/fail cycle, they become more desperate to solve the conflict.
In one of my latest posts, I explained how stories should introduce a character, a setting, and the conflict right away. Your best option is to do this in the first paragraph. A good example of this is the opening paragraph of Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris. I included part of it below:
“Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity. Still drowsy, Raoden sat up, blinking in the soft morning light. Just outside his open balcony windows he could see the enormous city of Elantris in the distance, its stark walls casting a deep shadow over the smaller city of Kae, where Raoden lived.”
Here we have the character, Raoden; the setting, a room in the city of Elantris; and the conflict, something that the character hasn’t recognized yet. But now we as readers want to know more about what the conflict is, so we keep reading.
Give Them Motivation
One thing that your character also needs is motivation. This is your character’s reason for wanting to solve their conflict. When you give your character motivation, you give them a reason for why they belong in the story and why they’re the perfect candidate for solving the problem.
A character’s motivation can be any number of things like:
1. Revenge
2. Curiosity
3. The death of a loved one
4. The search for something lost
5. The desire to get out of their current situation
Two things: 1) sometimes in a story, the character might not be aware of the greater conflict, but they have a quest to complete nonetheless, which is their motivation, and 2) the conflict might be a lot bigger than just one character to solve. However, their motivation concerns one specific part of the entire whole. They might need the help of others, even armies, but in the end, they have set out and completed their own personal aspect of the entire conflict.
Now you have the conflict figured out and your character’s motivation for wanting to solve it. Now for the next step in getting readers invested in your character.
Give Them A Job to Do
Lastly, you’ve given your character motivation and the conflict they have to confront, but now they have to fulfill that motivation and solve the conflict put in front of them. In other words, you’ve given them the problem; now, they have the job of solving it. This job will be not only the driving force for fulfilling your character’s motivation, but also the way your character deals with the overall conflict. This first job is the first step forward, and it will take the entire story to accomplish it.
For example, let’s imagine a story where a knight is called to slay a dragon. His motivation could be that the dragon destroyed his hometown, meaning he has a good reason for getting revenge. The conflict is the problem of the dragon itself, which the knight needs to fix. However, while the conflict is the main issue, the knight can’t solve the conflict all at once. So you give the knight a job to do.
The first job is to get to the nearest town for supplies, or make friends with another character who can help him out, or to board a ship that will take him to the dragon’s mountain. Once they complete this job, it’s on to the next. This builds the action and generally ups the stakes, which keeps your readers engaged.
When you give them this first step, how they handle the job will reflect their beliefs and traits. So ask yourself certain questions as the story progresses:
1. How will this character approach this job? Will it be logical? Emotional? Are they going to dive in angry or take a calculated approach?
2. What kind of mistakes will the character make? How desperate are they to begin with?
3. What talents and skills will they need or use to complete this job?
With these three factors, your character is on their way to developing the way you (and your readers) want them to. Happy writing!
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