When I started writing, I never thought about creating multiple characters. It just wasn’t something that came naturally to me. But as I went along, I realized the importance of doing so. After all, you never know what might happen in a story. You might need a certain character for a particular reason, but then again, maybe they’ll appear more useful to you later on in the story.
So, how can you learn more about your characters while you’re writing? Let’s go through some tips and strategies that will help you do just that.
Create Multiple Characters
When you first sit down to write, you won’t have much of an idea of who your characters are or what their story is about. This is where creating multiple characters comes in handy. You can always go back and add more details about each character later on, but for now, they’ll serve the dual purpose of fleshing out your story and giving you some insight into the minds of your characters.
The easiest way to do this is through the use of multiple POVs (Point of View). Multiple POVs give you the ability to show the thoughts, feelings, and actions of your characters from different perspectives. For example, you can create a scene where one of your characters is tempted by another character’s offer. You can show the character’s side and their thought processes as they struggle with whether or not to take the deal. You don’t have to use all of the possible perspectives, but you can mix and match to create a diverse array of angles from which to observe and describe your character’s struggles.
Observe Friends And Family
One of the most important things you can do as you’re developing your characters is to observe friends and family. Get to know them better than you know yourself and see the unique qualities that you have in common with each individual. This will help you find subtle yet compelling connections between your characters that will make the plot twist at the end all the more surprising.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing only about what you know. We’re all guilty of it. Sometimes we don’t know what to write about, so we write about whatever is the most interesting thing at the time. If you want to write a quality story, you need to find the inner-most thoughts and secrets of your characters. One way to do this is to get to know them better than you know yourself. This is why it’s important to observe friends and family as you’re developing your storylines. The more you know about them, the more you can add to your character’s persona and the richer your story will become.
If you have friends or family members who could potentially serve as inspiration for your characters, then you should probably talk to them about it. Even if they don’t appear in the story, but you can sense that they could, it’s often better to ask rather than assume. They might have some advice that could help you flesh out the story and characters a little more. Even if you decide against using them, you’ll have the opportunity to write about something else entirely. And that’s what’s important – getting out of your own head and into the heads of your characters so you can discover something new about them.
Know Your Main Character Better Than Your Secondary Characters
Your main character is the one that you will have focused most of your attention on in the story. Even if you’ve written a detailed background story about how each of your characters came to be, you should still focus most of your energy on developing the main character’s walk, talk, and habits. Get to know them better than you know the other characters. This will help you make them more distinct individuals and give them their own identity. It will also make it easier to write specific scenes or sequences that are uniquely tied to them. In many cases, this can be more effective than trying to shoehorn in as much diversity as possible, which sometimes doesn’t feel true to life. You can use the secondary characters as props or as a foil to the main character. But in the end, they’ll serve the same purpose – helping you create a more vivid story populated by unique individuals.
As you can see, creating multiple characters isn’t that difficult. It just takes a bit of imagination and some time to get used to the idea. Once you do, you’ll see the importance of doing so and the many ways it can benefit your story. From giving you a greater sense of depth to your character to adding a layer of intrigue to your plot, developing multiple characters can help you make your story richer. So, go ahead and develop a list of characters who could potentially appear in your work. Some might even turn out to be minor characters, but the more the merrier. In the end, it will make for a more interesting story, and that’s what matters most.