by Daniel Relph

Created on: February 15, 2010   Last Updated: February 16, 2010

If you do not create good fictional characters then you cannot write a good book, short story, screen play or any other kind of literature. You do not necessarily want to create an endearing character, you will also want to create characters that will be despised. However, a character that you love is often the best protagonist. So where do you start?

Start by remembering what Will Rogers said when referring to Leon Trotsky, “I bet you if I had met him and had a chat with him, I would have found him very interesting and human fellow, for I never yet met a man that I didn't like. When you meet people, no matter what opinion you might have formed about them beforehand, why, after you meet them and see their angle and their personality, why, you can see a lot of good in all of them.” This quote is often boiled down to, “I never yet met a man that I didn't like.”

This is important. If the audience meets the character then the audience will like the character. Characters that are not met by the reader are never liked. You will want the audience to know what the character is actually thinking. You will want the audience to see why the character does what they do. You will want the character to show values, have thoughts, have personality, and a number of other qualities. But where do you get the qualities of the character?

You get the qualities of a character from yourself. What are the things you like about yourself? Find them and write these things down. Then ask yourself what things you admire in other people? Find these things and write them down. Then you boil these qualities down to what you want your story to be about making targets for you story that you want your character to possess, or obtain. You will see that despite what we often think you are a pretty much average; not far from the norm. You are a down to earth nice person and if you are not you will know what kind of people you like. You can use these traits that you admire the most and even if everybody does not admire what you are there will be qualities that we can all relate to and like.

Now, you will want to write these qualities down. You have to do this because you’ll want your character to ring true. You must be consistent and writing these thing down helps you to carry all these qualities throughout your story. This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be conflict within the character, but your audience should know the conflict and why

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