Character Building and Character Arcs

(Fourth lesson in my writing class, going over Character Building and Character Arcs.)

Character Building is a one of the most important things in any story.  A story could have an excellent plot, a stupendous theme, and a revolutionary moral, but if we don’t know why the hero is doing what he’s doing, why he is the way he is, we don’t care.  Or, even worse, if we don’t give him a personality, we won’t care.

Character Building is making your character.  Some writers use long lists of irrelevant questions to “interview” their characters.  But Character Building is much more than knowing what color their car is, or even how old they are.  Sure, they might come into the story once in a while, but likely they’ll only be mentioned.

The big part of Character Building, what you really want to focus on, is the character’s personality.  The readers don’t care about what color hair the main character has, even if it’s hot pink, and that’s why you need to focus on the personality.  Now say this person is sort of rebellious against her parents wishes, and she dyes her hair pink spitefully against her mother’s wishes - now that matters, because it shows part of her personality - rebelliousness.

You might already have a rough idea for a character, or maybe not.  But when you’re starting out, you’ll usually want to browse over a list of traits, good and bad, and pick out a few that work well together and fit with this character you’re making.  For example, don’t pick both submissive and rebellious for the same character, because they’re virtually the same.  You can, however, pick shy and rebellious.  Why?  Because shy doesn’t necessarily contradict rebellious, it just means he or she might not be so outspoken about it.

I have a list of traits here.  For starters, pick out two good traits and one bad one.  It’s hard to give your hero a bad trait, but you need to realize it doesn’t make your character evil, instead it makes him or her human, realistic, and 3D.  3D as in, the character isn’t all good, their might be some dark secrets he or she is hiding, something that the character doesn’t want to reveal.  In the end, you’ll probably want it to be exposed.

But that’s for later.

1. active 
2. adventurous 
3. affectionate 
4. afraid 
5. aggressive 
6. ambitious 
7. amiable 
8. angry 
9. animated 
10. annoyed 
11. anti-social 
12. anxious 
13. argumentative 
14. arrogant 
15. attentive 
16. babyish 
17. bored 
18. bossy 
19. brave 
20. brilliant 
21. busy 
22. calm 
23. can't keep a secret 
24. careful 
25. cautious 
26. charismatic 
27. charming 
28. cheerful 
29. childish 
30. clever 
31. clumsy 
32. coarse 
33. cold-hearted 
34. compassionate 
35. competitive 
36. complacent 
37. compulsive 
38. conceited 
39. confident 
40. confused 
41. considerate 
42. cooperative 
43. courageous 
44. cowardly 
45. crafty 
46. critical
47. cruel 
48. cultured 
49. curious 
50. cynical 
51. dangerous 
52. daring 
53. decisive 
54. dependable 
55. dependent on others 
56. determined 
57. diligent 
58. discreet 
59. dishonest 
60. disloyal 
61. disobedient 
62. disparaging 
63. disrespectful 
64. dissatisfied 
65. doesn't learn 
66. domineering 
67. doubtful 
68. dutiful 
69. eager 
70. easygoing 
71. eloquent 
72. encouraging 
73. energetic 
74. enthusiastic 
75. fair 
76. faithful 
77. fearless 
78. fidgety 
79. fierce 
80. finicky 
81. foolish 
82. formal 
83. frank 
84. friendly 
85. frustrated 
86. funny 
87. generous 
88. gentle 
89. giddy 
90. giving 
91. glamorous 
92. gloomy 
93. grateful 
94. greedy 
95. grouchy 
96. gullible 
97. happy 
98. harried 
99. hateful 
100. haughty 
101. helpful 
102. honest 
103. hopeful 
104. hopeless 
105. hospitable 
106. humble 
107. hyper 
108. ignorant 
109. ill-bred 
110. imaginative 
111. immature 
112. impartial 
113. impatient 
114. impolite 
115. impudent 
116. impulsive 
117. inappropriate 
118. inconsiderate 
119. independent 
120. industrious 
121. innocent 
122. insensitive 
123. insolent 
124. intelligent 
125. jealous 
126. judgmental 
127. lackadaisical 
128. languid 
129. lazy 
130. liar 
131. logical 
132. lonely 
133. loving 
134. loyal 
135. lucky 
136. malicious 
137. mature 
138. mean 
139. meticulous 
140. mischievous 
141. moody 
142. mundane 
143. mysterious 
144. naive 
145. negligent 
146. nervous 
147. never satisfied 
148. no sense of humor 
149. noisy 
150. obedient 
151. obliging 
152. obnoxious 
153. observant 
154. obsessive 
155. overindulgent 
156. prejudice 
157. procrastinator 
158. reckless 
159. rude 
160. sarcastic 
161. selfish 
162. self-pitying 
163. shy 
164. smart 
165. stubborn 
166. superficial 
167. tactless 
168. taking self too seriously 
169. too trusting 
170. unable to commit 
171. uncomunicative
172. unconfident 
173. unmannered 
174. untrusting


On that list you’ll see several disagreeable and unlikable traits that you can pick for your character.  You’ll likely not be wanting to have the truly evil ones for your character.  Then again, you might.

I’ll give you a few minutes to pick out three of them, two likable and one not so likable, or even evil.

So if you haven’t quite got the ones that fit, that’s alright.  You can review your character this week, but now, we’ll stick with the ones you have now.  You probably have some kind of a character forming in head now, so we can continue on.

I’ve pre-written a scene in which your character is faced with an important decision.  Decisions, actions, and reactions are what makes a character shine through the page and become 3D to you and the reader.  Your character is shaped in the decisions he makes.

Your character just discovered he has inherited one hundred million dollars from a trust fund, how does he react?  Is he just satisfied?  Does he hyperventilate?  Maybe he is annoyed or refuses to accept if he believes money is the root of all evil.  And also, aside from his physical actions, what is he thinking during this time?  WHY is he excited about this?  Is it because he can now move out of his old apartment, have a vacation, and still afford a lambergini?  Or is it because he can now help the community by paying for a new library?

Here’s another situation.

Your character lives in a very poor district of town.  He must somehow get food for the rest of himself and the rest of his family.  He has two options; 1, to go out and find any sort of second or third job he can get, though its low pay still might not be enough.  And 2, to go into the streets and steal bread or other food (and remember, though this might be wrong, your character would have plenty of motivation for it).  Of course, if your character was lazy, he might not do anything at all.  But for this exercise, pick one of the two above.

And finally for a third situation.

Your character wants a job.  But at the first four interviews he’s been rejected, what does he do?  Keep trying?  Give up despairingly?  Try a new plan?  Or maybe recruit a friend for help?

The first of those three examples was how a character reacted to getting an enormous amount of money.  The second was a decision, and the third was an action.


What your character wants.
What your character needs.
What your character believes (is it a lie?).
What your character thinks he needs.

If each of those questions has different answers, even if they’re just slightly varied, will make a dynamic and realistic character.  Those were some good questions to build on the story goal, what the main character is going after throughout the entire story - it also builds on your character and who he or she is.

The characters, in a story, are literally the most important thing.  Enjoyable characters make enjoyable stories, make your characters real.

Related Posts:  Character Arcs

~R.A.H.Thacker

Piece Apart Movies - Big Buck Bunny

Over time, I will be taking apart movies, books, and other stories to show story elements.  First, we're going to start with a 10 minute short made by the Blender Foundation.  Watch the video below, Big Buck Bunny, and then I'll take it apart.  It's a great short, please take the time to watch it.  (And watch through to the very end, even after the credits.  It's worth it.)

The major plot elements in any story are Inciting Incident, Rising Action/Rising Storm, Climax, Falling Action, and Conclusion/Resolution.

You've probably already guessed a few of these after watching the video even once, but here's a dissection for you.

Inciting Incident - The Butterfly is killed by the evil rodents . . . (violently!)

Rising Action, or Rising Storm - The rodents attack Buck Bunny and he runs away.  But then he pauses, and suddenly is overcome with determination.  He formulates a plan to capture the rodents in the forest.

Climax - Buck Bunny fight with the rodents, defeating them with ease.  The major point here is the squirrel revealing he is a flying squirrel.  Frightening.  (They're actually very cuddly fellows).

Falling Action - Our hero has defeated the flying squirrel and rests happily.

Conclusion, or Resolution - While this collides with the Falling Action to some extent, the bit after the credits is satisfy-able for the Conclusion.

Lets go back to the Inciting Incident.  What was his motive?  From a broad and general perspective, we could be right in assuming it's for revenge.  But if you look closer, Buck Bunny's virtues seem to be pretty strong - he's generally a nice Bunny, so the real motive is justice.  Justice and revenge tend to often divide the line between heroes and anti-heroes, or heroes and villains.  Many times we don't want to give our good hero a drive of revenge - but it's realistic.  So is justice.

But mix and match the two and create something unique.  Your hero might be wanting revenge for something the villain did - notice it's revenge, not justice.  Or the villain could be seeking justice - not revenge.

Of course, you could couple the two.  Revenge within justice, or justice within revenge.

The possibilities aren't endless - but there are more than mortal man can think up in a century.

Big Buck Bunny, is a good example of motive.  Over the next few days and weeks I'll be showing you several other stories, each highlighting one of the plot elements.

I suggest watching it again, with the plot arc in mind.  What do you see?  Any aspects you like?

~R. A. H. Thacker

Character Small Talk

"Hey Bob."

"Hey Jo."

"How are you Bob?"

"I'm great."

"That's good."

"How are you, Jo?"

"Oh I'm pretty good."

"That's great, Jo."

"So what have you been up to, Bob?"

"Oh, not much.  This and that.  The dog's got fleas."

"That stinks."

"Yeah."

"So what've you been doing Jo?"

"My back hurts from mowing the lawn."

"Oh.  That stinks almost as much as my dog's fleas."

"Uh-huh.  I feel like I've got a hernia."

Aside from the incredibly ridiculous writing there, what did we learn from it?  It's boring.  And not like the kind of boring six year old's will start getting fidgety at - the kind where it'll make an elderly, wheelchair bound man start jumping off the walls screaming.

But not all small talk has to be boring.  It shouldn't be boring - nothing in your novel should be boring, and if it is, you definitely need to revise that area.  No matter what, make it at least slightly more interesting.

But that's beside the point.  Small talk has to have a destination - even if it's really little small talk.  Does it really matter to the plot?  To the character arc?  To the theme?

Each of those could be reflected in a small talk sequence, or all of them, but the importance of a small talk happenstance is not to be action oriented, nor is it to be a major revealing in a character's personality - that's what we call Big Talk.

No, small talk is meant to make a character real.  Everyone talks about trivial things in their life.  Maybe your character is radically obsessed with Pokemon, or is a dare devil extremist, but if these things aren't important to the story, character arc, or theme, they still have a purpose left for them to take up.

Possibly the greatest example of this I have read was in the Bellmaker (I highly recommend it, one of Jacques best even though its underrated), one of Brian Jacques's classic stories of Redwall.  Several of the characters had been caged inside of the evil villain's castle, and now sat gloomily about in the castle dungeon.  They began to talk - talk about trivial things.  About their home, a reminiscing of sorts.  It was almost sad, nostalgic, and bittersweet.  It was simple small talk, going over their favorite foods and customs, and yet I felt so connected to them because I knew them, I knew who they were.  They were real.

A reader will relate to someone who talks about what they like and don't like, even if they hate Pokemon, or are seriously creeped by dare devils - they'll still know the character, and the readers are going to grow to like, or at least respect, them even subtly over these small talk times.

A thing that can be often overlooked in creating a character is his hobbies.  Give him a half dozen hobbies.
Now give him three more.  No, really.  A reader will come to love a character - just simple words on a piece of paper (sometimes even digital), through knowing him.  A reader needs to know your character.  Major decisions?  Tense situations?  They're all good, but they're the big things in life.  Do we reveal part of ourselves to our best friends every week so our 'story' can go on?  No.  But we talk to them.  Just simple, small talk.  And we learn about each other, and we grow as friends.

Sometimes, small is best.

~R. A. H. Thacker

Outlining: It's Easy

I know a lot of you out there don't outline your stories.  And through that maybe you've come to great success.
Maybe you haven't, like me.

It all, of course, depends on your style.  There's nothing wrong with "pantsing" a novel.  There's nothing wrong with plotting.  It's all about tastes and styles.  I, personally, have attuned my taste buds to outlining, so let me give you a few tips on it.

First off, if you're outlining a novel do not - I repeat do not outline every single event, especially if this is a new idea.  I ruined one whole promising trilogy over outlining too much and stifling creativity.  That's not to say, however, all outlining ruins creativity.  My outline was so in depth, it was more of a short story than an outline, with lots of events, and a poor amount of description.

Don't write it down - sketch it down.  Draw a simple box - don't ink it all in.  When you're writing, that's when you fill it all in.

Now I'm sure there are some who might benefit from doing extremely long and detailed outlines, that's why it is critical for us all to test each method out, but from my  own experience, you're likely going to ruin your plot (unless you're a control freak - then you'd benefit from this method...).  Most importantly though, you need to find your style and what works best for you.

So here's my sage advice on outlining a novel.  Yes, even pantsers would benefit from an outline, even if it's just a paragraph, because I think we all agree (unless you're really far out) it's best to think before you speak.  Even more so with writing.  It gives you a vague route to trace along, while you can still let your mind run like mad in the plains of creativity - even jump down a rabbit trail for a while.

A Form for Pantsers:

How did past events tie in, and lead up to, the Inciting Incident, the first major thing that happens?  (This is the backstory.  Give it a quick sentence like this:  Daniel Formouth entered a writing contest and waits expectantly for the announcement of winners to come in his mail.  Or, he might not even expect to win the contest and had forgotten about it, creating a more intriguing inciting incident, such as when he learns he's the first place winner and is quickly becoming a buzz over the internet.)

What is the Inciting Incident?  (This is the first major event that spurs on the plot.  Give it, too, a brief sentence such as:  Daniel has become a writing star now that he has won the national contest, and the country is abuzz with his incredible talent.)

What Emotional and Physical tension, along with other events, goes on during the Rising Action, or the period before the Climax?  (Here you can put in a bit more detail, but if you don't like outlining that much, a simple paragraph is perfect.)

What happens during the Climax?  (Don't go overboard, a sentence or two is great.)

What happens during the Falling Action?  (Tie this up in a few sentences.)

And Finally, what pulls everything together in the end? (Keep this just at a few sentences as well.)

Aha, see what I did there?  Your plot is now outlined, you have plenty of space for creativity and random inspirations, and it wasn't hard, nor did it take any great length of time.  I use this method to sketch out a very wide, shaky circle, which can then be inked in with a bit more detail before the writing process actually begins.

Now, this is very plot oriented.  There isn't much character development outlining in there.  So why not outline the character arcs?

What was your character like in the past?  (This is the backstory.  One of the essential things in creating a character - remember what he is, and what he becomes.  We'll get into more detail later.)

How did the Inciting Incident change him, and why did the Inciting Incident move him to do something?  (A death is a very common (though cliche) and realistic example, while things such as a simple move to another house (even the non-haunted ones...) can provide enough tension and motivaton.  Daniel Formouth slowly became more snooty as he grew ever more popular.  In that short sentence we explain how the Inciting Incident changed him.  Now in a second sentence we see what the Inciting Incident moved him to do.  He began to push away his friends from the past, disassociating and ignoring them more and more with each passing day.)

What Emotional tension and stressful decisions must he go through during the Rising Action, and how does that change the character?  (This is definitely an important part, as this is the setting up to what makes the climax really nerve-wracking or heartbreaking - this is where you develop a bound between reader and character.)

What personal decisions and changes happen in your character during the climax?  (This is the climax of your novel - the emotional side of things.  Be wild, be creative.  What must he do to come out on top as the lone survivor of a gruesome human bloodsport?  Must he break a relationship?  Kill an innocent man?  Or maybe he realizes that he doesn't have to come out at the top - maybe for once it's okay to let go and sacrifice himself for others or for a greater cause.  It's all up to you.  But be wild - be insane.  Torture your character at this point - drag him through the toughest times of his life - don't go easy on him just because you think you've got enough for him to struggle through.  Press him, press him harder - press him to the brink of death... or beyond.)

What decisions does your character need to take now that the climactic fight is over during the latter periods of the falling action?  (Yes, more decisions.  Decisions are a pivotal point in exploiting how your character has changed.  Here we're beginning to tie things up, but as the slow character arc is progressing, this is where you'll find the last stretch of the arc coming into place, just before meeting up with the final point.  In the aspect he's been changing in, it's become ever more clearer he's changed.)

During the Resolution, the ending period, what major things does your character realize has changed inside of him?  (Is he bold and courageous now?  Is he kind and caring?  While the first sentence might sell the book, this is what sells the series - and possibly your reputation.  This is what makes people spread the word voluntarily to their friends - but most of all, this is the satisfying ending.  Make it take whatever course you like, but remember, unless it's a series (and sometimes even then), we all want a satisfying ending, else we'll feel cheated.)

So?  What are you waiting for?  Go get out there and write!  You now know most of the basic information about your plot, and your character arc is well fleshed out for a fledgling, yet ever growing story.  And it is your story.  The story we all want to here you put to words.

A short list of things you may also want to fill out.

What are your character's quirks?
What are your character's major flaws?
What are your character's positive traits?
Does your character feel ashamed of any of his quirks or flaws?
Or for an interesting twist, does he feel ashamed about his traits?
What things has your character done that he is ashamed of?
What are the lies he believes?
What is his main driving goal?
Is that goal just slightly off touch with his allies and/or leaders?
What kind of a person would this character most likely open up to if he usually hides his emotions from others?

The final one can be very useful if you're trying to reveal his character, because no matter who the person is, there is always someone out there that they will find more comfortable talking about themselves and their feelings with.

Now obviously, there is an endless amount of other helpful tips out there.  I cannot give you all the advice I have in one post, but all of the things above are essential to every story, but be persistent and you won't fall astray.  What are your thoughts on outlining, character arcs, and the like?

~R. A. H. Thacker