Creating Compelling Characters: Mark's Resource Roundup
- Mark Bedard
- Sep 1, 2017
- 1 min read
Without compelling characters, we’d just be looking at pretty pictures. There would be no plot because there would be no one to push it forward. With no one pushing the story forward why would the reader/audience care? The answer is simple: they wouldn’t care. Creating compelling characters takes a bit of doing, but if you start with these four pillars of character creation you will be well on your way to creating characters that readers and audiences will care about.
The four pillars are:
Who is my protagonist? Type, traits, values and flaws.
What does he want? Desire and goals.
Why does he want it? Need and motivation.
What happens if he fails? High stakes.
After you’ve set your protagonist, you can use the pillars to flesh out the other characters. Hint: make sure your antagonist shares a key trait with your protagonist.
Keep writing,
Mark
Resource Links:
Parting Thought:
“’Characterization requires self-knowledge, insight into human nature...it is more than impersonation.” ― Leon Surmelian
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