{"id":222,"date":"2020-11-16T13:15:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T13:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=222"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:42:04","slug":"how-to-write-characters-not-cliches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-to-write-characters-not-cliches\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write Characters (Not Clich\u00e9s)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Characters<\/a> are what bring life and energy to your plot<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have rich, compelling material for a dramatic story, but if we\u2019re not interested in spending time with your protagonist<\/a>, if we aren’t invested in their journey and growth, then even the most exciting plot<\/a> in the world will be in danger of ringing hollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s critical to a story\u2019s success that your characters<\/a> be captivating enough to linger long after the last page. It’s also critical that the action of the story be ‘character-driven’ — and for that to happen, your characters must have depth and autonomy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you dismiss character profiling as a waste of time, or if you’re thinking that you can wait until later because you want to get on with plotting, try reading this article first. Then, before you get going on the writing, create character profiles for your protagonist, antagonist<\/a>, their sidekicks and best friends<\/a>, and any other significant characters you sense need it. You’ll be glad you did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Understanding Your Characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Aristotle\u2019s Poetics for Screenwriters<\/em>, Michael Tierno has written:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The function of the poet [i.e. the writer] is not to say what has happened, but to say the kind of thing that would happen, i.e. what is possible in accordance with probability or necessity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Basically, you aren’t here to dictate events — you’re here to write down things ‘as they happen.’ Maybe that feels a little strange to say, considering that you’re the one with the pen making these things up… but the trick is to create characters whose motivations<\/a> and actions all make sense. They have to act logically within the story they’re in, otherwise the whole thing will fall apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Famous authors have spoken of characters taking on a life of their own, wanting to do something their plotlines hadn\u2019t accommodated, because they have taken on life in their imagination (we assume for the better, because it\u2019s typically characters<\/em> we fall in love with, not events).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you start to understand characters as human, though, not as chess pieces?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll need to know them as well as possible. You\u2019ll need to be able to answer as many questions about your character as you can, when you begin to build a character profile. We\u2019ve a few reasons why any conscientious writer shouldn\u2019t skimp on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archetypes Vs. Stereotypes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How do you build characters that are human, avoiding caricature or stereotype?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s perfectly fine to root your characters in a classic model — the Reluctant Hero, the Clown, the Lover — because we instinctively understand these stories. There’s a reason that the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck are models of archetypes: we can see ourselves and our journeys in them quite easily! The danger comes from relying too much on clich\u00e9, or an idea of how certain people should act or be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thriller author Christopher Rice has shared<\/a> the female stock characters of police procedurals he\u2019s desperate to avoid, like the nagging wife, the \u2018ice-queen bureaucrat\u2019 or the \u2018babe-assassin<\/a>\u2019 (\u2018on the surface she seems like an attempt at gender equality \u2026 [but] if we never get a real explanation for who she is, how she got that way, she just ends up being a cardboard character\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fantasy writer Samantha Shannon (who created a criminal heroine with depth, in Paige Mahoney of The Bone Season<\/em>) has also argued<\/a> the case for complexity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Complicated women are still treated like they\u2019re a curiosity. \u2026 We don\u2019t keep marvelling at \u201cstrong male characters\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Male characters can fall into a version of this trap, too, if they’re rendered as handsome romantic caricatures or burly, brusque brawlers rather than real people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how can you avoid these things and write your characters with sensitivity and feeling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, by drawing out of your own well of human emotions and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian director Constantin Stanislavski developed training methods still used by actors today. In his book Building a Character<\/em>, he offers guidance to actors (applicable to writers) who seek to \u2018build\u2019 characters out of stereotypical ideas or images, rather than from their own bank of emotional experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stanislavski shares examples of clich\u00e9 in Building a Character<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A professional soldier \u2026 holds himself stiffly, marches around \u2026 speaks in a loud, barking tone out of habit. \u2026 A peasant spits \u2026 wipes his mouth of the tail of his sheepskin coat. An aristocrat always carries a top hat \u2026 his speech is affected. \u2026 These are \u2026 clich\u00e9s. They are taken from life. \u2026 But they do not contain the essence of [a] character.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Writer Scarlett Thomas, examining Stanislavski\u2019s writing, builds on his musings in Monkeys with Typewriters<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We could equally say that the chav wears a hoody and trainers and carries a can of lager \u2026 the geek has pale skin and acne and glasses. \u2026 Stanislavski\u2019s work represents a profound rejection of clich\u00e9, stereotype and commonplace assumptions. \u2026 Stanislavski also teaches us to look for the motivation behind the action. \u2026 Begin with the character\u2019s desire and build up from there, otherwise characterisation will be patronising.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Following this, Scarlett Thomas encourages writers to uncover what Stanislavski calls a \u2018super-objective\u2019 in characters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Examples of super-objectives are \u2018I wish to be comfortable\u2019, \u2018I wish to be perfect\u2019, \u2018I wish to be in control\u2019, \u2018I wish to be loved\u2019, \u2018I wish to be a success\u2019. \u2026 With one wish, what would your character want?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

During her novel The End of Mr Y<\/em>, for instance, Scarlett Thomas has protagonist Ariel Manto admit her \u2018wish\u2019 to another character: she wants to know everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This filters down into Ariel\u2019s less significant actions, too (rendering everything significant, after all). \u2018I wish to know everything\u2019 as a super-objective accounts for Ariel buying a rare, cursed book with all the money she has left to live on (not caring that she now won\u2019t be able to eat).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your own character needn\u2019t be conscious of a \u2018super-objective\u2019, an overarching character motivation<\/a> \u2013 and it\u2019s better if they\u2019re not, perhaps. We as human beings typically aren\u2019t aware, either. We may be aware of various major goals and needs, compelling us to act. As a writer<\/a>, though, you\u2019ll need to be conscious yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does your character want something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe they want money, but is this because they want to be wildly successful, to show off? Or is this because they\u2019re poor and just want to be comfortable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your character\u2019s specific longings and actions should feed back into one vague but dominant, all-encompassing wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know the nature of that wish, and why it\u2019s there. It\u2019s your character\u2019s emotional heart and heartbeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider your character\u2019s background<\/a>, too, their day-to-day life now and in times past. How does this feed into desire, into their nature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/em>, for instance, the Mirror of Erised illustrates Stanislavski\u2019s principles when Albus Dumbledore points out to Harry that harried, teased Ron Weasley sees himself distinguished, without his brothers and family, the best of them all. Isolated Harry, who\u2019s lived in a cupboard for ten years, sees himself in the mirror with a loving, but lost, family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such longings aren\u2019t viewed in the mirror by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start with your character\u2019s desire and let this help you map out their inner nature. You\u2019ll then be on the path to creating characters with depth, who are fully human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"characters-not-cliches\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Avoid Common Clich\u00e9s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll probably have encountered \u2018stock\u2019 characters or clich\u00e9 characters before. The glasses-wearing nerd, the mustache-twirling villain, the damsel-in-distress who can’t do a damn thing for herself… no human being you’ve ever met fits so neatly into such simplistic boxes! Adding in \u2018rogue\u2019 elements to subvert clich\u00e9s like this is one way of initially working against your own subconscious biases in writing characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiona Griffiths, in Harry Bingham\u2019s thriller Talking to the Dead<\/em>, is a gifted, morose protagonist recovering from Cotard\u2019s Syndrome, but this isn\u2019t incidental. She puts herself in hazardous situations in her empathy and determination to uncover victims\u2019 stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Robert Galbraith\u2019s crime series, opening with The Cuckoo\u2019s Calling<\/em>, protagonist Cormoran Strike is an army veteran turned private detective. Strike never \u2018marches\u2019, never speaks \u2018in a loud, barking tone\u2019, as per Stanislavski\u2019s clich\u00e9. Strike is reserved, brusque but often uncertain, and has a prosthetic limb after losing part of his leg in Afghanistan (occasionally affecting his mobility).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strike\u2019s prosthetic limb isn\u2019t just incidental, either. It is indicative of his past trauma, his identification with sufferers of violence, and motive for the work he does. It\u2019s not illogical to guess past trauma feeds into Strike\u2019s emotional reticence with on- and off-partner Charlotte (who soon marries someone else), later with deuteragonist and new romantic interest Robin, at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these are examples of ways to add subversive, original elements to your characters — without them being incidental or irrelevant to the story you’re trying to tell, or without hijacking them and turning the story on its head in a way that feels random. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circles And Starts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Should characterisation<\/a> really come first in novel-plotting? Or is it the plotting itself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a little bit like asking about the chicken or the egg (although of course we all know the answer to that<\/em> one…) — because inspiration can come from anywhere! Start where your imagination wants to start, but know this: characters must ultimately drive a plot, propel it forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your characters don\u2019t act in ways that are plausible (as Aristotle indicated all those years ago), your plot <\/a>is in terrible danger of falling apart — and once your reader questions a character in this sense, your narrative spell is broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things also become less interesting when characters aren\u2019t decidedly at the heart of storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take romance as a genre or a device in fiction (i.e. as plot or subplot) to explore that idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writers continue to visit and revisit romance in stories, because it resonates with us all, often transcending genre. It is the characters, though, that elevate romance as formula out of the mechanical, making a story human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking two classics with potential \u2013 a spirited heroine challenges her moralising hero, a selfless heroine solaces her heartbroken hero \u2013 most readers care if a certain Miss Bennet marries in Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, fewer (generally) care if a certain Miss Price marries in Jane Austen\u2019s previous novel, Mansfield Park<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, a relationship develops in action and conversation, with resulting character growth in the span of the action. Lizzy and Darcy retain strength of character, yet soften and mature as they listen, learn from and fall in love with the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mansfield Park<\/em>, nothing much prompts heroine or hero to grow. We\u2019re told, not shown, how love turns from fraternal to romantic in just a couple of passages at the novel\u2019s end. As a result, it\u2019s a bit harder to connect with this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As fictional characters, the point is that Jane Austen\u2019s characters were never just in want of a spouse but they underwent an emotional journey, and this is what makes readers connect and care. As such, a story doesn\u2019t necessarily need to be \u2018correct\u2019, nor do protagonists need to do \u2018good\u2019 things for us to love reading about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your story just needs to resonate with readers \u2013 and that begins with your characters being human, or at least operating in a way that your human readers will recognize. They might be six-tentacled aliens on a planet orbiting Betelgeuse, or anti-heroes like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho<\/em> — but even the most inhuman or unlikeable characters can all astound us and move us, because we see some glimmer of our own humanity in each of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s key to your storytelling is, and always will be, emotional connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where To Start<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It makes narrative and dramatic sense to create fully rounded human characters who will face story challenges, who will make active choices, and who will reflect and change as readers spend time with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ponder this as you start planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re wondering where to start with characters, make a list of questions for them to build a personality profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideas might be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n