Exploring Life issues through your Characters

A hundred people can read a book and give a hundred responses ranging from “That was awful, and I didn’t bother finishing” to “That was the best book I’ve ever read”. Neither response, nor the myriad ones in between, is right or wrong. The words don’t change, but the connections people make do. Writing characters that are engaging and realistic can make the difference between an okay story and a great one.

I am a character writer, so my initial drafts concentrate on interactions and inner dialogue rather than world-building or descriptions. For me, the story is all about the people and how they act and react.

All my characters are fictitious and not at all based on anyone I know, but that doesn’t stop me from using real-life issues to add a layer of realism to them. Characters should not be 2D creations that walk through the book like robots. Actually, the best robots in fiction are given human traits and failings to make them more interesting and give us a way to connect with them. I’m thinking of Marvin, the depressed robot in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet.

Characters should be complex. They will have strengths and weaknesses, flaws and vices, and a past to inform and influence their thoughts and behaviours. Some of it may not ever go into the finished manuscript but having that understanding in your head as a writer will automatically show up in your writing.

Have you ever had a character behave in a way you hadn’t planned, or “complain” about an action or words because they weren’t right? Subconsciously, you are responding to this new creature which, although birthed by you, soon takes on a life of their own. When you try to force the character into the story, it doesn’t work.

When starting the draft of The Shaking Spear, which is the third book in my new series, I got stuck very early on. I couldn’t think of a way to get these characters to move in the direction I wanted. They resisted every tentative draft, resulting in lots of scribbles, hair-pulling, and frustration. I only began writing in earnest when I forgot about what I wanted and concentrated on what they would say and do at this point in their journey. Suddenly, the story took off and I could then steer them all to the point I wanted them to get to.

You can also use your characters to explore issues and problems that a modern audience will instantly recognise and connect to, either because they have experienced it themselves, or they are interested in it for another reason.

My father was very ill with encephalitis when I was around twelve years old. I came home from school to find him being loaded into an ambulance. My fear of him dying was a major catalyst in my decision to become a nurse. My reasoning was that I would have the medical knowledge in the future that would ensure no-one I loved would die when I could save them.

Unfortunately, medicine, the human body, science, and innovations mean it was an impossible task. The more I knew, the more I realised how little it was in the grand scheme of things.

Reez, the main character in my Masters of Zelannor series, has a little bit of me in him. He is a perfectionist who tries to do everything right. Consequently, he doesn’t like it when things are out of his control. His thirst for knowledge is linked to being prepared and ready for any situation he might encounter. One of Reez’s character arcs was the discovery that he wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as he thought.

Characters can also be used to educate, inform, and challenge the readers' perceptions. My latest series looks at the abuse of power, racism, belonging, and slavery, to name a few things. Not that I blatantly say it in the novels. After all, it still needs to be enjoyable and entertaining. These are issues the characters come up against on their travels, causing them to rethink their perceptions and understanding of the world they inhabit. My hope is my readers will be similarly challenged or informed.

Finally, you can give characters traits that not only make them more rounded, but explore how others might think or feel. My two main characters in the Myrtleberry Dell mysteries are both very different. Wilfred H Pepper is on the autistic spectrum, with all the challenges of interacting with others and societal rules, which he doesn’t understand. Interestingly, one of my early beta readers thought that Maisie Lemmon had ADHD, which I hadn’t planned. At no time will I ever use those labels in my books, but the struggles they have will be informed by my experience of working within special needs in education.

Whether they are the hero or the villain of your story, readers should be able to connect with your characters and see them as “real” rather than paper people. If you can do that, they will think about your story long after reading the last page and shutting the book.