The best plot in the world will feel boring if it’s not happening to interesting people that we care about. Creating believable, interesting and compelling characters will ensure that your story is a hit!

How many characters should I have?

A story can have nearly any number of characters, from one to hundreds. Most stories have at least three characters: the hero-heroine, the sidekick and the villain. The hero is your leading character. He/she doesn’t have to be a morally upright or saintly character, but at minimum the reader must be able to identify with the hero and cheer for them. The sidekick is a supporting character, someone that the hero can have dialogue and interaction with. The villain is the person who is either the obstacle to the hero’s success or symbolic of a larger force that opposes the hero. Sometimes the villain will also have a sidekick.

What qualities should my characters have?

All of your characters should be unique, larger than live, multilayered, engaging and consistent.

• Unique

  “My hero is just a normal guy.” First, no actual person is completely ‘normal.’ Second, readers enjoy hearing about interesting people. You must make your characters stand out in some way.

• Larger than life

  Reading about a character is like trying to see a person through tinted glass. You have to exaggerate your characters a little so that they will seem more real. Heroes have to be more heroic, villains more menacing and sidekicks more humorous or strange on paper. Don’t worry about overdoing it. It is easier to cool down a character that is too interesting than to spice up a character that is too boring!

• Multi-layered

  No real person is 100% evil or good. Characters should have strengths and weaknesses, good attributes and bad ones. The more facets you can add to your characters, the more the readers will believe that they are real people.

• Engaging 

  If a character doesn’t immediately interest you and grab your attention and sympathy, then they won’t engage your reader either. When you introduce a character, you must concentrate on making them important to your reader early on!

• Consistent 

  Once you have established a character’s personality, you must stay true to it. For example, if Johnny is an honest guy, you can’t have him stealing a loaf of bread from a store in Chapter 10 because ‘that’s what the plot calls for.’ Characters live according to their own moral principles and beliefs, and if you contradict that you destroy the character. In this way, characters will often influence the plot instead of the other way around.

The Bottom Line: Characters are the lifeblood of your plot. If you work hard to make your characters real, strong and interesting, they will do justice to your plot and make your story come alive!