What Makes a Character Interesting
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
What makes a character interesting? That’s an amazing question. For many aspiring writers, there is nothing more important than creating a cast of characters that your readers will become invested in. In fact, readers often pick up a book in the first place because they’re attracted to the protagonist or think they sound interesting. But what makes a character interesting? How do you write a character that your readers will root for? Read on to find out.
What Makes a Character Interesting: Character Arcs
The first thing to understand when it comes to what makes a character interesting is how to develop and use character arcs. A character arc refers to the journey that a character goes through over the course of a story. It’s generally one of character development, growth, and change. This journey can be a physical or emotional one, but it must be transformative and hold emotional weight, blending internal conflict and external conflict.
Depending on your writing genre and target audience, the character arc can take different forms. For example, in a romance novel with its many romance tropes, the arc could center around a character's journey towards greater emotional vulnerability, while in a thriller, the arc could focus on the character's journey towards faith in their instincts and desire to survive, no matter the story stakes.
Whatever your genre, it is essential to have a clear understanding of your character's arc before you start writing, including who your character is at the beginning and who they become at the end. This trajectory is what makes a character interesting over the course of a story.
What Makes a Character Interesting: Relatability and the Past
First and foremost, a character must be relatable to your target audience. Readers need to be able to understand the character's motivations and relate to their struggles. By doing this, the character becomes more than just words on a page, they become a living, breathing person that readers can invest in emotionally.
Additionally, interesting characters have flaws. They are imperfect and make mistakes, which makes them human and gives them universal appeal, even if their characterizing details are unique to them.
Another important element is a character's backstory. Knowing a character's history can help readers understand their motivations and why they act the way they do. By combining these ingredients with a clear character arc, you have the recipe for an interesting character who has a past, and will bring the good and the bad from that past to the present moment of your story.
What Makes a Character Interesting: Maximum Emotional Impact
The key to executing a character arc successfully is to make the protagonist’s journey and emotional transformation feel earned. Characters should not experience sudden revelations moments without the necessary buildup. For example, if a character who has never shown an interest in philanthropy suddenly decides to donate their entire fortune to charity, readers won’t find this believable or satisfying. The seeds of the change need to be planted and nurtured throughout the story, especially if you find a way to turn the character’s perceived weakness into a strength by the end of the story.
To ensure that the character's journey feels earned, create a series of action beats that demonstrate the character's progress, rather than simply telling readers that the character feels different. Each action beat should be challenging and necessary for the character to grow. By the end of the journey, the character should have changed in a believable and satisfying way, leaving readers emotionally fulfilled, and that’s part of what makes a character interesting.
Character and Action Beats
Character beats are moments in a story where the character reveals their true nature, or an important aspect of their personality. They should revolve around characterizing details, or those that matter more than, say, favorite ice cream flavor. Action beats are moments in a story where the character takes action, either through their words or deeds. A story with a strong character arc will have both character and action beats that move the character forward. If you want to plan these ahead of time, you might find that a novel outline will help you with not only plot but character development as well.
For example, if a protagonist is struggling with addiction, a character beat might be a moment where they acknowledge their problem. An action beat might be a moment where the character gets drunk and causes a scene, showing the destructive nature of their addiction. You’ve then set up more character and action beats as the protagonist decides what to do about the situation. This is how you show, not just tell, and that makes a character interesting.
Common Mistakes Writers Make in Exploring What Makes a Character Interesting
One of the most common mistakes writers make when exploring what makes a character interesting is to create a fictional person who is too perfect. While it is natural to want your character to be likable, a character who has no discernible flaws or foibles comes across as flat and uninteresting instead.
Another mistake is to rely too heavily on backstory to explain the character's motivations. While backstory is important, readers want to see characters take action in the present, not just hear about their past. A novel, even a “character-driven” one that’s very concerned with many details of a character’s life, should unfold primarily in the present and future, with intentional flashbacks, memories, and bits of information, only when they’re relevant to a reader’s understanding of events.
Lastly, some writers fail to connect the character arc to the main plot, resulting in a disjointed and unsatisfying story. Always keep the character's journey in mind and make sure that every action they take moves them closer to their goal. The character arc and plot should work together in a cause and effect fashion, otherwise, your story will not feel cohesive to readers.
Understanding what makes a character interesting will take a long time in any writer’s craft, but understanding the ingredients will help you wrap your mind around this topic. By learning about character arcs, relatability, executing character arcs for maximum emotional impact, incorporating character and action beats, and avoiding common mistakes, you can create characters that readers will become invested in and recognize for their common humanity.
There’s not just one answer to what makes a character interesting. Your goal should be to find your own combination that's as unique as your protagonist.
Click here to purchase Writing Interiority: Crafting Irresistible Characters, my book on interiority and character creation. Explore your protagonist’s thoughts, feelings, reactions and interpretations, expectations, and inner struggles to create a rich, immersive experience. This guide will empower you to create characters who live and breathe on the page, fostering an unbreakable bond with your audience.