If you want people to engage emotionally with your story, you’ll need to make sure your characters feel real. No matter how outlandish your plot or unusual your setting, if your characters feel real, your readers will find it easier to feel connected to your writing. There are lots of ways to do this, but here are three I think can often be overlooked.
1. Give them flaws (plural)
“Hold on. Hold on,” I hear you cry. “That’s a pretty well-known tip that one.” Is it? Is it though? It’s included in plenty of advice, certainly. So why am I still reading waaaay too many perfect characters who, if you’re lucky, will have one “flaw” that’s not really a flaw, hmmmmm? And as it says in the title you need to give them flawS – that is more than one, because that’s what most people have. They can be big and small, they can develop new ones and fix old one, but dammit include them!
2. Give them a sense of humour
There are very few people who lack any sense of humour. Some may have an objectionable one, a crude one, a childish one or a very understated one, but they’ll still have one. This doesn’t mean all your characters have to be a class clowns or chuck out wisecracks like they’re in an MCU film. But all of them should be allowed the odd joke now and then. You may think the situation of your characters precludes any “funny business” but even in the worst times (especially in the worst of times), humans will find something to laugh about, no matter how dark. It’s so tiring to read relentlessly dour or stolid characters without a hint of humour. These are people, not robots. Let them have a laugh.
3. Let them do real, everyday things
The more outside of the real world your story goes, the more I think it helps to have characters do things your reader can relate to. If there’s nothing but plot without a hint of anything day-to-day, your readers may feel disconnected. If they read about The Great Flurmle spending his morning Ampling his Buzzles, they won’t have a clue what’s going on, nor feel any kind of connection with them. If we learn the Great Flurmle was tending to his garden, that’s more understandable. Simple things are all that’s needed; eating a meal, cleaning their clothes, going to the loo. These all add reality and can also be used to help define a character. The Great Flurmle, for example, may tend to his Buzzles with far more care, than his has for his only daughter.
There’s a handful of tips for you – but what lesser-known tips for writing characters do you have? Share them in the comments.
Wordland 
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