How to Build a Character for your Writing

Sometimes, writers get lonely, but there are different kinds of loneliness.

There's the standard definition, a kind of outside loneliness. Not much company to be kept in the world beyond yourself. For writers, however, there's sometimes loneliness in that there's nobody in your writing. It has nothing to do with the outside world, but if you're seeking a character, someone looking back at you from the pages, that hollow space can be a problem. Maybe your story just...doesn't have anything else. It's just that, a story. Maybe a description of a place, or a time, something to paint a picture, but those are stories in a different way - stories you tell to the reader to draw their attention towards specific details in a certain order. Without anyone there, however, it can feel quite empty.

Now, I'm no professional, but to me it seems that most stories need at least one character.

Not necessarily a human, mind you, nor even something alive. For obvious reasons, I will assume sentience and internal motivations when I speak of a "character" henceforth, but you can turn a particularly interesting (or boring) vase into a character if you're determined enough. Something resembling a "personality" or "motivation" would likely have to be ascribed to it through other characters that can actually communicate with the reader, sure, but it could be done. And that's the thing: Your character needs to communicate with the reader, and to even be a character, they need to communicate about themselves.

Everyone is formed by their interactions with the world around them, and I don't mean that in the usual sense. Yes, your beliefs and assumptions originate with your experiences and memories, but you wouldn't be able to express all of that if you didn't have something around you for it to reflect off of. Even floating in an empty space, you would have thoughts about it - how you think you ended up there, whether or not you would panic, what you would worry about while suspended alone.

In this way, character and setting are inextricable, but they (of course) aren't the same. When you want to make a character, it's usually the most satisfying to place them in a setting they best reflect off of, one they can remark upon and interact with over the course of your story. But how do you even make a character? Where do you even start?

If you're anything like me, your brain is just so full of things all the time, and that includes the little imaginary fellas scrambling around in there. It's so easy for me to start with a character because I just dump something onto the paper that's been floating around in my head for months, usually along the lines of "hey now wouldn't this be awesome?", but it's not always that easy. If you start with an idea for a character, even just someone with an interesting appearance, or someone who plays a minor role, or even just a dynamic between two people, great! You've got a baseline, and you can work out what kind of people would have those traits from there. But if not, you have a few other options.

Say you start with a setting. It could be normal, unusual, fantastical. Maybe it completely escapes immediate description, like a dream you had once and can only half-remember. Maybe it's just your hometown, or a particular bridge you like. It's someplace and/or sometime you want to explore. Whatever the case may be, think about what aspects of this setting appeal to you most. Is it the scenery? The technology? The ecology? The culture and the ways people subvert it? What makes you come back to this setting? What keeps it in your head?

Now, slap someone into there, and decide how they would interact with your favorite parts of this setting. Would they appreciate it the same way you do? Would it be something mundane for them? Would they turn their nose up at it? If you have an idea as to what kind of person you'd like your character to be, their reactions to your favorite parts of the setting can be a good place to start. Someone smug could say they've seen better views. Someone aloof could silently observe, maybe with secret appreciation or awe. Someone cheerful could make the best of a bad place. If you can't decide, it doesn't hurt to put more than one person in there and see who appeals to you most, see whether you like a positive or negative reaction. Or you can keep all of them, if you're particularly ambitious.

If not a character or a setting, maybe you have an idea for a story, some vague beats and a conflict. Maybe it's just a general atmosphere you want to cultivate. Maybe you basically have the entire hero's journey mapped out in your head. Maybe just the rising action, or the climax, or a single cool scene. What you want to seek from there is someone to influence the story in some way. Not even necessarily the main character or a protagonist or antagonist, but just someone who can carry some aspect of the story you're invested in. What kind of person are you seeking? Is it someone repressed and closed-off, so that they open up in an emotional scene? Is it someone power-hungry and merciless, to drive an ongoing geopolitical conflict? Is it someone without memories, so they don't even know what they're really looking for? Is it someone who fits into your story seamlessly, who embodies that atmosphere you want?

Think about the part of the story you want to hold in your hands more than any other part of it, even if that part is the only part you have, and think about what kind of person is necessary for that part of the story to happen. If you want an ongoing theme of self-discovery, you need someone who is unsure of themselves in some way, even if they don't know it. A fight scene between cool wizards with lightning powers needs cool wizards with lightning powers. A story about a dragon tamer needs someone with a reason to be a dragon tamer - and often the ability to tame dragons (even if poorly).

From there, it's just a question of "why", and you're not asking that about yourself. It's not "why do I want this character to serve this purpose" - it's "why does this character serve this purpose".

I'm asking about motivations, yes, but I'm also asking how their personality and reactions interact with everything around them, including story, setting, and other characters. They need motivation, something to look for, even if it's as simple as one particular book or a good forest to build a house in, but their personality, their past, their memories or lack thereof - does that inform their motivations at all? Or do their motivations inform who they are? Does their role in the story cause them to respond to the world like they do, or can they only serve that role because of those responses?

Someone cheerful who makes the best of someplace unpleasant could challenge the setting and move the story by subverting their grim surroundings and the expectations of a place like that. A dynamic between two characters has to have been formed by something like a long friendship or where they met, which further tells you why they're interacting with each other in the first place. A particularly interesting vase could become a character because another character is so alone that they have no other company, inventing personalities for objects in their surroundings. Perhaps a power-hungry dictator was raised horribly and doesn't know that compassion is even a possible approach to rulership. (Under the majority of circumstances, that of course doesn't excuse their actions, only explains them, but that's an entirely different bag of fish.)

This line of thinking should get the ball rolling, and from there the recommended move by plenty of writers more professional and prolific than I is to write at least a page, if not more, from your character's point of view or from their focus, and it's advice I also endorse. This can help you establish a voice, a vocabulary, what you want or don't want to have in this person. What languages does your character speak? What details are important to them? Who are they with? Where are they, and where would they rather be? Is there anyone they wish was sitting next to them? Are they perfectly content with their surroundings? Perhaps write them visiting a place they have a bad history with, or maybe a place they love. Maybe it's someplace fascinating or dangerous. Why would they choose to be in one place instead of another? Or did they not choose where they ended up? Something like this can be a fun addition to a character profile, or a way to establish further facets that aren't necessarily surface-level.

Now, this type of complexity isn't necessary, not at all, but if you want to make deep characters for your readers to understand and like (or dislike!), these things are worth exploring. Needless to say, the satisfaction of a good character can just be your own; you don't have to share your things with anyone else, and you should never write for anyone else unless they're paying you specifically to do that. If you have an idea that appeals to you, you're under no obligation to hold it up to anyone else's scrutiny.

You're perfectly allowed to just make things that you never show anybody else, and in fact, I encourage it. Even if you can't allow yourself the mercy of imperfection, no matter if you can meet your own impossible standards, the act of creation itself is important. There's enough destruction in the world as-is, and sometimes the story needs a character to create something instead.