Character 101: Getting Started
Vivian here! Today it says I am the poster but I am having my good old friend Lady Verbosa (Anne Winchell) cowriting this with me! I will focus on worldbuilding while she will focus on the writing aspects! We hope you’ll enjoy this clusterfuck! Most tables are a joint mix between us.
A Cog in the Machine
(Anne:) In the beginning, there was Bob. No, not the beginning of the universe. The beginning of your idea for the story! But your wonderful characters are just one cog in your world, so as you develop them, you have to always make sure they fit into the rest of your story and world. We’re going to be developing the character Bob throughout all of our posts on character.
(Vivian:) When it comes to any person, regardless of how you feel, we are all products of our own environments, upbringing, genetics, quite frankly all the factors that can make us up. This does not mean, as I have said in my post on cogs, that our beloved Bob is a complete nobody. It only means that he has to fit into the universe where he exists. This is one issue that, for example, the “Chosen one trope” often fails at; they in some ways become disconnected from the world in many ways which is what makes them feel jarring.
So it's important as we develop Bob that within the universe we create, he fits in snugly. He can have any skills and abilities we so desire as writers and worldbuilders, but if they do not fit into the world, we have an issue.
(Anne:) Before we get started with talking about what makes up a character, let’s outline the parameters of our world. We’ll be working with a Science Fantasy world, as that combines Vivian’s love of scifi with my appreciation for fantasy. If you’re not familiar with that subgenre, you’ll soon learn how it works!
(Vivian:) I like pew pew gadgets.
(Anne:) Happily, those still exist in science fantasy! Pew pew! We’ll definitely have guns for Vivian. I wrote a practicum on a world called Aermundi where I discussed how illnesses can fit a world, but let’s take that same magic system and look at how to use it in writing and develop a character! We’ll be adapting it to be a little more friendly to space opera. I developed the fantasy version in the previous blog, now Vivian can talk about how we’re expanding it.
(Vivian:) Spatiomundi! We’ll use that magic system but also add on top of it some made up science stuff from my own universe such that it fits in some sense. We need lots of pew pewing in fancy space magic science ways! Not the force though… NO!
(Anne:) No force whatsoever! Just mana! *These are not the magic systems you’re looking for* Just to make things easy, I’m going to choose to have Bob live nearest the electricity pole, meaning he receives life mana from a source under the surface of the planet and electricity mana from above. For those of you who haven’t read the previous blog (go read it!), each person has a field around them that converts mana into a magic that their bodies use to survive, but they can also use mana for other things. Like pew pews! But we’ve already talked about Aermundi at length. Let’s give Bob another home. So Vivian, if he doesn’t live on Aermundi, where does he live?
(Vivian:) On the planet of Anbaro! Also all planets have the relevant poles. What are the rules of the FTL (Faster Than Light) in this universe? It's quite simple. In known systems that are within what is called the “Obelisk systems,” you can use space mana to travel to any of the nearby systems with obelisks. The obelisks are giant stone structures with runes and mana-containing stones and conduits to facilitate what needs to be done. By going near them and using “Space Mana Engines,” SME, you can jump from one system to another instantly. If someone wishes to go outside the network, it gets harder. They can, of course, but it requires locating large mana sources outside the system and generally finding life mana containing ones. At which point the obelisk can fling you in that direction, albeit it can in any direction. The issue is that without a receiving obelisk, it has nothing to communicate with or receive mana from, so all comes entirely from your ship. This results in a huge mana drain of all things onboard, including living things where life magic will be the source most impacted, and if a jump is too long, it is inherently fatal. So we got the basics down! Pew pew time!
Basic Character Types
(Anne:) Okay, let’s lay down a couple of basic terms first that we’ll be referring to throughout the entire series of character posts. Let’s look at the basic character types. Not archetypes! We’ll get to that in a much later post. This is just the role that the characters play in the story and how they advance the plot. Simple, right?
In talking about one of Vivian’s characters, who we’ll actually have a practicum on at some point, I pointed out how zhi always has such ideal characters, with pure motivations and compassionate hearts, who always do the right thing, and it usually works out. This is an essential difference between me and Vivian, by the way. Zhi writes optimistic worlds and idealistic governments and how we need to fight to keep it that way, and I write pessimistic worlds and dystopian governments and how we need to fight to hold onto hope and create change. Anyway, Vivian had a great distinction about characters related to the idea of an ideal character and unless zhi steals the microphone, I’m going to give it.
Hmm, looks like I’m stuck with it! Vivian has tapped out. Anyway, when looking at “perfect” or ideal characters, they need to be side characters, not your protagonists or antagonists, and they need to be a particular type of side character which we’ll get to in a minute when we talk about side characters. Protagonists can’t be ideal because they’re meant to show us the work that needs to be done in order to become an ideal character. And the antagonist can’t be ideal because they’re meant to show that when you don’t try to attain that perfection, or when you fail to do so, this is what you become. Those are just Vivian’s thoughts, but I really like that way of looking at the categories. It’s not true in every case, but nothing ever is! Anyway, I feel like I’ve rambled on long enough. To the categories!
Protagonist
(Anne:) The protagonist is your main character (MC), or in video games, your player character (PC). Vivian calls them “the protag,” just to give you a heads up. Actually, it’s a commonly used term. I don’t use it though. I’m classy! 😉 But however you want to refer to them, they’re your point of view character. You can have multiple MCs in your story, too. Don’t feel limited.
What makes them the MC is not that they’re a good person or a hero, though they often are. It’s that they drive the story forward towards solving a conflict. Somewhere towards the beginning of the story, in Act 1 in most dramatic structures, you’ll introduce a major conflict, and they’re the one(s) trying to solve it. Generally, their goal (the way they want to solve the conflict) is better than the antagonist’s goal in some way, but it might also just be that the story is told from the MC’s point of view. They’re not necessarily better, but they’re always the focus. Death Note is a great anime that tells a story from the point of view of someone who is worse than the antagonist of the story, for example. It happens.
But yeah, that’s them. The story focuses on them, and they drive the story towards solving the conflict.
Antagonist
(Vivian:) This one is mine! Nya nya Anne! Antagonist, also often called just “The antag”– we are getting fancy with slang! Anyway, in stories there is a person who is the opposing force that creates the conflict for the protag. They are in some way either responsible directly by actively opposing the protag and know it, or indirectly by having goals that oppose the goals of the protag.
As Anne points out, it is not that the antag is evil (or in her case, protag is good), but that they oppose the protag. If the protag is good, antag is often evil, and vice versa. But they don’t have to be. Both can be good people; it’s only that their goals cannot happen at the same time, and thus they come into conflict with each other.
(Anne:) Also, side note, because it’s often interesting to show opposing goals, you can have the antagonist’s point of view in your story. It just has to show up less often than the protagonist’s.
(Vivian:) Another thing to remember is that not all stories have an antag, but all have antagonistic forces within. Antagonist is a person but antagonistic forces are anything(s) that causes conflict for the protagonist.
Side Character
(Anne:) Those are your main characters, and traditionally the point of view characters will be in one of those categories. But what about all of the other characters? You need a fully populated world, after all! There are all sorts of side characters. Some are extremely important, some are only of passing concern. It’s easiest to classify them in terms of how they relate to the conflict of the story. Some characters will stay in one category, but some will switch categories throughout the story! You can do some very interesting things with that.
Conflict neutral
(Vivan:) Who doesn’t like the great moral compass character? The one that seems to always know how to do it right? Doing right is hard, everyone is selfish and horrible, but maybe there can be someone so good that we believe we can also be it! They are often story destroyers if they influence the relevant parts. This is why these dreams are great as side characters and as neutral ones. Someone to look up to and wish to be.
(Anne:) Having a virtuous character who always knows right and does right really needs to stay either in this category or the “conflict enabling” category. If you have a “perfect” character helping to solve problems, well, the tension of the story has just vanished. Having them neutral and, in a sense, above all of the drama of life gives them even greater nobility. But there are other kinds of neutral characters as well, and it’s important to note that these characters are neutral only in their relationship to the conflict of the story told. Virtuous characters have a clear side to morality, but are removed from the conflict. So it’s not any belief or position, it’s that they don’t influence the conflict at all.
In video games, these are the NPCs who basically don’t start nuthin’. Some might be traders who trade with everyone, or those who just go about their lives untouched by the conflict, or they might, as Vivian said, be the great characters that your protagonist looks up to and is inspired by. As long as they don’t touch the conflict in any way, they fit this category.
Conflict inducing
(Anne:) Every conflict has a beginning, and it’s usually sparked by a side character. Often, it’s when this character dies, and that sparks a fire in the protagonist of some sort. Usually to get revenge, maybe to protect someone else, or even take up a profession in their honor. So many options. But it doesn’t have to be death! Maybe a stranger comes to town, and everything changes.
In video games, these would be the NPCs (Non-Player Characters) who give out quests! They need to open the stable but there are dark voices coming from a well. They heard a rumor of a monster in a nearby cave. Their child is ill and requires a certain plant or item to heal. What all of these characters have in common is that they induce a conflict of some sort, spurring the protagonist to action. Your classical call to action.
Conflict assisting
(Anne:) Often, these are the minor enemies. They form the obstacles along the path to solving the conflict by assisting in keeping it going, and often making the conflict worse. However, they can also just be characters who keep the conflict going without being in league with the antagonist. They might have their own reasons for wanting the conflict to continue, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be bad. Maybe the morally ideal character wants to give the protagonist more time to become the person they have the potential to be and doesn’t want them to settle for less.
In video games, these are all of the NPCs seeking to stop the protagonist from resolving the conflict. They might be individuals trying to cheat or mislead you, or it might just be swarms of nameless enemies about to be hack’n’slashed by your oversized sword. Whatever the case, they keep the conflict going or make it worse.
Conflict solving
(Anne:) You need to be really careful with these characters. It’s all too easy to invoke a deus ex machina, where a character will miraculously appear at the end of the story to solve all your protagonist’s problems for them. In general, you want your protagonist(s) making all of the decisions and finding the solutions, not other characters. While there are certainly times a conflict solving side character can be great, try to avoid them for the major conflict of the story.
In video games, these would be the NPCs who give you the solution to whatever the conflict is brewing. Investigating the dark voices? Whelp, it’s them. Monster in a cave? Bingo. That plant or item? Another NPC just happens to have it and will hand it over. Basically, any character who resolves the conflict for you fits this category.
Showing Character Depth Quickly
(Anne:) The world is complete! Well, we’ve started it. Now we have to figure out a character who’ll fit in like the cog that they are. We’ve got the amorphous idea of Bob, but we’ve got a pretty awesome world if I do say so myself. I’ve gotta pause for a second, though, because what we just did goes against my personal style of worldbuilding. In this case it’s good, since it’s a blog and we want y’all to follow along, but when writing a book, I definitely don’t start by defining the world. I start by defining the character. This difference in approach between me and Vivian is actually a really common difference. Every writer falls in one camp or another (though you can be somewhere in the middle too).
Worldbuilding and Characters
(Anne:) I feel like I’m about to go into teacher mode again. I need Vivian to help snap me out of it, but at this moment in writing, zhi is far too lazy to help 😜 Anyway, there are two basic approaches to creating your world and creating your characters. Vivian and I disagree on this, and just to force zhim to be less lazy, I’m going to make zhim go first!
Top Down
(VIvian:) I am first and foremost a worldbuilder, WHO WOULD HAVE FUCKING THUNK!? Anyway, the reason I love it is because I love making things connect together and having a world that feels lived in. I have always had a habit of wanting to create a world for stories, rather than a world for a story.
That is my personal reason, so now, what is top down? Well, as the name suggests, you start at the top (the world) and work yourself downward. You ask questions like in this order roughly:
What does the world look like?
What political entities roughly are at play?
What has formed and made their culture?
What is their culture like?
How do their institutions work?
How does it work on more local levels?
What is the geography and industry like for the city?
What is the local town or city like?
What have families gone through?
How has this influenced the protag?
Okay, this is not all the questions you can ask, and the order is not perfect, but notice something crucial? You start at a large scale image to get a rough sense of things, give them broad stroke ideas, and then work yourself down the scale of things until you finally reach the protag themselves. At that point, you have decided what they will be like and all that comes with it. It can be tedious to some; to me it is incredibly enjoyable! There are of course many subquestions, and that is a huge issue for many. They get stuck in the loops of questions and never get past building. (Anne: This really is a huge problem. I have friends who are still building out their worlds from years ago and haven’t written a word of the story). If I suddenly die, you know who stole it, the thing, item, stuff, the mew.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Coherent world where things seems to connect naturally | Risk too much information if presented at once |
| Can make lived in worlds where the protag is not centre of everything | Risks getting lost in the world and never telling the story |
If you have discipline and are more of a worldbuilder than writer, then this is a method that works for you. If you get too lost and cannot go “Aight, time to write” instead of only answering these questions and allow some to be unanswered, then this is not for you. Sometimes a question does not need an answer! (Anne: And sometimes a Vivian needs someone to prod them to stop worldbuilding and get writing!). MYAR!
Bottom Up
(Anne:) That’s a great way to do it, but what about those of us who don’t necessarily have that discipline, or who are more interested in characters than the world? At least at first. Please please eventually get interested in your world! But personally, I start with characters and conflict first, and then go from there. (Vivian: It shows 🙄) I expand the world throughout the entire writing process, then go back and make sure everything is cohesive. Unfortunately, I will occasionally write myself into corners, but what great writer doesn’t? Honestly, I feel that I’m way more creative trying to get out of the holes I find myself in than I am the few times I try to do top down worldbuilding.
If top down starts with the wider world and narrows down to the protagonist and the story itself, then you can think of bottom up doing the opposite. However, it’s not as simple as just reversing the order of questions. Your process might look something like this:
Who is your protagonist?
What is their motivation that will form the basis for the story?
What is stopping them from achieving their goals, aka the antagonist(s)?
What kind of background would your protagonist need to be the way they are?
What kind of world would provide the character with a background like that?
Does the protagonist have any unusual talents or abilities?
How do those talents/abilities fit into the wider world?
What elements does your story require?
How can you shape a world that provides those elements while incorporating the background and talents/abilities?
What other details about the world can you add to make it feel real and lived in?
Now, feel free to take some of these out of order. Sometimes you come up with an antagonist last, or maybe you do the talents/abilities first. But you generally want to answer all of these, and as I said, you don’t always answer these in advance but instead find the answers as you go.
Personally, I find this extremely satisfying, and I love watching things unfold and the pieces fit into place as if I meant it to fit together. There’s always a moment about three fourths of the way through a book where everything SNAPS for me, and I suddenly see how everything works together. (Vivian: You mean like when you come to me having trouble tying things together?) Har har 🙄 Actually, Vivian helps me a lot, but only in the revision process when I’m trying to sort everything out. Everything has snapped, but does it make sense? Ask your local Vivian for the answer! At that point in the writing process, I usually also know the ending that will be a natural extension of the story so far. It’s a great feeling, but there are other ways to do this as well. As long as you’re having fun! But there are downsides, too.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Allows more natural connections between the character and the conflict | Risks contradictions in the world |
| Forces increased creativity to prevent contradictions | Requires more rewrites and revisions |
As you can see, lots of goodies there, but just take this style of worldbuilding with a grain of salt and know you’re going to be doing a LOT of revisions.That’s really the biggest problem. If you’re the type of person who loves to just write and sort everything out later, this is the ideal strategy for you. If, on the other hand, you tend to make things up and create huge holes in your worldbuilding and aren’t prepared to do sometimes very substantial revisions, you might want to do top down and plan things out in advance.
Conflicts and Contradictions
(Anne:) So you’ve either sketched out your world or you’re starting from scratch and ready to create your character! Hooray! In our case, we developed the world in some detail, especially since it’s based on a post I wrote about Aermundi. This world has some depth! And your characters need depth, too!
Now, you’re probably not going to start with a fully fleshed out character. Most people have a starting point, maybe an idea of a character arc, some sort of internal conflict, something. That’s awesome. From that point, you can either write and discover as you go, or, as I hope for the sake of this blog you do, you’ll plan out your character first. Actually, even if you write your book and get all finished and happy with it, read through all of the upcoming character posts to make sure you’ve got a great character! Vivian and I are going to go into excruciating detail about everything that makes a good character. It’s so much fun to look at, and fun to plan as well!
First things first, though. You’ve got that basic idea, or you have a world and see a place for a cog, and the first thing you want to do is give your character some quick depth. There are some very easy strategies for this, but the best is what I call “Conflicts and Contradictions” (hence the title of this section!).
Conflicts
(Anne:) Story is conflict! What is conflict? I’m going to go into a lot of detail soon in a blogpost all about conflict, but basically, a character wants something, but is prevented from getting it in some way. If you’re setting up a character, a great way to add instant depth is to make them want something, then introduce some reason why they can’t have or get it. That’s usually the overall plot of the book then, though it doesn’t have to be. You might just use it as a starting point to dive into your character.
(Vivian:) Conflict can be internal or external, and it can be things characters don’t know or don’t realise until the very end of a story where the real conflict happens.
Contradiction
(Anne:) Okay so this is technically still conflict, but now we have internal conflict, where one aspect of a character is at odds with another. If you think about yourself, hopefully you can see elements of your identity that don’t quite mesh. You have competing desires, and you probably feel torn about things sometimes. If you don’t ever feel that and everything in your life goes perfectly according to plan without you ever questioning yourself… Well, you’re a poorly developed character in a poorly written book, sorry. I don’t make the rules.
(Vivian:) Unless you write things so it was always planned along according to your new plan!
(Anne:) One thing I have my students do when developing characters is think of three adjectives where one has to contradict the other two. That builds in the contradiction. You can also do a contradiction based on the plot. One thing both Vivian and I love are comedic characters who turn deadly serious in times of crisis. The contradiction gives them depth and makes them believable. Vivian, do you want to add anything about contradictions?
(Vivian:) Those are all good things you’ve brought up but a classical contradiction is the hypocrite. Someone who believes one thing but practices completely differently and has a different judgement scale for themselves compared to others. This is not necessarily a conscious thing but it is a form of contradiction that we often see in life. Characters can be like this too.
(Anne:) And keep in mind, your protagonists can be hypocrites too, even if they’re the “good guys.” It’s not just for jerks! Okay, that’s enough of my lecture, let’s get to our beloved character Bob!
Introductio Bobi
(Vivian:) So we start with our wee widdwe Bob! A tiny hoomon…SHUT UP I KNOW HOW IT IS SAID I AM MOCKING YOU! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Okay, calm down. Our Little Bob is quite the fellow! He is not a big person nor important. Working on a remote world of no significance as a Space Mana Engineer, SMEer! He has worked on many ships repairing them around his port but never left his little homeworld on a lonely planet in the middle of nowhere.
He, however, is a good person. He had a great father and mother who instilled morals into him. But due to his naivety, his morals are very… simplistic. He is easy to trust and quick to judge things without consideration. A good thing about him is that, growing up without much money, he has come to put little value to it and is quite happy to throw whatever he has away, just to make others happier and better off. Money comes later thanks to his skills.
(Anne:) Good start, right? We’re going to develop Bob in so much more detail in this series of blogposts, just you wait! For now, though, we need a way to summarise all of that information quickly and succinctly. So let’s try two versions, the first which emphasises conflict, and the second which focuses on contradiction:
We begin our story with Bob, an aspiring SME engineer whose desire to leave the planet leads him to a job with a woman who is all too happy to take advantage of his trusting nature.
And so our story begins as Bob, whose haphazard engineering skills supplement his book learning, learns that sometimes trusting others contradicts his strict moral code, and he must figure out what he really wants in life.
Primus Pars Summa Summarum
(Anne:) With Vivian’s longer setup and these two brief intros, you can see how to quickly create a character. But how did Vivian and I come up with these ideas? First, we outlined the world so that we could neatly place him inside as a cog in the machine. Then we got to the character himself. We started with a loose idea of Bob, then developed his childhood, looked at the trauma in his life, figured out his education, and got specific with who exactly he is. We’ll show you how to do this too, but it’s way too long for a single blogpost. Keep an eye out for Character posts, and we’ll walk you through everything you need to create a realistic, fully functional character who can engage readers and bring your story to life!
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Copyright ©️ 2023 Anne Winchell and Vivian Sayan. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as character types and styles of worldbuilding are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as Aermundi, Bob, and all language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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