How To Make A Character Real And Interesting If They Don't Make Important Decisions?

[DwayneA]

I've noticed that in the books I've read, there are only a few characters (one at the least) who are actually interesting (in my opinion). They are the only ones who make important decisions, change for better or worse, or overcome challenges. All the other characters don't do any of these things. To me, they seem more two-dimensional.

What I want to know is how do you make these characters real or interesting if they don't grow, change, face obstacles, overcome flaws, or in short, play a major role in the story?

[dpaterso]

If they don't take action to show their character, you could try giving them interesting or unusual thoughts and opinions in contrast to everyone else. A witty observer can deliver an amusing story, for example.

-Derek

[Linda Adams]

What I want to know is how do you make these characters real or interesting if they don't grow, change, face obstacles, overcome flaws, or in short, play a major role in the story?


I have characters like this (bolded) in my story. They don't grow or change over the story or overcome flaws--though they do face the obstacles of the story. The things I focused on:

* Values. Each character has their own values of what they'll do or won't do. They stick to those in the story no matter what.

* Competency. Each character is competent with their own skills. Even if they don't have a clue what's going on or how to fix it, they use their skills to deal with it.

And each one has their own unique personality and perspective, seasoned by their own experiences. One of the hardest was a very senior leader. She needs to have the balls to herd the people under her (who don't want to cooperate), but not be a nasty person. She is careful and thoughtful and consults with people around her for different perspectives. But when she finds out one of the other leaders under her has been deceptive or screwed up--well, even the flies don't want to be on the wall. Because of the type of character she is (a "difficult" personality), she's goes from extremes and may turn something reasonable down because something else is going wrong.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a character who is a college student. She's a little on the goofy side, and the other characters treat her like a sister. But she's able to make intuitive leaps that the others can't do.

So it's really about what each character brings to the story and providing the opportunity in the story to bring these elements out.

[Matera the Mad]

"Unimportant" characters can be important to the decision-makers and inspire them by their steadfast adherence to what they love and believe in. They are the people that the more active characters fight to defend, the people they come back home to. Without them, the whole story would lack depth.

[Cassiopeia]

In my NaNo project, I have a secondary character, (the MC's father) who without his character, my main character would be lacking in depth. The father ties a lot together for her and her life. He's interesting through the way he speaks and what action he does or does not take.

I found it particularly interesting when I wrote this to see just how a character NOT responding can speak volumes and in fact make a big difference for the main players and the plot.

[JoNightshade]

Remember that each person's decisions ARE really important - to them. Maybe you're not writing the book about that person because you aren't telling his or her story at this particular time. But each person is the center of his or her own universe.

Using Little Red Riding Hood as an example, the story is about Red. Her decisions are the ones that are important in the context of her story. However, I am sure Grandma would think that opening the door to the Big Bad Wolf was possibly the most important decision of her life. And yet it's just a footnote in the overall narrative.

So even if your side characters don't get a lot of on-screen time, it helps to think of them as three-dimensional people and to write them that way for the time they do have. Give the reader a sense that there is more to them than what's being told. I think Orson Scott Card does a particularly good job of this. Sometimes I end up really getting attached to his secondary characters. :)

[Stijn Hommes]

Supporting characters who don't make such decisions of their own are usually there to better the plot in some other manner or aid the MC. Not all characters need to make important decisions for the story to work or for the characters to work.

[CaroGirl]

How are real people in your life interesting, even when they have no influence on you? Maybe you know a bit about the guy who services your car. He's just an ordinary grease monkey who wears a baseball cap and smells like motor oil. But wait. What if you also found out he's an amateur adventurer and takes six weeks a year off to travel the globe. He's climbed Mount Everest and bungee jumped over Lake Victoria in Africa. His wife died of cancer last year and his only daughter is about to graduate from a university in France with a degree in Anthropology. Does that make him more interesting? He doesn't influence your characters and maybe the readers don't need to know that much about him, but just a hint at it could make him a more real and interesting person.

[Lady Ice]

Remember that each person's decisions ARE really important - to them. Maybe you're not writing the book about that person because you aren't telling his or her story at this particular time. But each person is the center of his or her own universe.

Using Little Red Riding Hood as an example, the story is about Red. Her decisions are the ones that are important in the context of her story. However, I am sure Grandma would think that opening the door to the Big Bad Wolf was possibly the most important decision of her life. And yet it's just a footnote in the overall narrative.

So even if your side characters don't get a lot of on-screen time, it helps to think of them as three-dimensional people and to write them that way for the time they do have. Give the reader a sense that there is more to them than what's being told. I think Orson Scott Card does a particularly good job of this. Sometimes I end up really getting attached to his secondary characters. :)

Agreed. Secondary characters normally have some importance to the main characters. Partners are often the problem; Dave needs a wife for plot and becuase his character requires it. Obviously to the writer, the wife is not an important character but because she's important to Dave (or at least, his love life is), we have to know something about her. Reaction can be very telling.

[Aidan Watson-Morris]

I feel that the characters that interest me are sort of unimportant, but point out interesting things, preferably in a humorous way. (Marvin is my favorite in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.) Or maybe they are admirable, without being perfect. (Ares in Gregor the Overlander) Also, just because they make decisions, doesn't make them interesting. They need some sort of personality that is intriguing. (Robert Langdon in the DaVinci Code. Rincewind in The Color of Magic. Every single rabbit character in Watership Down.)

[Lady Ice]

The main characters need motivation not just personality.

[Ruv Draba]

how do you make these characters real or interesting if they don't grow, change, face obstacles, overcome flaws, or in short, play a major role in the story?Give them internal conflicts, paradoxes, impacts on other characters.

[DwayneA]

but how do you give your main characters motivation through the other characters?

[kaitie]

Okay...not sure if this is going to be helpful or not and hopefully some writers with more experience can chime in on whether or not this works, but my first thought is dialogue. I'm thinking here of minor supporting characters who don't do a whole lot but serve a purpose. One thing that is guaranteed to make a character interesting and real to me is voice. I've read a lot of bad dialogue and it can just kill a character for me, but the opposite is also true. If the dialogue is the only insight into the character's voice we get, if it's realistic and true then I'll believe the character and be fine with him.

I'm not saying you necessarily need to go to an extreme with it, but good dialogue can bring even a very minor character to life for me. Just a thought.

[Use Her Name]

Background characters are simply that, background. If they have "bit roles" they are given more "focus." If a character is not important in some way to the book, he/she should not be in the book. Bit part people simply do their little turn and get off stage. You can dress them up anyway you want, and give them something to say, but theyare not there to take the reader's attention away from the story.

[Lady Ice]

but how do you give your main characters motivation through the other characters?

If they have really small parts, like a shopkeeper, perhaps make some humorous observation about them and then drop them. They don't need to be that interesting.
However, if it's a character like a friend or partner to the MC, they need to be believable; if they aren't, the reader starts to question the MC. We need to know why the MC likes/doesn't like them.

Say you're trying to fill out the MC's best friend for example. What would attract your MC to a friend? The friend might be funny, pretty, perhaps has the same problems that the MC has...their relationship needs to be believable. We need to understand why the two of them are friends.

MC's partner/love interest. They could easily turn out to be boring, so beware. The MC presumably wants to please the partner/love interest- at least give him some strong feeling towards them, and then flesh the character out enough so that we see why they're together.