by Marie Brunkhorst, Senior
Fall 2016
Personalities are all around us, though most never think about it. They’re in animals, plants, friends, ourselves, even inanimate objects if one were to pay attention. Though despite this, there have been many cases where an author misinterprets their own character’s strengths and weaknesses. Most of the time in these scenarios, it affects the story deeply; lack of development can cost the author their reputation, as well as their audience’s interest.
Before looking at the qualities a good character needs to have, one must recognize the possible obstacles that may occur whilst creating the perfect being. There are many problems that may arise while creating said character; the list could go on for eternity, so these are the three major things that an author would be recommended to avoid.
The first, and most obvious one, is known as the “cardboard character,” or the “cardboard cutout” personality. The type of person who corresponds to their own stereotype, is unmemorable and can easily be replaced by someone else, has no impact on the story whatsoever, and quite frankly, is as dull as dirt. They’re boring. Nobody cares about them, and nobody will care about them, so creating a story with this personality is a very poor choice indeed. This type of character will have have no personalities, and whatever personality they might possess is solely on “the bad guy,” or, “the good guy,” or “the loner,” or even “the badass.” Examples of this type would be Bella from the Twilight series, Snow White from the movie of the same title, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, and in some adaptations, even Superman and Batman are unimaginative.
The next flaw would be known as a “static character,” of which is the type of character that has little or no growth throughout the story, and barely or doesn’t learn a single thing from the moral. This characterization is particularly aggravating to those who already disliked the character, and is especially advised not to use it for protagonists. This lack of development can be found mostly in antagonists in multiple stories, though anyone could fall victim to it’s trap. The character doesn’t change. They won’t change. It’s all a matter of following the same formula over and over just because one doesn’t know how to express them otherwise. However unlike a “flat character,” which nearly has the same definition, static characters can have interesting personalities. They can have human emotions, and they don’t have to automatically ruin the whole film just by being in it. However, by not giving them growth or change, writers have missed a golden opportunity to teach a moral that everyone wants to forget. That people change. Examples of this happening would be Scar from The Lion King, Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter and Fred from The Christmas Carol.
Last, but certainly the most important one to avoid, would be the “Mary Sue” character, originating from the story by Paula Smith in 1973 A Trekkie’s Tale. This one is one of the most well-known among writers, particularly fanfiction writing, and it can come in all different shapes and sizes. A generic Mary Sue character is typically the most perfect person alive. They can do no wrong, have next to no flaws, always have the answer for everything, and are automatically beloved by everyone in the book. This is usually because the writer favors this character the most out of all the cast, or, self-inserted their own image into the story so that they can feel like they can be treated with as much respect. It’s not only the most infamous trope, but also one of the more annoying ones. Mary Sues can also work the opposite way around, and become the antagonist. They’re evil just because they’re evil, they’re undefeatable even though they’ve already seemingly been defeated, they know exactly what’ll happen and what’ll happen next all the time. Or, another way a Mary Sue may appear, is when a character creates a mistake, and the rest of the story is trying to convince the audience it’s not their fault, it never was, or they don’t deserve punishment for making said error, then don’t get punishment at all in the story, or everyone should automatically forgive them for causing the mistake, or all of the above. Another Mary Sue trope is when a character is heavily overpowered to the point of ridiculousness. They’ve never lost, and never will lose, they’re incredibly strong to the point that no one can stand up against them, they’re the “chosen one.” Again, it may flip around, too. Having them being incredibly underpowered, to the point of absolute uselessness. The “damsel in distress,” trope. Nearly always, no matter what the problem, this character will always be forgiven and never experience any sort of backlash from other characters. If another character were to backlash against them, then that character usually ends up dead, apologizing for what they said, “they were being manipulated by antagonist,” or actually being the villain. Another Mary Sue trait would be that they do have some flaws, but they’re always “too generous,” or “too nice,” or “too beautiful,” but never any other much more human traits. Mary Sues may apply to both male and female characters (though males are sometimes called “Gary Stus,” instead of the usual title), protagonist and antagonist, sidekicks and side characters, it may happen to anyone.
Though it may not seem like it at first glance, books and media are chalk-full of these types of characters. Not all of them have every single trait that a Mary Sue has, however they have enough for it to be noticeable. Examples would be James Bond, Bella and Edward from the Twilight series, Jigsaw from Saws, Superman (in the hands of a poor writer), the Smurfs, the Na’vi tribe from Avatar, Harry Potter, Charles Wallace Murry from A Wrinkle in Time, Sherlock Holmes, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (from the movies more so than the books), Eragon of the series with the same title, Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, and there’s likely to be one or more in any fanfiction that one may find.
Now that the top three major problems have been identified (though there is a whole ecosystem more a creator would need to look out for), it would be best to take a look at what a good character looks like.
Audiences love to find characters that they can relate to, such as sharing similar mannerisms and interests. They love to bond over characters that have major flaws and they love to indulge themselves in speaking of spoken character. Why is this? Normally, it’s because they feel like that character is human. That that character has real flaws, real problems, and a real personality. So, the first thing’s first, create a list of different human traits.
Even if a character isn’t human, this is highly recommended for all. Often times, when a personality has been established, then a good name for them will arise. Though it’s not set in stone. Research possible options to place into your creation. Are they impatient? Are they naive? Do they like biting their nails? Do they have an OCD of some sort? Are they quiet and shy, or boisterous and loud? Are they rude, insensitive, practical, oversensitive, or judgemental in any way? Create a list of both good and bad traits. Even the villain has some good elements to them. Are they smart? Or are they dumb? A little in between? Do they have self-image issues? Do they have a mental disorder of any kind? Ask yourself as many questions about them as possible. Personally, I’d recommend you even ask questions that wouldn’t even show up in the story.
Such as, what kind of garbage would they have in their bedroom? How does this character feel about the other characters? If they were a type of animal, what would they be? Boxers or briefs? If the character themselves would write a story, what would it be about? Do they have any hobbies? Do they have a strange food combo they like to eat (such as mustard on pizza, or chocolate pudding on cereal)? What would they wear on a Saturday morning?
All these questions need to be answered and more. It’s important to keep them in character during the creative process, however. The answers to your questions need to make sense for the character. You can’t have their spirit animal constantly be a wolf, even when they’re clearly a mongoose, or a giraffe.
Next thing (though again, it doesn’t need to be in this exact order), would be to come up with an appropriate name for the character. It would need to somewhat match their personality, or at least their parent’s thought process. It’s recommended that the name be memorable, simplified, and have some sort of rational reason why they would be named that. Once again, these are not the rules. If a creator would like their character’s name to be very long, then no one can stop them. It’s simply easier for audiences to remember the character.
Backstory is another important element for any character. However, one must be careful around those parts; a Mary Sue can have a tragic past, so it’d be wise to make everything as realistic as possible. For example, a character may have anger-management issues, simply because he was never taught how to control his anger correctly. Backstories don’t need to be complicated. Sometimes, they can be more powerful if there’s not as much happening. Another example would be a character distancing themselves from other people because they didn’t grow up around them, and therefore doesn’t understand them. Don’t skimp out on any of the character’s history; it may very well be vital to how they are as of now.
Conflict, motivation and mobility. A good character must have some sort of conflict, that would mean both external and internal, not just one or the other. They need to have problems that they must figure out how to solve. They must have things they struggle with, otherwise it is likely that nobody will connect or support the character. The struggles could be simple as anxiety issues, or as large as physical disability. It’s how the character handles their problems that makes the audience care about them. Motivations are also very important, because without it, the audience couldn’t connect with them, and the character wouldn’t have any reason to move the story in a different direction. They must have wants, needs, desires, dreams - much like a real person. This would lead to mobility, which means the character must be active throughout the story. This doesn’t mean that immobile cannot be a part of a character, it simply means that they have help the story move along. In other words, they need to be doing something for the story to get anywhere. How are they going to get what they want? How are they going to accomplish their dreams? By sitting in a chair, “wishing upon a star?” If a character isn’t doing anything to move the story, then the story won’t move, period.
Fears, relationships, strengths and weaknesses are all more essential parts in creating a good character. Everybody has fears, no matter what. This does not, and should not, exclude the character one is creating. That doesn’t mean one cannot have them have a fearless personality, however having someone fear nothing is ridiculous. Most people have at least one kind of fear, or more realistically, multiple fears. Fears can escalate to height phobias, spider phobias, water, ghosts, clowns, the dark, snakes or creepy people at the subway station phobias. There’s a whole word of fear, it isn’t hard to pick one or two different things to be afraid of. One could probably make up a random fear of being without technology, and it’ll count as a fear. Relationships are also incredibly important in a character - it doesn’t need to be romantic, though they do need to have some sort of connection with other characters. Or, if they just so happen to be the only character in the book, they need to have feelings about the characters they once knew, or what feelings they have for non-humanoids. It doesn’t need to be a healthy relationship, either. Even mortal enemies have some opinions on their foe. Strengths and weaknesses are an obvious one, it somewhat ties in with the personality phase, though it is different. A character must be able to do something successfully. Whether it’s making spaghetti, or being able to punch a rock in half, everyone can do something. However, everyone can’t do everything. This is where weakness comes in. They may be able to make spaghetti, however they can’t make soup, or they may be able to punch a rock in half, but they can’t punch titanium in half. This is where a Mary Sue is most likely to occur, so it is wise to put a lot of thought into the abilities that a character has, and where their limits are. Batman may have great detective skills, as well as a lot of money to help him out on his heroic deeds, however he is still human. He has no superpowers to assist him, so he must rely on his gadgets and intelligence to get him out of tight spaces.
Finally, a good character needs consistency, gravity, and secrets. Consistency helps prevent out-of-character actions; if there’s something that would seem out of place for that character at a normal situation, then it’d probably be best if the writer hadn’t had put that down in the book. However, they sometimes need to do something that is out of their comfort zone. That shouldn’t mean they have a random change of heart, that should only mean they have an impossible decision that would affect someone’s life forever, and what their decision is sometimes would be very different to how they honestly felt. But it needs to make sense. It shouldn’t mean their personality is entirely different as well. Gravity means that the character has a weight on the book. Such as, if you would remove the character from the tale, then that would have an effect on the entire story. The character makes critical decisions that would change the fate of themselves, and the area around them. Another use of giving a character gravity is that people care about what happens to them. They themselves put a weight on the audience. If that weight was there the entire time, and then, say, killed off at the end (in a completely necessary and justifiable way, nobody likes a random death of an important character just to make the public feel bad) then that weight had been doubled, because the character that they admired is now deceased, and that makes them think about what said character did for the story, and for them. In other words, the character that had been created is an ultimate success. People care about them. Until they’re inexplicably brought back to life by popular demand, then it’s just catering to what the audience wants, and not what the story needs (e.g. Spock from Star Trek). Last, a character needs to have secrets. Everyone has secrets. They don’t need to be super big, plot-moving secrets, just random little secrets. Such as Wirt, from Over the Garden Wall, of which his secret was that he had a crush on a girl, but was too nervous to tell her his feelings. Or they can be large plot-moving secrets, such as Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls, whose secret was very large and had a gigantic effect on the plot. Whatever the scenario, all people have secrets. Let the crowd keep guessing at their actions and motives, analyze why they would do certain actions and say certain things, let them experience the character. But don’t ruin it by telling them right off the bat, but at the same time, don’t keep them guessing for so long that everyone gets bored of asking and moves on.
Characters come in all different shapes and sizes. A character isn’t just in the story, they must become the story. They must live and breathe in that world, and they must be a character that people understand, that people know, that people care about. Heroic, villainous, or something in between, it doesn’t matter what side they’re on. What matters are their feelings, actions, thoughts and their story. Only then, may it become a truly great tale.