The most memorable fictional characters all face up to some kind of conflict –
from global threats to personal dilemmas – so learn to treat ‘em mean if you
want to keep the readers keen.
Practically all characters in fiction are
driven by the conflicts they face and the choices they make. We're not just
talking adventure novels and horror tales. Conflict is at the heart of all good
writing, it’s what drives it forwards. Novels, screenplays and poems are all
journeys undertaken by their main characters. This journey forces them to make
choices, many of them extremely difficult, and through these pressurised
decisions your characters show their true colours.
It’s vital to know
your characters intimately when you are writing, otherwise the way they face up
to conflict may seem unrealistic or insincere, and they won't develop. It
doesn’t matter if your characters make wrong decisions, only that their choices
are realistic and human. It’s this lack of predictability, the anticipation and
surprise of expectation and result, which keeps the readers hooked.
You
may already have a plot in mind, and be ready to throw your characters into a
melting pot of conflict and difficulty. But even if you haven’t yet settled on a
story, or are waiting to see where your characters will lead, it’s a good idea
to work out where the conflict lies. All good characters are plagued by an
internal conflict (and remember, even the smallest, most domestic conflict can
seem immense in the eyes of whoever is suffering it). You’ll probably find that
the characters you have in mind – even if they are only outlines – are troubled
in some way. Without conflict, how can your character even have a view of the
world?
Your characters must have a history. Do you know the key events of
their past, the ones that made them who they are (the bullying at school, the
betrayal of or by a loved one, the death of a parent, the birth of a child)? The
conflicts your characters will face may well be something to do with an event
from the past, and having a clear idea of what your character has already
endured and experienced will help you generate realistic scenarios. Even if
you’re focusing on plot, your characters’ reactions to events will be largely
determined by the events of their past, so it’s vital to look back as well as
forwards. Remember, it’s how your characters deal with the world that makes
writing interesting, so give them motivations and reasons for acting the way
they do in the face of adversity. You might not use any of this ‘research’
verbatim in your writing, but time spent investigating your characters’ pasts
will give you a much clearer idea of who they are, and enable you to keep their
behaviour consistent throughout.
As your characters face up to the
pressures of the story, they will change. This may be planned (the nerdy cinema
usher becomes the hero during an alien invasion, perhaps), or it may come as a
surprise. Don’t be shocked if your characters respond to a difficulty in a way
you hadn’t expected – when faced with a conflict on the page they may just take
action in their own way. The more you know about their past, the greater the
sense of freedom and motivation the characters will have, and the more realistic
their response. A poorly thought out character will always obey convention, or
will defy expectation but in a way nobody will believe. In other words, he will
become stereotypical. A character with depth and with a past, however, will
surprise you and delight the reader by revealing herself in a new light.
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