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 the character does things within your story line. Again, the audience must get to know and like the character.
People are often confused. Most people do things that they do not like. The same things should apply to your characters. Why? You need to make the conflict personal. Suck your audience in. Get them so into the head of your character so that they will actually relate to this fictional being as if they were real. Who can forget the conflict within Hamlet?
The character Hamlet is confused and so are his actions. Shakespeare puts us into Hamlet’s mind through his soliloquies showing us the major conflict which is inside Hamlet himself. This sucks the audience in. Soliloquies are often thought as being obsolete. Today we often want to show actions rather than motive taking us back to the old Greek plays where guys like Aristotle advised us to concentrate on action and not motives or character. Even so, we need to find ways to introduce the character to the audience.
Besides soliloquies, there are ways to take your audience into your character’s mind. One way is to give the character a confidant to whom they tell everything. If you are writing a book or short story, then you can use the point of view. Use your character’s point of view and give your reader the character’s thoughts. You might want to consider your mode of showing the character’s mind if you are writing a novel that you will later turn into a screen play. Voiceover narratives are not often used in movies,although this mode is being used more often.
So now your character is introduced to your reader. Well, now you've got to get your audience to relate to your character. To do that, you have to tug on your audience’s heart strings. Show emotions. You know the old saying, to be a good author you have to dip your pen in a bit of your own blood.
And so, here are the steps:
Take your character’s traits from yourself. If you want your character to be endearing; take what you think is endearing. Introduce your character on an intimate level to your audience. Show the conflict within the character. Tug on the heart strings of your audience. Your audience will respond.
As an exercise for developing characters try this; write three 4000 word short stories about a family with a mother, a father, and a ten year old son. Make each story with the old clichéd plot where the father abuses the wife mentally and physically; the wife rebels and murders her husband. Write the story three times using each of the main characters as the protagonist. Start out with the son because he would be the person who would be the easiest to make into a sympathetic endearing character; write how bad he feels because his parents cannot get along; and, when his mother kills his dad how his little soul is torn.
Then write another short story using the mother as the protagonist; remember she’s going to have a lot of conflict about killing her husband and the father of her son; she loves the jerk as well as hates him. Finally, move on to the father, using him as the protagonist; he just needs to feel loved because he never felt loved before. Tell how he struggles to feel loved by controlling his wife and family; and, how bad he feels when things deteriorate into violence. Remember, you have to make each character endearing and somebody the reader can relate to by making them apart of yourself; introduce the character to your reader; show the conflict within the character; and finally, tug on the reader’s heart strings. If you can do that with the son, mother, and father you know how to make a character endearing.