by Charles Bobbitt

Created on: March 05, 2009

The foundation for creating good fictional characters is a basic knowledge of how stories work. Some people believe the myth that there are plot driven stories and character driven stories. It's a lie. All stories are character driven.

I can prove this claim quite easily. Let's start with a story where a comet is bearing down on Earth, about to smash it into little bits. Now, suppose there are no people in observatories to see the comet coming. What is the story? The comet is bearing down on Earth. No one notices. The comet smashes the earth into little bits and everybody dies. The end.

Boring.

For the story to work, there have to be people who see the comet coming. They have to think this is a bad thing, and warn others. Others have to be worried about the situation as well, and do something to try and avert the disaster. Nothing happens in the story until someone takes some initiative. The characters provide the action.

These are the two basic things that your story, and therefore your characters, need: conflict and initiative.

Conflict is to your story what fuel is to your car. Without fuel, your car goes nowhere. Without conflict, your story goes nowhere. Furthermore, conflict can only enter your story through your characters. Therefore, you have to create characters that will be in conflict with each other, in conflict with their surroundings, in conflict with the supernatural, and/or in conflict with themselves (although not necessarily all at the same time).

Conflict makes us uncomfortable, and when we are uncomfortable we feel the need to change things until we get comfortable. Uncomfortable characters will want to move, and as they move, your story will move.

How do you create conflict? Simple. First, you discover what your character really wants, and then you don't give it to him, or you threaten to take it away from him. For example, in the case of the comet crashing into Earth, the characters want their lives, or possibly just human life, to continue to exist. The comet threatens to take that away. Bingo, conflict.

To get more mileage out of your story, add more conflict. Your hero wants see his daughter grow up to lead a full, happy life, and the comet threatens to take that away. Conflict. He then comes up with a plan to destroy the comet and save human life (and the life of his daughter), but it will cost him his own life, and he wants to live, too. More conflict. He could train someone else for the mission, but he is proud and is afraid others would

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