5 Ways to Write Great Characters

When I write stories, I like to be extremely thorough with how and why my characters are written.

Not everyone writes the way I do, for many people, the theme, plot, genre, or any other combination of elements creates the spine of their story.

For myself, however, the characters are what make, break, and shape the stories that I write. The way they interact with each other, who they are, who they’ve been, who they will become, and why, are the prompts that interest me. The plot and the themes that grow from and are shaped by the characters are means to that end.

One of course can’t exist without the other, and they tend to shape each other as you write, but I find great characters are much better for shaping a strong plot than the other way around.

I find a big problem in modern Hollywood blockbuster movies, particularly ones that try to create new films and series for pre-existing properties, is not that they are reusing worlds or stories. But that they do not write their characters respectfully and consistently, whether they were drawn from the old franchise or newly created.

So how does one write great characters, consistently and respectfully?

I use all five of the options I’m about to give you, for every main character, and one or two for supporting characters depending on the story’s needs. As I said, I am extremely meticulous, so if you’re content with only using one for all your characters, by all means, go for it!

#1 The Juicy Details: Character Questionnaires

A great way to start piecing together a character’s personality and how they fit into your story setting is with a good old-fashioned character questionnaire. There are hundreds upon hundreds of these all over the internet, as simple or as complex as you could want, I haven’t found a single one that wasn’t at least a bit helpful.

As a meticulous character creator, my personal favorite questionnaire is Chelsea Steinn’s 160+ question, three-segment questionnaire. It makes you peel your character back like an onion, it’s brilliant. It’s so thorough in fact, that you might learn something new about yourself while you’re answering on behalf of the character!

#2 The Myers-Briggs Personality Test: Take it from your character’s POV

They’re all over the internet, lots of people assign Myers-Briggs personality types to pop culture characters from Star Wars to Disney Princesses (as seen below). So why shouldn’t you do it for your own characters? Taking the Myer’s Briggs personality test for your characters can be very insightful as to the type of person your character is, and the character types they fall into when you see where fans have placed other characters with the same personality type.

I recommend the 16Personalities quiz because it provides percentages, and the added layer of Assertive vs. Turbulent to gauge your characters’ confidence level and whether they’re on the verge of changing. I also recommend researching their Cognitive Functions for additional insight.

Bonus Idea: Compare and contrast MBTI types of characters to receive new insights on character interactions, how they function as a team, and how their personalities clash and overlap with each other.

#3 Music Makes the World Go Round: Character Playlists

Feeling stumped? A good playlist for your character might be a great start! What songs remind you of your character? Why? Put them together in as long or as short a playlist as you like! Whether you listen to it while you’re writing based on these other prompts, writing a scene that’s centered around them, or just want to idly listen to it to get inspired! A good place to get started is Kamryn Koble’s guide.

Personally, I like ordering my character playlists by emotion and theme, what songs remind me of what the character is going through in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Sometimes, on the other hand, it can also mean gleefully listening to the same song over and over again as you imagine the perfect scene that would accompany it. Have fun with it!

#4 The Hero’s Journey: For Individual Character Arcs!

For those of you who may not know, the Hero’s Journey is a twelve-part story structure that can be found in the vast majority of well-known stories from Homer’s The Illiad to the children’s movie Wall-E (2009). Initially discovered by Joseph Campell, perfected for modern writers by Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey (recommended reading!). Not all stories, or character arcs for that matter, follow the same pattern, but you can reorder the key elements to fit the needs of your story.

A breakdown for a character-driven Hero’s Journey can be found on Novel Factory, I have also concocted my own Character’s Journey questionnaire that can be found here for copy, print, and use.

#5 Let’s Get Fancy: Reverse Engineering Story & Character Themes

One of the most important elements of a story is what you’d like your audience to take away from it at the end, the Theme. Now, sometimes it’s a bit difficult to decipher what your own story’s theme is, or what you want it to be because you haven’t finished writing it. One of the ways you can start is by deciphering the themes that are presented by your character’s arc.

A good place to start is Savannah Gilbo’s theme article which poses good starter questions, again, I have a more thorough set of questions here, to be used like my Character’s Journey Questionnaire.

I hope this was helpful, keep on writing!