One of the biggest challenges I face as a writer is creating a believable, engaging main character. Particularly if your novel is written in first person—which mine always are—you need to craft a character that will drive the story. After all, this person is the voice of your plot.
So how do you built a believable, engaging fictional person? Well, in simple terms: you get to know them. You get to know everything about them.
You should know this person as though they are real. As though you are them. You should know their likes, dislikes, hobbies, secrets, relationships, anxieties, and more. Here are the ten questions I usually ask and answer to develop my main characters:
1. What’s the character’s age?
And, more importantly, do they act their age? This is how you can get a sense of what their thoughts and actions might look like. For example, how would a fifty-year-old respond to an attack on their personality versus how a twelve-year-old would react? What if that fifty-year-old was twelve at heart?
2. What was their childhood like?
How does their relationship with their family impact them today? Family is a huge influence on the things we do and why we do them. Understanding a character’s family history also provides depth to the character, and creates greater reason for emotional reactions to complex storylines.
3. What are their hopes and dreams for the future?
What does this character want more than anything in the world, and what are they willing to do to achieve it? It could be as simple as their dream to have children of their own, or as complex as their dream to rule the world.
4. What is the number one thing they care about?
This is where you find motivation. In a lot of cases, this will be a person. Sometimes it will be themselves, or a family member, or a friend. This is the one thing that they will never sacrifice. It is why they get out of bed in the morning, and why they do the amazing or horrible thing they do in your plot.
5. What are they obsessed with?
This question is important only for some characters. In a lot of my books, the character becomes obsessed with something in the plot, and it drives them slightly mad. It can be good to identify this ahead of time, and plan the perfect moment for the character to move from simply “interested” to “obsessed”.
6. What are they scared of?
What makes this character jump out of their skin? And more than that, why does this thing make them so scared? Does it connect to something from their life? Does it remind them of something? What are the implications of this?
7. What is the best thing that ever happened to them?
This is something I think everyone should be able to answer, real person or fictional. It helps define us as people and understand where we are most succeeding. Answer it to keep your character grounded. Ensure it is mostly attainable to the average person as well so the character is more relatable.
8. What makes them jealous?
What happened that made them jealous? Is this something they’re working on, do they fully accept it, or do they not even realize it’s a problem?
9. What is their biggest secret?
Everyone has secrets, including fictional people. Those secrets can eat them alive, or even hurt their relationships with those they love. We must know their secrets if we are going to fully understand them, and the things they do.
10. What is one word to describe them?
I like this question the most because it ties everything together. This trait can be bad or good, but it should definitely be well thought out.
With all of these questions answered, you will know your characters inside and out, and will fully understand how they would react in any potential plotline. Plus, answering these questions can drive new ideas for your plot!