The Challenges of Making Characters Come Alive

A secondary character can be a trusty sidekick. Or the quiet, mouse-like kid that needs protection. Or the bossy, bullying one that always seems to be listening in on the heroine’s plans. My secondary characters always seem to be full of personality. So much that they often threaten to steal the scenes away from my main character. And there’s my problem. Why is it that the main character is so much harder to bring to life than a secondary character?

You can start thinking about the main and secondary characters in the same way. They have strengths and flaws, personality traits, physical appearance, etc. But there’s a lot more pressure on a writer to create an engaging main character.

While the main character has to change and grow throughout the story, the secondary characters can just hang out and have fun, appear when they’re needed and disappear when their bit is over.

In a compelling story, the main character cares about something so much he or she will do anything to have it, and writer has to convince the reader that the wanting it is worth it. Secondary characters can care about it too, but it’s not like their world will end if they don’t have it.

One of the strategies for writing a compelling main character is to try to put yourself in the main character’s shoes. Oddly, what this helps me with is bringing to life my secondary characters. In real life, I’m always making observations about other people—their mannerisms, their emotions, their choices. When I create secondary characters, these details emerge naturally in my writing.

But when I’m standing in the main character’s shoes, I have to turn that same lens on myself. Analyze my own (or my main character’s) strengths and weaknesses. It’s so much harder. Especially since that main character is not quite me, but some made up version that is part me/part the-heroine-I’d-like-to-be/part the-person-whose-flaws-create-the-most-conflict.

The part that is me doesn’t really like probing into the sensitive stuff that I’d normally cover up so I don’t have to deal with it. The heroine part wants to…well, be a hero. She doesn’t want to think about her flaws and bad choices. And the flawed part of the character would rather not remind anyone of her shortcomings, even if they do help to create a good story.

All this makes it so difficult for me to create a main character that really comes alive for the reader.

What do you think is your biggest challenge in breathing life into your main character? Do you find it harder to create your main character or your secondary characters?

Get rid of those duckies

A few days ago I was backing out of my driveway. The high school bus was just pulling up so I waited a moment so I could say hi to my seventeen-year-old son.

The kids filed off the bus one by one. Then I saw my son. In his left hand he was carrying….

a giant, yellow stuffed duckie.

He saw me watching him and looked sheepish. I couldn't help but smirk at his early Easter gift when he got close enough to my rolled down window.

“That’s what you get for dating a fifteen-year-old girl,” I told him.

My son rolled his eyes and said, “I don’t get it. I have to register for the draft and will be old enough to go to war this year but I still got a duck.”

I felt bad for the girl. She’d tried to be nice (and I’m sure my son accepted it graciously) but really? What kind of self-respecting teenage boy wants a giant duckie? It’s not like he’s going to put it on his bed.** Candy would have been more appropriate and appreciated. But the giver was a young girl and she probably just picked something she wanted. It was easier.

Flash forward to yesterday. I’m tweaking a subplot in my WIP. What I’ve set up isn’t quite working and I realized the problem is that I got in one of my character’s way. I gave her something (a boyfriend) and it was throwing a kink in the story. Like my son’s duckie, the boyfriend was an easier choice but wasn’t right for her. I don’t mean he wasn’t good for her; I mean that she shouldn’t have a boyfriend at all. There wasn’t enough conflict with him around. And now that I’m in the muddled middle of my story, I need to keep upping my stakes. (So guess who's getting a boyfriend-dectomy today.)

I think sometimes we forget to listen to what our characters want or fail to know them fully. And sometimes we give them what we want them to have - and forget to give them what they need. But it’s our job as authors to tell the story. And sometimes that means getting rid of those duckies.

Take a look at what you’re working on right now. Are you staying true to your character's needs or are you giving them what you want them to have? Because there’s a difference.

~Carmella

**In case you’re curious about what my son did with his duckie: he gave it to me to pass along to the little boy I babysit.

Creating Believable Motivation for Middle Grade Characters

Motivation. If you don’t have it, you’re not getting anything done. And if your character doesn’t have it, your story isn’t going anywhere. One of the difficulties I have in writing middle grade fiction is in getting the right motivation for my characters.

A character’s motivation has to be believable. For middle grade, that means you need to know what 9- to 12-year-olds want or what’s important to them. There are lots of writing books that give you advice on how to do that. But I think you also need to know two more things:

1) what middle graders think they can do

2) what they are able to do

These often don’t match up, which is a good thing, because it can create conflict in your story. But if either of them is too unrealistic, you run the risk of setting up a situation that won’t be believable for your readers.

I’ve noticed that sometimes middle graders seem to have a kind of naïve confidence, where they are sure something will be a piece of cake and then find out it’s not. Like when they’ve seen an adult do something lots of times, then try it themselves, and realize it’s a lot harder than they thought. Do they give up? Or do they try harder? There’s some motivation and conflict.

On the other hand, sometimes adults or older siblings underestimate what kids can do. For example, my 11-year-old shows much more initiative and independence when her older sister isn’t around. To a point. There are things she wouldn’t be able to do and knows it. But there are other things she’ll try because she thinks she can. There’s a lot of “trying it out to see what happens” with middle graders.

As an adult writing for children, it’s hard to shut out the perspective of "knowing myself" that comes from having so many more life experiences. But I think it’s important to try. To get the motivation right, I’m going to delve into the minds of my characters and work on what they think they are able to do, then show whether they can as the story develops.

-- Andrea

Birthdays and Character Development

Since it’s my birthday today, I’ve been thinking about the significance of birthdays in books and children's lives.

In my kindergarten classroom, birthdays are huge. They are a source of power, e.g. “I’m not going to invite you to my birthday”, and conflict, e.g. “I don’t want to come if there’s a clown.” The child who has a birthday loves to feel the attention that’s showered on them on their special day, not to mention the cake and presents.

As kids get older, they develop some birthday savvy. They might invite kids they barely play with to their parties to get more presents. Or they might bargain for not having a party if they can have a bigger gift. With teens, I’ve noticed that a birthday “party” could be as apparently ordinary as a shopping trip to the mall.

I’ve never thought much about my character’s birthdays, but given how important they are to kids, I should. In fact, the day a child is born turns out to be pretty important in my latest novel because that’s the day a decision is made about where a character is going to grow up.

Have you ever given your character a birthday party? How important are birthdays in your characters' lives?

-- Andrea