How to Create a Relatable, Three-Dimensional, Unforgettable Character

How to Create a Relatable, Three-Dimensional, Unforgettable Character

I was watching a documentary on the life Thomas Jefferson a while back when the idea for this article came to me.

The life of Thomas Jefferson brings the word contrast comes to mind. His paradoxes continue to incite debate just as much, if not more than his accomplishments.

He may be described a man who was private, yet craved friendships, a slave-holder who preached equality and an aristocrat who may have detested privilege.

This makes him an intensely interesting figure, everyone trying to decipher his motives, understand the man behind the Declaration.

Now imagine for a moment, if you created a character people would talk about 200 years down the line. Thomas Jefferson may have been a real figure but a fictional character who is just as polarizing could elicit the same admiration and debate years to come.

As a fiction writer, you want your characters to be unforgettable.

You want your readers to see them as real and tangible.

You want readers to talk to their friends about your characters.

You want them to share your character’s experiences with their friends.

In my view, a story with a strong, dynamic, three-dimensional character is likely to be very successful.

Why?

Most readers pick up a book to feel and when they connect with a fictional character, they FEEL.

So, how do you create a 3-dimensional, unforgettable character?

I have a step by step guide that I think will help….

Step One: The Early Stage

I don’t know what your process is, but for me, my characters come to me in bursts of inspiration. I could be walking down the street when a sign hits me, and I think, “hmmm, that’s good” and a character is born. Or I could be watching a movie when I see a characteristic I would want to build on.

The next step for me is I give them a name. At this stage, you already have a clear picture (in your head) of how the character will behave. They must already be talking to you in your head (until you can give them another character to converse with).

Once the character has a name, it is now an issue of making them relatable.

The easiest way to do that is to give them a personality quirk.

For example, I am working on a paranormal romance novel whose main character Jace is a young man who after an encounter with a demon, is able to travel through time.

Jace is an otherwise normal young man in his late twenties. He is quiet, shy but very loyal to the few friends he has.

If I had left it at that, he’d have been a good character, but also a boring one.

So, I gave him a personality quirk. Jace is very clumsy.

Readers are likely to remember the time he wasn’t looking and ran into Nathan, spilling coffee on him than they are to remember his shyness.

They are likely to remember how Jace’s clumsiness sometimes puts him in real dangerous or real funny situations.

Step Two: Add the First Layer

A personality quirk is great, but you need to add another layer if your character is going to be unforgettable.

You can do this by making them vulnerable.

Most authors feel compelled to make their character triumphant in everything they do. And while the reader does want the character to win, if it seems like they win all the time, they are unrelatable.

Remember, you want to make your character feel real and the reality of life is that we are vulnerable.

Vulnerability is in everyone of us and you want your character to be real. Making them vulnerable will do that.

The plot will help with this, when you put them in situations they are unable to control.

Let’s stay with Jace and Nathan (his co-star) for a moment. Jace is unable to control his new ability. He is cannot stop the episodes he has as he travels through time, neither can he control when he travels. This inability to be in control is very distressing to him.

And, although he does learn to control it (I hope. I haven’t written that part yet), he can’t share his newfound ability with anyone. He is afraid they’ll think he’s insane.

Learning to help your character navigate this insecurity is what makes for a great plot and a relatable, interesting and unforgettable character.

Step Three: Add the Second Layer

Now your character has a quirk that readers can’t forget and a vulnerability that makes readers empathize with them.

The next step is to make the character stand out even more.

You can do that by surrounding them with characters who have very different personalities. This has the effect of amplifying what makes your MC different.

But also, it makes for awesome conflict between characters, which means a great story readers can’t put down.

Going back to Jace, I created a character who is almost the exact opposite of him and structured the story such that they collide. This character is Nathan, a former FBI agent who is now working as a private investigator.

Where Jace is shy, Nathan is in-your-face confident. Where Jace prefers his own company most of the time, Nathan is an outgoing guy with lots of friends. Nathan is the kind of guy who couldn’t be bothered to clean his house, Jace is a neat freak.

Their personalities clash so much, it is difficult to believe they will end up together when it’s all said and done.

When done correctly, you may end up creating “Team Jace” or “Team Nathan” among your readers, thereby generating even more chatter about your book.

Which is what you want, right?

Step Four: The Third and Final Layer

By now, your character is as real as can be. But there is still something missing.

Surprising your reader with untoward behavior.

While not everyone can be described as spontaneous, it is likely that occasionally, you do something that is so out of character, people look at you funny.

Yet, these moments are the stories your friends or family will tell your girlfriend/boyfriend about you. Because they stand out.

You want to do the same with your characters.

Once in a while, make your character do something that is so unexpected, the reader will be unable to forget it.

This untoward behavior could be something as simple as making an evil character do something nice like giving his money to charity.

For example, at some point in Nathan and Jace’s story, the demon who gave Jace’s abilities will appear to them. He’s widely known for his evil deeds (he is a demon, after all). But in giving Jace the ability to travel through time, he was atoning for killing Jace’s parents when he was a boy. Trying to give Jace closure in his own twisted way.

You don’t expect a demon to feel guilty, much less atone for his misgivings, yet this one does just that.

This kind of character development makes the reader feel sorry for the demon even though they know they shouldn’t and then feel guilty for sympathizing with a demon.

If you can develop a character who can invoke different EMOTIONS in your readers, you have yourself a winner.