Character Creation Gone Wrong: The Top Mistakes Writers Make and How to Avoid Them!

Devlin Blake Author

Creating captivating characters is vital for engaging fiction. Avoid common traps in character development to craft authentic and compelling stories.

Transcript: 

If you’re stuck trying to figure out how to create a character for a story, then you might fall into this trap. The best fictional characters have a secret to their popularity, and it’s not what you think it is. This video will cover how to develop a character when you’re a beginning writer.

If you’ve studied writing, even online, at all, you’ve already heard that the secret to great stories are great characters. You know this. But how do you write a great character?

Well, I’m going to tell the number one character creating secret, and this is something that most new writers get wrong.

Going into more detail about avoiding this mistake and what to do instead, is what we’re going to cover today.

Hi novelteer, I’m Devlin Blake, Novel Writing & self publishing Expert, Coach, published author, and former ghostwriter of over 200 books.

At the end, I’m going to give you a special offer. So stay tuned.

In screenwriting, they talk about making your character likable. They call this pet the puppy moment, where your reader bonds with the character because they like them. Even a heartless killer will pet the puppy, and that makes readers bond with them.

Only, it doesn’t. That’s NOT how character creation works at all, and hasn’t for a very long time. Readers do not care if your characters are likable. They care if your characters are compelling.

It’s entirely possible to write an entirely unlikable character that readers can't get enough of, as well as a perfectly likable character that bores a reader so much they close the book.

In fact, unless you’re writing in a specialized genre, like a cozy, the reader has to be more invested in the bad, unlikeable character more so than even the likable one in order to remain invested.

This is especially true if the unlikeable character is in fact your main character. Stores that include unlikeable characters as the main, include Walter from Breaking Bad, Patrick Batemean in American Psycho, Humbert Humbert from Lolita, and Jerry Seinfeld , from Seinfeld.

If you’re familiar with the stories, you know these aren’t good people. They aren’t likable. They have little to no redeeming value. They’re likely to ignore a puppy rather than pet it.

They might even kick it.

But that fact didn't drive people away, it attracted them.

Why?

Well, they’re interesting characters. They act in a way that normal people don’t. Humans are fascinated by differences, especially if they don’t have to interact with them in real life.

It appeals to humanities voyeuristic nature to watch people do things they would never dare do, or even think of doing for more than a fraction of a second.

Can you think of some other characters that aren’t likable but are thoroughly enjoyable to watch?

Mention them below.

So does that mean that you have to write an unlikeable character?

No. Especially if it doesn’t fit the story. But what it does mean is that you don't have to waste time figuring out how to make your character ‘likable.’

You don’t have to give them a pet the puppy moment. What you need to do instead is make them compelling. Make them interesting, both the heroes and the villains both.

You can achieve this through the use of Archetypes, thoroughly developed characters, rich backstories and creating three dimensional characters.

Now, for that special offer I promised. I’ve placed my best selling Create a compelling character course at the link below at a 10% discount. It’s part of my Pathy To Writing And Publishing Check them out and for more tips, sign up for my newsletter.

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Categories: : ADHD/ Autistic writing advice