Characters You Can Relate To

I've very rarely related to a character in the "reminds me of myself" category. When I relate to characters it is usually because they are interesting, exciting, and seem realistic, rather than sharing similarities with my personality.

Characters with real emotions will ring true to many, many readers.

There's no easy way to do it, other than to feel emotions yourself and practice at translating them to the page.

DwayneA said:

How do you create this kind of character where the reader can think: "Reminds me of myself."

Click to expand...

First of all, there's no way you can make EVERY reader think "hey, this reminds me of me." Such attempt is futile.

Second, aim at some type of universal traits. Like the need for love (then again, some people don't need or want love). Like having issues with their parents. Like getting stressed out by their jobs...

But there will always be exceptions -- refer to point #1.

Take a look at this: http://www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html

It's helped me round out my characters!

I can relate to characters that don't remind me of myself at all. It just depends on how well they're written.

The key to a "good" character - that is, one to which everyone can relate - is believability. And this only comes from good writing.

DwayneA said:

How do you create this kind of character where the reader can think: "Reminds me of myself."

Click to expand...

You can't. As someone else pointed out, you can't create characters that resonate for every reader. I don't think you can set out with those goals in mind either. You have to decide what and who the character is and then write him/her. If you're not happy with them in some way (i.e. you feel they are cruel, cold, selfish, ditzy etc and that's not what you wanted) then you re-write. The strength of your writing should mean your characters connects with a significant portion of readers.

As my Mum says, you can't please all of the people all of the time. Cheers, Mum!

Clare

Don't forget to write in their flaws and shortcomings, their hangups, etc. Who can't relate to someone that isn't perfect?

Imperfections remind us of being human, of ourselves. We all realize that we're not perfect (well, if you're mentally healthy, anyway).

Personally I wouldn't want to read a book where all of the characters reminded me of myself. That'd be boring. No offense to me.

Believability, as has been mentioned, is important. I also try to make sure my characters act in a way which is consistent with their earlier behavior, for example someone who places a high value on life suddenly getting stab-happy for no apparent reason.

Write an angsty character. Write someone trying to discover him/herself. Write someone wondering "is this all life has to offer?"

There are some basic dilemmas in life that the majoriy of people from that certain age group encounter, and they'll probably relate to another character of a similar age going through those problems. Or they may enjoy reading about a younger character going through something they lived through, or an older character going through something they imagine they'll face in the future.

So just write goals that seem real to you in your life. People relate to a character most often because it seems real and familiar (if not for them than for a close friend or family member), not necessarily because they would choose to behave the same way in the same situation.

scheherazade said:

Write someone wondering "is this all life has to offer?"

Click to expand...

Sounds like me, when I'm at the "day job"!!

If a character, in whole, truly reminded me of myself then I would probably hate them.

Rather, what makes me relate to a character is if their emotional reactions to things are similar to my own. The character can be completely different from me--outgoing, popular, interesting--but if they react to a situation in the same way I would, or if something sparks the same flood of emotions that I would get, then I relate to them. Even if they're nothing at all like me.

Emotions and mental processes are a really good way to go to get people to sympathize with characters. This is how people can sympathize even with characters who are total jerks they'd never want to socialize with in real life.

Just try to make your characters as real as possible. Give them everything that makes a person real. Loves and hates. Happiness and anguish. Strengths and flaws. Know their history. What made them who they are. Have them react like they really would.

There's no way to try to write a "this character reminds me of me" character and succeed. Everyone will see themselves in different things, different traits.

Just write a real person on the page, and people will relate, even if they have nothing in common. If someone loves coffee, he'll still relate a lot more to a real character who hates coffee, than a cardboard cutout that loves coffee, too.

Flaws and feelings. Everyone's got 'em. Illustrate each well and you'll have characters that are interesting and real. That's what people relate to.


Good luck.

Appeal to common emotions and motivations and some common experiences. My main character, for instance, doesn't even relate to me in a lot of ways. He's a thirty something man with a son. He works in carpentry. I'm none of those things. On the other hand, he lost his wife and although I've never lost a spouse, loss in general and his grief over that loss and his love for his family, these are things that I and I think my future readers will be able to relate to. I think it's about finding the common humanity, not about the specific details that come into play for a specific character.

I think it's more important for a reader to empathize with your characters than to literally relate to them. It's too specific. Empathy, on the other hand, gives a reader enough of a glimmer of themselves where they can understand what the MC is coming from. They relate, because they can imagine themselves in that situation.

Now, how to do this...characters I empathize with best are ones who A) have strong, complex emotions and inner conflict (it humanizes them) or B) are playing with a darker side of themselves - something every human being imagines doing, wonders what it would be life, but never actually does; or C) Is actually doing all the things I would never do, say, etc, but is conflicted about it.

Too true. My usual beta-reader asked me how I thought up the many characters that I do. I told her that sometimes I take a small characteristic of my own and build very heavily around it.

kuwisdelu said:

There's no way to try to write a "this character reminds me of me" character and succeed. Everyone will see themselves in different things, different traits.

Click to expand...

I made a character called Samantha and made her an emotional wreck. I'm not an emotional wreck, but I can be very emotional and cry at various things sometimes, so I built a big thing around that for my character.
I also made Samantha into one of life's victims, she's as soft as shit and lets people push her around. I also gave her a very jealous-minded boyfriend and she loves him more than life itself. I loved her because I felt sorry for her and wanted my readers to do so too. But In the end, I began to despise her for her frailties and having a jealous boyfriend who tells her what to do, the silly cow always does it too. I personally could never let a man push me around and tell me what to do; if I had a jealous man, he would be on his bike rather sharpish.

Then I made a character called Caroline, she's tough and won't let anyone push her around. She doesn't care about men and she vows to never fall in love, she only thinks of men as people to entertain her in the bedroom. She is also very intelligent, very strong-minded and very self-assured. I love this woman and built her in the way in which I think I would have been if I'd have been born into the right circumstances.
The funny thing is, my beta-reader reckons that there's a lot of me in Caroline. My beta-reader has actually met me in real life too. I don't see this in myself though, even though many people have always seen a great inner strength in me that I don't see in myself. So yes, other people do see us differently than we do ourselves, so our characters could never really be like us, even if we think they are.


Elodie