My Characters Should be... What?

We have all experienced it: An idea dances on the fingertips. We sit down with pen and paper (or with word processor and keypad), eager to pour them onto the page. And then... an insurmountable wall looms before us. 

We have to put people in this story.

I hope all of you have experienced this feeling at one time or another. An exception would be when the idea comes from the formulation of a character. I have encountered both through the years of my piddling attempts to write. There are times when I meet someone who inspires a character, or I begin the idea with a single conversation between two people. The dialogue leads to the construction of these two characters, which becomes an entire story idea. In these cases, it is not hard to create a character; they just sort of happen.

The majority of the time, however, you will begin with an idea and move from there to forming your characters.

... So what's the big deal? People are people are people. We've all got them in our lives; it can't be that hard to make up a few more, right?

Wrong.

There are several very very very difficult things that must be implemented in the creation of characters in order to make them believable. The type of audience you are writing to also must be considered. The characters in the story must capture their attention and hold it for the 250+ pages of the book you are writing (unless you are writing a novelette... then, I would say, building characters becomes more difficult). 

These characters must be relatable. Your audience cannot just see you in your characters, they must be able to see themselves. Otherwise there would be no way for them to invest in the character. An individual does not invest in what he does not understand. If your character is not understandable - relatable - then your audience will not invest in him. 

And that is why you burn all your two-dimensional, convenient-placed, personality-less characters on the altar of good storytelling.

Your characters also can't be your ideal. This goes hand-in-hand with making them relatable. People make mistakes. They fail. They sin. Exclude these elements from your character and you have taken away their humanity. 

Your readers want to see your character grow, overcome fears, conquer internal and external enemies. They want to see him grow. they can't do that with a character who is the perfect picture of what you want to be. They can with one who has flaws and weaknesses just like you do now.

 Many people read books to escape from themselves. A good writer knows this. He will write so that, in the process of escaping, his readers find themselves.  

Now do you understand why I liked constructing characters to an insurmountable wall? It's hard. Probably the most difficult part of writing a story (except perhaps finding a good ending, but more on that later). You will fail in your efforts to make each of your characters engaging and relatable. But with each attempt you will learn a little bit more and grow closer to creating one that is truly human. 

And remember: Just because each character isn't as perfectly human and relatable as you would like them to be, does not mean that someone in your audience won't find him to be so. While humanity is not completely subjective, I would argue that relatability is (yes, I just made up a word; google told me so). A character I may find stale and predictable, another might find familiar and intriguing.

So do not lose heart when you don't make your ideal, flaw-ful character. You may not have made yours, but that does not mean you haven't made someone else's. So keep writing. And study people around you (just don't be creepy about it; they don't appreciate that at all). Humans are the best textbooks for creating humans.