Creating a three-dimensional character in a story can be one of the more difficult aspects of storytelling. Even if you base a fictional character off of someone you personally know, human beings are incredibly complex, and translating from real life to page isn’t always easy.

One method for cutting through all the confusion is to outline everything important about your characters before you begin writing. Writers will often create character profiles with their character’s information in front of them; however, while creating these templates is common, sometimes they can derail you. Writers might focus on irrelevant details, or physical traits that they might need to describe but won’t contribute to what makes them three-dimensional.

When creating complex fictional characters, finding their voice is key. They not only should have specific personality traits that contribute to this voice, but also, their actions and interests should set them apart from others. By focusing on the inner qualities of a character first, you automatically create the basis for how that character will react to obstacles or conflict, how they interact with others, and how they make decisions.

To start organizing the basics of your character, check out the steps below!

 

Start with Core Personality Traits

For a character outline, first identify what you want the core traits of your character to be. These traits are designed to permeate most or even all aspects of the character. To clarify, these features should affect:

  • How characters think and feel about their situations
  • How they handle conflict and solve problems
  • How they interact with other characters
  • What they believe

I like to start with writing down three to five characteristics that I want my new character to have. For example, imagine you wanted to create a teenaged character who’s new in town. Maybe you want their beginning traits to be kindness, introversion, and fearfulness. These would all influence how this character interacts with their new classmates, how they might handle the new mean girl, and even how they end up developing later.

Imagine you are an interviewer, and you have invited this new character you created for an interview. You might ask questions such as: what are your strengths and weaknesses? How would you handle X situation? What are your feelings about X? By asking yourself these questions, you can eventually root out the characteristics that would truly be useful for developing your new character. Not only that but outlining what traits your character needs will also help you when that character needs to make decisions. You have the traits in front of you. Make sure every decision your character undertakes makes sense for them.

These core traits set the stage for how readers gather their opinions about them and also introduce the character as a whole. But because readers need to see these traits when they begin reading, how do your character’s core features manifest?

 

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How to Show Those Core Personality Traits

Next comes defining the aspects to your character that enhance their personality traits. These are ways that the traits manifest themselves when characters act or speak. You could write down what attributes you want your character to have, but if you don’t also outline how they say and do things, then you don’t have a way of showing your reader those traits.

Let’s think back to the character I just created. We already know that they can be fearful, but how are writers able to see that in the story? Do they avoid conflict in your story like the plague? Does their inner headspace lament having to sit next to someone on the bus? Readers will then recognize the fearful trait you wanted to instill in this character, and when that character’s voice returns, those traits will quickly give them away, making them stand out from the other characters.

Think about other features that help you in the real world when you’re gathering information about a new person. Is this person soft-spoken, indicating they might be shy or introverted? Have you ever met someone who had a bubbly personality, as evidenced by their energetic and extroverted nature? These things are what readers will notice first, indicating those core traits you wrote down in the beginning.

Additionally, you can also outline the traits that your character will eventually gain after some character development. These need to manifest later, when your character changes for the better (or worse) as the story moves. Have those in the back of your mind. That way you can prepare yourself for later, and nothing ends up hitting your readers out of nowhere.

 

Avoid Character “Types”

Additionally, when outlining your character, be on the lookout for anything that indicates your character is one-note, or stereotypical. This is when your characters exhibit traits and mannerisms that are commonly associated with the type of character you created. For example, if I had a character who was elderly, spent all her time yelling at everyone, and only talked about her cats, you would automatically know this character was a crazy cat lady and that would be it. This might be entertaining as a background character in moderation, but for a major character, you don’t want to throw something one-note at your readers. There would be no way for your readers to engage with them, and readers aren’t likely to be interested in what they say or do.

Creating characters that stand out and model the complexities of the real world is difficult but not impossible. By having an outline that states the core facets of your character, you already have the basics of what you need in front of you. From there, you can continue adding little bits of flair that readers will get to enjoy in the coming pages.

 

 

E. S. Foster is a fiction writer, poet, and graduate student at the University of Cambridge, St. Edmund’s. She is also the creator of the Foster Your Writing blog. Her work has appeared in over twenty literary journals, including Aurora Journal, Sour Cherry Mag, and Paragraph Planet. Her chapbooks have been published by Yavanika Press (2022) and Ghost City Press (2023). You can find more of her articles here.