Rochester Writers Association

Because so many of us love to write stories, I'd like to share an article I posted recently on Helium:

Fiction writing: The importance of creating multidimensional characters

Stories are not about plots or places. They are about people. Your readers don't actually care about that spooky old house on the hill until you put the mysterious Mrs. Fillibuster on the front porch every evening precisely at seven pm. The writer's development of memorable characters is crucial to the success of every story an author tells.What eventually happens to those characters is secondary.

As writers, we've heard that most great stories are about "ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances." There's one more critical element to that observation: our readers MUST care about those 'ordinary people, or they won't bother reading to the final page. We can argue the merits of various plot devices all day long, but a stellar plot can be destroyed by poorly-drawn protagonists. On the other hand, a spectacular character can shoulder a shallow plot with aplomb.

How can you make your readers care about your characters?

Blood and conflicts:

One common prescription is to "make your characters bleed." This need not be taken literally. There are many ways your characters can shed blood metaphorically. However, it's worth noting how often successful authors place their protagonists in serious jeopardy, physically or emotionally. This directive is often also stated as, "good stories =characters + conflict," for those who like equations.

Don't confuse individual conflict with overall plot. Many conflicts are internal, as in: "man, that guy is really conflicted!" Recurring examples include characters who suffer alcoholism, fear of aging; or were spurned by love, smothered by momma, abused by daddy, ignored by a lover, unappreciated by the boss, dismissed by society, motivated by greed or lust, and many more. A popular "conflicted" character in many murder mysteries is the sociopathic antagonist -- a "bad guy" who feels no conflicts overtly: no guilt, no moral quandaries, no remorse.

Each of us, as readers, finds ourselves able to identify with characters who experience emotional difficulties that are familiar from our own lives.

A pound of flesh:

The other critical key is to "lift your characters off the page." Two-dimensional characters are for comic strips, not for powerful stories. You may have heard this described as 'fleshing out' your characters. Inexperienced writers often try to provide detailed descriptions of each person introduced in a tale. We've all seen something like this:

"She was a tall, willowy blond, wearing a skin-tight satin sheath. Under a broad forehead, her green eyes dominated a regal nose, over pouting plum-colored lips..." You get the drift.

Better writers dribble out details about appearance on a need-to-know basis...

Read the rest of this article, as it appears on Helium.com.