by Lucy E. Zahnle

Created on: May 24, 2010

Major characters are the essence and driving force in any story.  Their actions and personalities, motives and quirks set the tone for the work and determine whether the readers keep reading or switch on the television. 

Major characters depend on the twin elements of personality and plot. If the plot of a story is fantastic, but the main characters do not have personalities that engage the readers, the story will not be as effective as it should be. Whether the main character is a villain or a hero, readers need to care about who the character is and what the character does. An engaging main character is not necessarily nice, but he or she should be interesting.  For instance, if a villain’s personality and actions make the reader’s stomach churn, the villain is engaging.

Plot is equally important to major characters. If a main character is interesting and engaging, but he spends ten pages sipping tea and reading the newspaper before anything else happens in the story, all his neat personality quirks are pointless. An engaging main character must be involved in an exciting predicament. Between them, the engaging main character and the exciting plot create a cohesive, thrilling tale that readers cannot put down.

Strong main characters perform the thoughts and deeds that drive a plot. At the same time, the characters must act and react in a logical, believable way within the plot structure. Maintaining this give and take between story and characters can be difficult, so it is important to be prepared, as a writer, to change bits and pieces of either the plot scenario or the character profiles so that everything flows well.

Major characters set the tone for a short story or novel.  If the main character is irreverent and a little goofy, an irreverent, humorous plot will work well with that character. If the main character is somber or brooding, he or she will need to inhabit a more serious or perhaps even a spooky story.

Pairing up the proper plot with the proper character types is an integral part of good story-telling. However, another important aspect of good story-telling is surprising the readers.  Sometimes, writers can make a story more interesting by including an oddball main character who would not normally fit into the make-the character-fit-the-story mold. It takes some skill to incorporate a clown type of character into a story about a mortuary filled with vampires, for instance, but once an author has mastered basic character and story development, experimenting with surprise combinations can take a story that resembles a dozen others and raise it above them to be something special.

For writers, it is well worthwhile to pursue the twin skills of character and plot development. Authors who master good character development and the ability to place their characters comfortably within their plots can often get away with other plot flaws. Readers love the characters and the situations they face so much that they are willing to overlook the niggling details. By the time the readers realize that some plot point does not quite make sense, the strong main character has captured their hearts and they don’t care about story inconsistency. They just want more of the characters they love.

Learn more about this author, Lucy E. Zahnle.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.