How to create believable characters
When I’m teaching fiction writing, particularly short stories, I always advise my students to start with character first.
Lots of creative writing courses start with plot or structure and then move on to characters. But that’s not how I operate. I go for characters every time, because without good characters – believable, well-thought-out characters – even the most exciting plot won’t work.
A reader won’t care about what’s happening if they aren’t invested in the character, and they can switch off very quickly.
That’s why I always start with character. Read on to learn how to create believable characters.
What makes a badly written character?
To think about what makes a good character, it can be helpful to start with what makes a badly written or badly thought-out one.
One of the biggest problems is that the character simply isn’t believable.
For some extreme examples, think about stereotypes. You might have the villain who is completely evil, runs around doing evil laughs and has no redeeming features whatsoever. Or you might have the perfect student – a straight-A student who is very nice to everybody, never gets anything wrong and is perfect all the time. Everything bad that happens to them is always somebody else’s fault.
These kinds of characters don’t feel like real people. They’re two-dimensional. They’re flat. Always avoid writing your characters as stereotypes.
Think of your characters as real people
Perhaps the best way to approach character is to think of your characters as real people – people walking around in the world, whether that’s this world or another one.
When you’re creating a character, think about getting to know them in the same way you might get to know a new friend, or simply somebody you’ve just met.
Imagine you’ve met somebody in real life and you’re a bit nosy. You want to know a lot about them.
That doesn’t mean your readers need to know all of this. They won’t. They’ll only ever know a certain amount.
But you need to know it.
You need to know your character properly because that helps you understand how they would behave in different situations, how they would react to other people and how they move through their life.
You can only really do that authentically if you already know them. Otherwise, you’re guessing all the time, and you can end up with a character who behaves erratically or in ways that don’t make sense.
Readers won’t believe in them, and if they don’t believe in them, they won’t stay interested.
Start with a simple character profile
When I create a character, I tend to start with a very simple profile and then move on to a much more detailed one.
The simple profile includes the basics:
- name
- age
- where they live
- whether they have a job or are in education
- who they live with
- basic details about their appearance
That might include hair colour, eye colour, skin tone, height, or any distinguishing features.
This gives you a starting point.
Then get to know them in more depth
Once I have the basics, I move on to a much more detailed profile.
This is where I start thinking more carefully about personality. What are their good points and bad points? What do they enjoy? What don’t they enjoy?
How do they behave in different situations?
How do they behave when they’re nervous, for example? How are they in crowds? How do they behave when they’re on their own?
These details start to make a character feel much more like a real person rather than simply someone you’ve invented to fulfil a role in the story.
Give your character a backstory
Then there’s backstory. This is a big one.
What has made your character who they are today?
Where did they grow up? Who were they brought up by? Did they have brothers and sisters? What were those relationships like?
What important events have happened in their life? Which experiences have shaped who they are as an adult?
Again, your reader does not necessarily need to know all of this.
You might know that something happened to your character when they were eight years old, for example, and never mention that event anywhere in the story. But if it has shaped the way they behave now, then knowing it yourself can help you write them much more authentically.
It’s really about getting to know your character in depth rather than simply knowing a few surface details.
Believable matters more than likeable
Readers do not have to like your character.
That’s a common misconception, and I actually have a whole blog post that goes into much more detail about this topic.
A character does not need to be likeable, but they do need to be believable and interesting enough that readers want to spend time with them.
They can make mistakes. They can have flaws. They can be selfish, irritating, difficult, frightened or contradictory.
In fact, those things will often make them feel much more human.
The important thing is that their behaviour makes sense for that character.
If you know who they are, what has shaped them and how they tend to respond to the world around them, then you are much more likely to create somebody your reader can believe in.
And once your reader believes in your character, you have given them a reason to care about what happens next.
To sum up…
Creating believable characters takes a little time, but it’s worth doing the work before you start writing.
You don’t need to know absolutely everything about them, and you certainly don’t need to put everything you know onto the page. But the more clearly you understand who your character is, what has shaped them and how they behave, the more naturally they will begin to move through your story.
For me, that’s always where fiction starts: with a character I can believe in.
If you’d like more guidance on developing your characters, our courses explore this in much more detail, with practical assignments and personalised tutor feedback.