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Making characters three-dimensional

Miss Shelf

Miss Shelf

New Member
How can you tell early on if your characters are three-dimensional, that they are realistic? I don't think describing characters and giving them little quirks is enough. Do you need an outside opinion to ensure your characters are coming to life?
 
Miss Shelf said:
Do you need an outside opinion to ensure your characters are coming to life?
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I would say yes, you do. Well, it certainly helps. In the past I have given people stuff to read, and when they have come back to me with comments like "but that's nothing like you" I know I've been at least a bit successful. It seems that non-writers often think we're being autobiographical, which of course, is arse.
 
When they tell you what they are going to do, instead of you figuring it out, that's a good sign. When their daily lives get in the way of the adventure you have put them on, that's also a good sign. (I think of Tony Soprano, he really needs to go out and clip somebody, but his wife wants him to talk to his kid who just got suspended from school.)

Confusion is another good sign. James Bond always knows what to do, but he's not exactly three dimensional.

Also, writing is a form of communication. It's only successful if people respond to it. If no one likes it, it sucks. If 11 million people spend their hard earned money on your book, you are doing something right.

The one cool thing about writing, however, is that if everyone hates it, it's still possible that years from now 11 million people will buy a copy of your book. So feedback will help you, unless of course, you are an incredible genius, so advanced that you won't be appreciated for years to come.
 
This is really helpful, Doug, thanks! :) By those standards, I'm doing pretty good-my main character is always surprising me with what she does next. I'm not very far along, so I'll keep that in mind as I proceed with the other characters.

I'd be thrilled with one million! I'd rather enjoy the money now than be like Jane Austen and wait a couple hundred years for people to appreciate me! ;)
 
Miss Shelf said:
I don't think describing characters and giving them little quirks is enough.
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The little quirks tend to annoy me immensly. Very often in not so good literature you find characters with a pecualiar quirk put in to make the character seem more alive. However, a huge amount of authors tends to repeat this quirk on pretty much every page, and then i very quickly get tired of this character.
 
Zolipara said:
The little quirks tend to annoy me immensly. Very often in not so good literature you find characters with a pecualiar quirk put in to make the character seem more alive. However, a huge amount of authors tends to repeat this quirk on pretty much every page, and then i very quickly get tired of this character.
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Often, I feel like the quirks are tacked on. Like you can hear the writer thinking, "He's not interesting enough. What other personality trait can I give him?" Maybe that's the ultimate test, when the character becomes so real that you forget a writer created him or her.
 
Zolipara and Doug: good point about the quirks, I'll be sure to keep them to a minimum. I don't like character quirks popping up all the time, either. I'm thinking more of what sets characters apart so they aren't interchangeable. It seems to be a thin line between characters and caricatures.
 
Miss Shelf said:
It seems to be a thin line between characters and caricatures.
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In some ways, I think that if you are writing literature it will be easier for you. As a general rule, people's most influential experiences happen to them at a very young age. (If your parents brought you up a certain way, or psychologically damaged you in some way, you're likely to remain that way or at least still be heavily influenced by those experiences.) An obvious way to share those experiences with the reader is through back story, but back story slows down the narrative.

A literary writer has the advantage of starting at the beginning and readers can grow up with the character. A commercial fiction writer can't take 100 pages to describe how a character grew up and became a special forces commando with a unique personality.
 
Doug Johnson said:
A literary writer has the advantage of starting at the beginning and readers can grow up with the character. A commercial fiction writer can't take 100 pages to describe how a character grew up and became a special forces commando with a unique personality.
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In fantasy they can spend 10 000 pages doing exactly that. :)
 
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