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- Herausgeber: WS
- Serie: Writers Helping Writers
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
The Positive Trait Thesaurus contains in-depth profiles of almost 100 positive attributes that fit into moral, achievement, identity, and interaction categories, helping writers build complex and memorable characters who can withstand life’s fallout.
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THE POSITIVE TRAIT THESAURUS:
A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes
ANGELA ACKERMAN
BECCA PUGLISI
Copyright 2013 © by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
Published by: JADD Publishing
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in print, audio or electronic form without prior permission of the authors. Please respect the hard work of the authors and do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials.
All rights reserved
Writers Helping Writers®
ISBN: 978-0-9897725-3-2
Edited in part by: C. S. Lakin
Book cover design by: Scarlett Rugers Design 2013
Book formatting by: Polgarus Studio
THE WRITERS HELPING WRITERS® DESCRIPTIVE THESAURUS SERIES
Available in nine languages, sourced by universities, and recommended by editors and agents all over the world, this bestselling series is a writer’s favorite for brainstorming fresh, description and powering up storytelling.
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (Second Edition)
The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws
The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces
The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Personal and Natural Spaces
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma
The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers
The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol. 1)
The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol. 2)
Emotion Amplifiers: A Companion Guide to The Emotion Thesaurus
DEDICATIONS
To my parents, who taught me who I am, who I should be, and—most importantly—who I belong to.
—Becca Puglisi
To Darian and Jarod, my greatest achievements. (Cheesy, but true!)
—Angela Ackerman
A multitude of thanks to everyone who visits our Writers Helping Writers® site. We appreciate your endless support.
—A & B
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
by
Jeannie Campbell, LMFT
The Character Therapist®
I’ve read a lot of books about characterization, but none are so concise or all encompassing as Angela and Becca’s Positive Trait Thesaurus. The introductory chapters are a veritable goldmine for authors. I’d liken them to a Cliff’s Notes version of psychology textbooks and many writing craft books, condensed and super reader-friendly.
Personalities are so complex, and figuring out what makes a real person—much less a fictional person—tick is what keeps therapists like me secure in our jobs. Understanding motivations, needs, and how both positive and negative traits and behaviors develop is an integral part to understanding a person. And the first step to writing—make that writing well—has to be this deep understanding.
As a therapist, the section on how positive traits develop (which, in turn, applies to negative traits as well) was the most interesting and thought-provoking. Clearly the authors have done their research, for I might have picked up my Personality Psych book from college and read something similar. So authors, take note! It’s more than just nature v. nurture. The information presented should be absorbed in such a way that it’ll aid you in brainstorming.
It’s highly unlikely that this will be a book you read front-to-back. I’d also recommend that you come to this book with a character in mind—you know, the one that interrupts your sleep and begs to be written. This thesaurus will help you the most when you’re in the fleshing-out stages.
Each entry includes the definition, similar attributes, possible causes, associated behaviors/thoughts, and positive aspects of the trait to help you solidify your character’s uniqueness. But the entries also include the negative aspects of the trait, scenarios that would challenge a person with that attribute, and other characteristics that could be in conflict with that particular trait. These sections are equally as important in helping solidify conflict and introduce external plot points to showcase your character’s internal arc.
Plot-driven authors will really gain a lot from this book, but so will character-driven writers. Heck, I run a business where I profit from analyzing fictional characters, and this book was a great reinforcement to help me do what I do. From understanding the roadblocks that prevent readers from connecting with characters to developing the right character arc for your protagonist, you’ll come away feeling like you took a crash course in characterization.
THE ULTIMATE HOOK: CHARACTERS WORTH ROOTING FOR
With millions of books being published worldwide every year, readers have a landslide of stories to choose from. This puts incredible pressure on writers to produce unique plot lines with dynamic, fascinating characters.
Within this flood of fiction, some books rise while others sink. Although eye-catching covers, professional editing, and a well-directed marketing campaign contribute to how well a title will do, without a great story to fill its sails, a book is doomed to drift. And what sturdy mast supports any meaningful work of fiction? Multifaceted characters who make each moment so personal and compelling that readers can’t help but care about them.
Creating realistic, never-before-seen characters who take readers on an emotional journey should be the goal of every writer, yet this is no easy feat. Writers must delve into a character’s personality to understand his desires, motives, needs, and fears. Both flaws and positive attributes help forge a well-constructed character. Flaws not only humanize the story’s cast, they also give them something to overcome so they can achieve self-growth. Positive attributes are equally as important, because while human nature causes us to hone in on people’s flaws, it is a person’s strengths we admire most. Readers must feel this same admiration for characters in order to root for them.
As a result, authors must learn how to hook readers quickly, and hook them hard. Engaging the reader starts with a clever or intriguing first line and never lets up. During opening paragraphs, there are many ways to draw the audience in—eliciting sympathy by showing a protagonist’s current hardship, beginning the scene at a pivotal moment that contains high stakes, or introducing a mysterious story element that makes the reader immediately wonder what is going to happen next.
These simple hooks may create interest, but eventually they play themselves out because while a character’s hardship or pain may generate some sympathetic feelings from the audience, only genuine empathy can spark a reader-character bond. It's important to forge this connection as soon as possible so the reader will recognize the protagonist as honorable or deserving in some way, making him worth caring about.
So if empathy is the towrope tying readers to characters, how do writers secure this line early on and keep their audience engaged? Simple. Add punch to a hook by showing the hero’s personality in a positive light.
For example, a hardened criminal digging through a trash bin for scraps might make for an unusual opening scene. But since readers know that he’s a criminal, they may wonder if he’s brought his misfortune upon himself. Because they can’t empathize with him, they don’t care too much about his situation.
But what if he’s trying to provide for a trio of orphans rescued from a child-smuggling ring? By hinting at a positive aspect of his personality right away—be it his kindness, a sense of responsibility, or the desire to protect someone vulnerable—he becomes infinitely more interesting and readers catch a glimpse of a hero who is worth believing in. The character also becomes intriguing because of the questions this new information raises: if he’s a criminal, why did he save the children? Why does he care? What made him look beyond himself to help someone else?
Suggesting the why behind character behavior is the second half of any great hook. “Show, don’t tell” still applies—meaning behavior and actions are the best vehicles for revealing a character’s personality. The why tells us a bit about who the character is, shedding light on what morals and values he holds dear. Revealing a protagonist’s positive attributes can also elicit admiration, even for an unlikable hero, and tells the audience that this is someone worth getting to know. Seeing hints of greatness through a character’s actions and personality is what helps readers to become emotionally invested.
WHAT IS A POSITIVE ATTRIBUTE?
Many theories on the nature of personality exist, and while there are differences of opinion, people generally agree that each individual is a unique blend of traits that serve to satisfy basic wants and needs according to one’s moral code. A person’s upbringing, genetics, and past experiences will determine which positive, neutral, and negative traits emerge, and to what degree. Character strengths aid us in fulfilling our needs and desires and encouraging self-growth, while weaknesses often hold us back. In some situations, it can be difficult to tell a weakness from a strength, especially since flaws may form out of an understandable desire to keep us from being hurt. Within the scope of a story, the protagonist’s strengths and weaknesses play important roles in his character arc, so it is critical for authors to know which traits are flaws and which are not.
Flaws are traits that damage or minimize relationships and do not take into account the well-being of others. They tend to be self-focused rather than other-focused. By this definition, jealous clearly belongs with the flaws. Jealous characters are focused on their own wants and insecurities; their resentment and bitterness make others uncomfortable and damage relationships.
Positive attributes are traits that produce personal growth or help a character achieve goals through healthy means. They also enhance relationships and typically benefit others in some way. Honorable, for instance, is easy to place on the positive side of the personality wheel. An honorable character is going to use healthy measures to achieve success, and because of his nature, he can’t help but reach out to others and improve his relationships along the way.
Neutral traits are harder to categorize. Characteristics such as introverted, extroverted, and flirtatious may not necessarily aid a protagonist in achieving her goals in an obvious way, but they do encourage greater exploration of her world and allow for self-discovery. While flaws are debilitating, neutral traits don’t have a highly negative impact, so we have chosen to include them in this volume with their positive counterparts.
NEEDS AND MORALS: INFLUENCERS ON CHARACTER STRENGTHS
Personality is vastly complex, made up of actions and attitudes that show a character’s likes and dislikes, ideas, thoughts, and beliefs. But what drives these individual preferences and behaviors? What causes one character to develop traits like curiosity, decisiveness, and adaptability, while another becomes thoughtful, observant, and empathetic?
The first component is morality, the controlling belief that certain behaviors are either right or wrong. Morals come from the deepest part of a character and cause her to place values on what she sees, experiences, and thinks. These deeply ingrained attitudes direct a character’s choices so they align with her moral code, sometimes even when doing so requires self-sacrifice. Morality affects how she treats other people, what goals and desires she pursues, and how she lives her life day-to-day. As such, the most influential attributes that emerge in her personality will often be tied to a specific moral belief.
The outer world (the people and environment that influence a character) can also impact morality. Social norms, cultural values, and role models all contribute to the development of a character’s belief system in regard to right or wrong. Knowing a character’s morality can help an author come up with plausible temptations to incorporate into the story and challenge these deeply imbedded beliefs, generating inner turmoil and conflict.
The second factor in trait development lies in the Hierarchy of Needs. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, individuals are driven by needs that fall into five categories:
Physiological: the need to secure one’s biological and physiological needs
Safety and Security: the need to keep oneself and one’s loved ones safe
Love and Belonging: the need to form meaningful connections with others
Esteem and Recognition: the need to increase one’s sense of esteem
Self-Actualization: the need to realize one’s full potential and achieve personal fulfillment
A character’s attributes will emerge in the pursuit of satisfying her most important needs. If she is safe, secure, and loved, yet craves the recognition and esteem of others, traits such as determination, perseverance, and efficiency may develop. Thinking about what a character wants can help the writer decide which traits will best assist her in obtaining her goals.
When needs are not met, anxiety and dissatisfaction arise and behavior patterns may change. For example, take a character who has not eaten for days: her physiological needs are going unmet. A normally kind and law-abiding woman may resort to stealing so she can feed herself. Or, although she may be confident with a strong sense of pride, difficult circumstances may push her into begging for food. Driven by desperation, behaviors that are not normally part of her personality take over.
Likewise, a frugal, careful character who is overworked and held back in a dead-end job may find that her need for self-actualization is not being met. Although she is highly responsible, dependable, and consistent, she one day gets up from her desk and walks out. Later, she enrolls in business courses and goes into debt to do so, all in pursuit of satisfying her need to grow.
Core needs are potent, so writers should think carefully about how to use them to motivate their characters. In the right situation, they are even powerful enough to influence or alter one’s moral compass. When needs go unmet for too long, anxiety may cause the character’s morality to sway. What a person will or won’t do in any given situation depends on the depth of the need and the character’s ability to satisfy that need. Take a spiritual, moral character who is safe, loved, and whose physiological needs are being met. He may feel happy and complete, but what if a dangerous element like war is introduced, making his world unsafe? How far would he go to keep himself and his loved ones from harm? Would he be willing to do things that go against his moral beliefs to satisfy his need for safety?
Another benefit of using needs to determine what is most important to a character is that the quest to meet one’s needs is universal. People generally acknowledge that satisfying one’s primary needs is a worthy and understandable aspiration. This affinity with a character’s inner motivation (the “why” behind the choice to pursue a goal) will foster empathy and make readers want to see the hero succeed.
THE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES
Not all attributes are rooted in morality or needs; some stem from personal preferences resulting from experience. Every character should have a good mix of positive traits that range in intensity. When fashioning a protagonist’s personality, writers should include some attributes from each of the following categories to ensure that a variety of strengths emerge.
Moral attributes are traits that are directly related to one’s beliefs about right and wrong. Examples might be kindness, generosity, honor, wholesomeness, and justice. Attributes that are tied to one’s beliefs will often influence the formation of other traits that align with one’s moral code. For example, if a character’s moral trait is wholesomeness, it is unlikely that an attribute such as flirtatious would emerge, since being a flirt would undermine her desire to be chaste and virtuous. However, it makes sense that compatible traits such as propriety, discipline, and caution could develop.
Achievement attributes align with morality but their main function is to bolster achievement. If a character has a moral sense of responsibility that determines her life goals, achievement traits such as meticulousness, dependability, resourcefulness, and organization may support her in her pursuits.
Interactive attributes emerge through experiences with one’s surroundings and interactions with other people. Traits like patience, courtesy, flirtatiousness, and social awareness dictate how we relate to others and to our world. These attributes are often influenced by personal likes and dislikes. If a character wants to avoid clashes and conflict, she may adopt a friendly nature to ward them off. If she enjoys humor, she may joke when things get serious or reveal a flamboyant side to distract others from their woes. Because characters are largely social beings, this category contains the largest number of traits.
Identity attributes promote a greater sense of individual identity and often result in personal expression of some kind. Creativity and quirkiness are good examples of traits that allow a character to express themselves individually. Identity attributes can also be such a foundational part of a character’s personality that they define him and end up influencing many areas of his life. For this reason, spirituality, patriotism, and introversion belong in the identity category.
Positive attributes show the reader who the character really is and that she is worth caring about. But with hundreds of traits to choose from, how do writers find the right strengths to make their characters likable and unique? The answer lies in understanding the influencers that shape an individual’s personality.
HOW POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES DEVELOP
So many factors influence who a person is—from current circumstances all the way back to childhood and the formative years. To build a well-rounded, believable character, it’s important to recognize all the possible contributors and see how they come together to form attributes. Only then will writers be able to create an authentic cast that will ring true with readers.
GENETICS
As important as it is for characters to take charge and make their own choices, some things are out of their control. Like it or not, they’re born with certain inherent attributes. For instance, a character will likely have a natural tendency toward introversion or extroversion. He may either be enthusiastic or calm-natured without ever making the conscious decision for one over the other. Other strengths, like high intelligence or a talent for a musical instrument or a sport, are genetically imparted. While it’s possible to adopt different attributes over time, there are some that a character is simply born with.
ETHICS AND VALUES
Ethics are beliefs that revolve around good and bad, moral duty, and obligation. Because of the desire to uphold what’s right, a character will embrace attributes that reflect his ethics. A protagonist who would say, “If I agree to finish a project, I must see it through to the end,” is someone with a strong sense of duty who places a high value on keeping his word. Resulting attributes may include responsibility, honesty, and discipline.
Values are ideals regarding the worth of people, ideas, and objects. Tied closely to morals, a character’s values also determine which attributes become part of his personality. Take this value judgment, for example: “I would rather err on the side of love than on the side of justice.” A character who believes this statement appreciates mercy and second chances and will likely be compassionate rather than judgmental. He places a high value on people and sees issues in varying shades of gray rather than in black and white. As a result, some of his strongest attributes may be kindness, empathy, supportiveness, and other traits that align with this belief.
UPBRINGING AND CAREGIVERS
A character’s caregivers are his first role models. As a child, he will notice the values and qualities that they espouse. For example, if they held structure and order in high regard, he may come to embrace those traits. This can happen organically, simply from seeing these characteristics exhibited. Or, if his relationship with his caregivers is marked by love and respect, he may consciously choose to adopt their attributes as his own.
Even when the relationship is dysfunctional, a caregiver’s traits will inevitably influence an impressionable child. In the above example, if the structured parent was also highly critical and rigid, the character may rebel by rejecting the positive attribute of structured orderliness and embrace an opposing one, such as free-spiritedness.
NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES
While negative experiences often result in the emergence of flaws, they can also cause positive traits to develop. For instance, a child who was abused by her mother may become an incredibly nurturing adult in an attempt to keep from inflicting the same pain on her children. A character may also embrace certain attributes as a way of preventing a flaw from forming, as in the case of a child—once harshly judged and criticized—who adopts tolerance so he can avoid becoming like his accusers. Negative experiences are incredibly formative; authors must have intimate knowledge of their characters’ pasts if they’re to understand their personalities in the present.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Characters are influenced by their environments, both past and present. A child who grew up in a tough neighborhood is going to have different attributes from one who was raised on a farm. Traits formed in childhood usually follow a character into adulthood, but a change in environment may cause a shift in attributes, particularly when the change is drastic. Consider the case of a well-to-do girl who marries the love of her life: a construction worker whose income is a fraction of the girl’s former monthly allowance. To survive in her new environment and make her marriage work, she must adopt and develop new attributes—namely, efficiency, thriftiness, and self-control.
PEERS
At certain points in life, peers become one’s biggest influencers. Some characters may adopt the attributes shared by their peers as a way of fitting in and gaining acceptance. Others might truly admire their friends’ attributes and choose to embrace them in an effort to improve themselves. It’s important, though, to keep in mind that not every character is easily swayed by those around him.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
A character’s positive attributes arise from different sources, so when building a profile, the author needs to know his protagonist inside and out—his needs, fears, desires, likes, and dislikes. Developing a backstory allows a writer to see how the character’s past experiences have molded him into who he is now. Writers can get into their protagonist’s mind-set by understanding his moral beliefs and seeing what needs, goals, and desires he believes to be important. Probing the past will also reveal emotional wounds, which will be discussed further in the Character Arc section.
Some writers find tools like a character questionnaire useful, so we’ve created one in Appendix A. Creating well-rounded characters also means pulling from moral, achievement, interactive, and identity-based attributes, so the category list in Appendix C is a good place to start when thinking about the types of attributes to incorporate. The Character Attribute Target Tool in Appendix B is a useful way to then organize each character’s positive qualities, helping to ensure all four categories are represented.
POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTER ARC: OVERCOMING THE FATAL FLAW
Character arc, put simply, is the evolution of a character. The most important arc is that of the protagonist, who at the start of his journey is somehow incomplete, damaged or lost. Even if he seems content, something is missing within, and only through change can he fill this lack and evolve.
Most characters, like real people, are striving for growth, to become the best version of themselves. However, working against them are their flaws—the negative attributes that hold them back in some way from reaching this perfect ideal. Flaws are a character’s weaknesses, his dark side. Some are small, seemingly insignificant, while others create giant blind spots that hamper his progress time and again. Either way, these traits play a part in robbing the character of self-growth and true happiness.
Most characters have at least one fatal flaw, a negative trait that causes him to be somehow “stuck” at the start of his story. To complicate matters, he will often misinterpret this flaw as a strength, and can’t see how it is keeping him from achieving what he desires most. While there should be an external force of some kind working against him, it is this internal fatal flaw that he must conquer to feel both fulfilled and complete. The only exception is in the case of a tragedy, where the character is unable to move past his greatest fear and so remains unchanged and unfulfilled. In this case, the fatal flaw becomes a tragic flaw.
So where do flaws come from? Why do they have such profound control over behavior? The answer lies in the protagonist’s past and his emotional wounds.
A wound is an emotional hurt that has caused so much damage the character will do anything to prevent himself from experiencing the same pain again. Examples might be a woman jilted at the altar, or a man who trusted his brother with his investments, only to go broke. Because of this wounding moment, the woman refuses to give her heart away again, and the man becomes miserly and resentful. Wounds often occur in a character’s formative years, and the resulting attitudes and behaviors carry forward into adulthood. A teenager abandoned by his parents may view all adults as untrustworthy and find himself unable to trust others as an adult himself. Whatever the circumstance, the wound dampens happiness and fulfillment in some way, tainting the character’s view of the world and the people in it.[1]
At the core of the wound is something else: the lie the character believes about himself as a result of suffering the emotional wound. For example, the woman may think she was dumped at the altar because she is unworthy of love. The man who lost his savings might believe that his poor judgment is to blame. The abandoned teen may worry that his parents left because he is defective in some way. This lie is what the character fears most, and what he cannot face. Yet, this is the very thing he must confront if he is to become whole.
OUTER MOTIVATION AND OUTER CONFLICT
At its most basic, the character arc consists of four pieces. The outer motivation is what the hero wants to achieve, and the outer conflict is the element that’s blocking him from reaching that goal. In the film The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne is trying to discover who he is (outer motivation) before black-ops agents catch and kill him (outer conflict).
While strengths are important in helping a character achieve his goal, due to the lie, the character often believes these qualities to be weaknesses. He sees them as negatives—a perception that is frequently reinforced by the supporting cast.
In Jason Bourne’s example, everyone tied to Operation Treadstone views him as a killer, a threat who must be extinguished. And with each crime Jason commits, with each life he’s forced to take to protect himself, this label is reinforced, along with his fear that he may be exactly what they say he is. Suffering from amnesia, Jason doesn’t want to believe he’s a killer, but the evidence piles up in the form of his inherent knowledge of combat, survival skills, and weaponry. He wants to run from what he is, but to survive, he must embrace the skills that make him so dangerous (alertness, resourcefulness, persistence, and adaptability) and use them to outwit and defeat those determined to silence him.
INNER MOTIVATION AND INNER CONFLICT
Dynamic, complex story lines also contain an inner journey that mirrors the external one. For every outer motivation, there should be an inner motivation (why the character wants to achieve his goal). The inner motivation is often tied to a desire for greater self-worth.
Inner motivation should be accompanied by inner conflict: the flaws and/or lies that stand in the way of personal growth and true happiness. As the hero wrestles with the lie, he experiences doubt and failures. Setbacks are debilitating, but they are necessary if the character’s resolve is to shine through. Before he can be free of his fatal flaw, he must be burned by it, and before he can dismiss the lie, he must believe it wholeheartedly. The bigger the struggle and the deeper the pain, the more meaningful the protagonist’s journey is to readers.
In Jason Bourne’s case, his goal (to find out who he is) is driven by his inner motivation (to prove he is not a remorseless killer). His inner conflict (the lie) is the belief that regardless of who he is, he has done terrible things and does not deserve redemption. His fatal flaw is close-mindedness—a refusal to admit that there could be some truth to what others say about him, and more importantly, that he chose this life voluntarily.
The strongest arcs are full of ups and downs that parallel the plot’s rough road. The hero should have plenty of outer conflict working against him, along with blows to his ego and self-esteem (inner conflict) that erode his personal development. Even though it might seem as if he cannot face his emotional wounds or be free of his flaws, he must. At some point, the hero should face a similar situation to the one that caused the original wound—only this time the outcome is different. His newfound strength and belief in himself keeps fear from taking hold, and he triumphs. This core of strength is where the character’s positive attributes come in.
POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES HELP CHARACTERS WIN THE DAY
Resolve alone is not enough for the protagonist to achieve his goal. Jason Bourne would not have been able to succeed without his bravery, determination, and moral sense of justice. So while the hero needs flaws that make change and growth seem impossible, he must also embody attributes that will enable him to find his way out of the darkness.
A character does not have to overcome all his flaws during the journey, but if the story is to end with him becoming a stronger, more balanced version of himself, then the fatal flaw must be vanquished, or at least diminished to the point that it no longer controls his life. A complete, successful arc should show the character in opposites at the story start and finish: a protagonist jaded by the corruption around him learns to see the good in humanity; a controlling hero who viewed the world with mistrust now allows others to make decisions and help him in his efforts.
For further insight on character arc and how it fits into story structure, we highly recommend Michael Hauge’s Writing Screenplays That Sell.
[1] Michael Hauge, author of Writing Screenplays that Sell
BUILDING CHARACTERS FROM THE GROUND UP: CHOOSING THE RIGHT ATTRIBUTES
While flaws create challenges and friction, attributes forge likability and allow the character to prosper. But including the right balance of positives and negatives requires skill. Too many flaws and she becomes unlikable. Too many attributes and not only will the character succeed too easily, she will be unrealistic, threatening the reader’s ability to connect with the hero and the story. Here are a few ways to choose strong attribute combinations for your character:
BRAINSTORM OPPOSITES WITHIN THE BIG PICTURE
Even if you aren’t an outliner, all writers should do some planning before starting a first draft. Taking the time to understand your protagonist’s goals and fears will simplify the character creation process. Whether you prefer to start with a plot or a character, a few key questions will help you get started.
If you are a plot-focused writer, ask yourself: What do I want to happen in this story? Write a blurb or a few scenes that you envision, and decide what the outcome of the story is (what the protagonist wins or achieves). Once you’re happy with this foundation, ask yourself: Who is the worst possible type of person to put into this situation? Knowing what terrible things you have planned will help you build a character who is unsuited for the task ahead. Think of personality flaws that will hurt, hamper, and hold him back, making success seem out of reach. Then, by using the entries in this volume, you can choose positive attributes that will eventually counteract or overpower his weaknesses. The resulting character will be perfect for your story—someone whose flaws make winning difficult, but whose positive attributes will eventually help him fulfill his goals.
If you consider yourself a character-focused writer, ask this question: Who is this character and what makes me care about him enough to write his story? Jot down notes about his quirks, attitudes, morals, and beliefs to get a sense of who he is, using this thesaurus for inspiration. Delve into his backstory. Who hurt him and why? Who showed him love or made him feel like he belonged? What challenges did he face that hardened him or weakened him? Once you have a good idea of who he is, then ask yourself: Based on what I know about this person, what is the worst thing that could happen to him?
That “worst thing” should tie into your plot. Develop it. Work against the hero and throw hardship his way. Once you know what he must do to win, give him flaws that block his path to success. These flaws should weaken him in some way, hurt his relationships with other characters, and blind him to his own deepest fears about himself.
To identify his emotional wounds, pull from his past and zero in on the hurts he’s suffered. Once you have chosen flaws that set him back, double-check that the strengths you originally envisioned will help him overcome adversity. These attributes should also help him gain a better perspective and create deeper insight into himself, helping him face his internal demons and emerge whole.
The movie Titanic contains a strong example of how opposing flaws and attributes can be combined with great effect. Rose DeWitt Bukater is sophisticated and responsible, as befits a girl of her station in 1912. But she’s also rebellious, a trait that conflicts with her attributes. This rebellious streak is what drives her choices, complicating the story and creating tension in her relationships.
USE THE FOUR CATEGORIES
Create a rounded character by choosing positive attributes that stem from his moral beliefs, help him achieve his goals, allow for healthy interaction with others, and clarify his identity. His qualities should complement one another, satisfying needs or matching his core beliefs. This will reinforce his personality type and more clearly define who he is. A handy reference that breaks down the traits by category can be found in Appendix C.
MASK STRENGTH IN THE CHARACTER’S EYES
Stories are satisfying, in part, because we get to watch the protagonist evolve and beat the odds. One way to show his growth is to give him an attribute that seems useless or makes him feel weak in some way. Seeing him recognize the trait for what it is and convert it into his greatest strength is incredibly fulfilling for readers. Get creative when picking attributes. Sometimes, the less obvious choice offers the best opportunities for him to overcome adversity.
In Stephen King’s The Stand, Tom Cullen is frustrated by his low intelligence, wishing he could be smarter and remember things better in order to help his friends in the Free Zone as they prepare for war. However, when he is sent to Las Vegas to spy on the enemy, it is his simple nature and lack of guile that allow him to succeed when those more cunning fail.
PICK SOMETHING UNEXPECTED
Readers can usually connect to a hero’s goal, the pain surrounding his past wound, or his desire to become something better. But interest can also be peaked by a character who embodies qualities that are unexpected. Maybe he has a personal quirk or preference or an unusual combination of traits. Choose an attribute (which can also manifest as a skill or talent) that is delightfully unexpected. This is a good technique for protagonists, secondary characters, and even the villain.
In the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka is quirky and flamboyant—traits which marry well. However, he is also an idealist; his whole point of inviting children to his factory is to find one who is responsible and good-hearted enough to carry on his legacy. The idealism is unexpected, and adds a unique twist to the story’s end.
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
While it would be easier to choose just one defining attribute for your character, doing so can lead to a flat hero with little dimension. This is why you don’t find many existing literary characters who only exhibit one trait. The protagonist requires the most development, and while there are no hard-and-fast rules, we recommend he have at least one main attribute from each of the four categories to round out his personality. Use your writer’s intuition to find balance, and if needed, ask critique partners for second opinions.
Too many attributes can result in a messy character whose motivations and emotions are hard to define, while too few attributes puts him in danger of being forgettable. Develop all your characters thoroughly, and each will be memorable in some way. For example, Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings is loyal, down-to-earth, and attentive. John McClane from Die Hard is witty, brave, just, and persistent. Both characters are fleshed out and complete, holding their own on the screen.
A useful technique in choosing multiple attributes is to identify one as the primary and make the others secondary. This prioritization will keep clear in the author’s mind which traits to emphasize most and which to use as support, adding dimension to the character’s personality. For example, Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series is meticulous, driven, and responsible, but readers associate her primarily with intelligence because it directly influences all of her behaviors, attitudes, and decisions.
POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES AND VILLAINS
It might not be natural to think of villains and positive attributes in the same sentence, but it’s incredibly important that our antagonists have legitimate strengths. Why? Because the stronger the villain, the more seemingly impossible it will be for the hero to best him. Seeing the main character in a high stakes situation against an indomitable foe evokes empathy in readers as they wonder how the protagonist can possibly succeed. Building this reader empathy is one of the core purposes of character creation; if you want to do it well, develop an antagonist’s positive attributes to make him as strong as possible using the following techniques.
RUN A BACKGROUND CHECK
As writers, we tend to be so focused on the hero that the villain drops off the radar. To make him intimidating, develop him as thoroughly as any of your other main characters. The same influencers that form a hero’s positive attributes will also impact the villain. Do your research. Create a profile using a Character Profile Questionnaire like the one in Appendix A. Flesh him out, and he’ll emerge as a realistic threat to both the hero and your readers.
KNOW HIS CHARACTER ARC
A villain’s character arc should contain the same elements as the hero’s. Along with having a goal that is frustrated by an external source (the protagonist), his goal should be driven by an inner need for greater self-esteem resulting from a lie that he believes about himself. And, if the antagonist has been properly developed, his motivations should be traced back to an emotionally devastating wound in his past.
Take the villain Keyser Söze, from the movie The Usual Suspects. A petty criminal, Söze’s wound is inflicted with the death of his wife and family. After killing each member of the Hungarian Mafia that he blames for their deaths, he goes underground and builds a criminal empire based on secrecy, fear, and myth. His goal is to keep his identity concealed, even from those closest to him (outer motivation), which is sometimes difficult due to the police force and the occasional eyewitness (outer conflict). Although his inner motivation isn’t revealed, one could argue that he wants to hide his identity so no one will ever be able to hurt him or those closest to him again. His inner conflict remains unspoken also, but it would make sense that he accepts the blame for the deaths of his wife and children and believes himself to be beyond redemption for bringing such a bitter end upon them (the lie).
A character like this—with wounds, motivations, flaws, and ambitions—is realistic. He makes sense to readers, who see that the hero is up against someone with real issues. By exploring your villain’s character arc, not only does he become more interesting and frightening to readers, the hero’s situation is worsened in the form of a truly formidable and screwed-up opponent.
MAKE HIM STRONG
An author’s knowledge of the villain is often limited to his major flaws and how they drive him. But just as a hero requires strengths to get what he wants, so does the antagonist. Whether the goal is monetary gain (Hans Gruber, Die Hard), control (Nurse Ratched, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest), or self-actualization (Buffalo Bill, Silence of the Lambs), a specific set of strengths is required for the villain to have a realistic shot at achieving success. It is these positive attributes that convince readers that he may indeed get what he wants, which increases their fear for the hero. It’s also important to remember that the magnitude of the hero’s evolution is directly related to the greatness of his opponent. If the protagonist overcomes a wimpy villain, he hasn’t really accomplished much, and readers aren’t impressed. But pit the hero against an intelligent, patient, vindictive antagonist who is just as driven to achieve his goals? Beating that bad guy elevates the main character to true hero status.
To create strong, realistic, intimidating villains, make sure they embody strengths that enable them to get what they want. In the case of Keyser Söze, patience, intelligence, organization, discretion, and determination are the strengths necessary to becoming a ruthless and evasive criminal mastermind. These strengths transform Keyser Söze from a theoretical bad guy to one of the most intriguing and memorable villains ever written. You can do the same for your antagonist by picking the right mix of attributes.
MAKE HIM MULTIDIMENSIONAL
Although a villain may not embody attributes from all four categories (moral, achievement, interactive, and identity), the possibility should be considered. It’s as important for the antagonist to have different kinds of strengths as it is for the hero—with a few key differences.
Some may argue that villains lack morals, but most of the time this isn’t true. Many fictional and historical antagonists are ruled by a moral code; it’s just different from what is accepted as right and wrong by the general public. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street) lives by the mantra that greed is good, and therefore views it as a worthwhile pursuit. Amon Goeth, the real-life horror depicted in the movie Schindler’s List, believed that an entire race of people held no value at all; in his mind, his actions were right and acceptable, contributing to the greater good. When choosing a moral attribute for your villain, consider how his moral code has been warped by past wounds and negative experiences. A principled villain is a truly frightening one, particularly when his moral choices are atrocious to the hero and reader.
This being said, while a moral attribute is usually the predictor of the rest of a hero’s positive traits, this isn’t always the case for the antagonist. Because the villain’s wound is so profound, it produces a great need, increasing the likelihood that his defining attribute will come from one of the other three categories. Buffalo Bill, one of the villains from Silence of the Lambs, is so desperate to escape his physical body that he sets out to create a new one from the skin of his victims. It could be argued that his defining strength, although used in a twisted manner (as is true of most villains), is an identity attribute: inventiveness, out of which his other strengths form. It’s also common for villains to embrace achievement attributes, since these characters are so goal oriented.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
The important thing to remember about most villains is that they’re people just like anyone else. They’re a mix of good and bad, with strengths and weaknesses. And while a villain may be generally offensive to you, he has wounds and needs as desperate—often more so—than the ordinary person. Figure out what makes your antagonist tick. Make him strong enough to pose a serious threat to your hero, and you’ll have a worthy adversary that will have readers firmly on the side of your main character.
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER’S POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES
If you as the author are going to realistically write your character’s personality, it’s important to know not only what caused their attributes, but also how these traits manifest in the present. Here are a few areas you should be familiar with if you hope to clearly convey your character’s personality to readers.
BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES
Once you’ve identified your protagonist’s positive qualities, it becomes easier to guess how he will react in varying situations—particularly in unexpected circumstances, since these are the moments when responses are immediate. For instance, three characters who’ve just learned that they’ve won the lottery will react according to the traits they possess. An enthusiastic hero may scream, jump up and down, and pull others into the celebration. Someone with a cautious nature might express disbelief and stop to gather facts before tentatively becoming excited. An appreciative character might cry and verbally thank those who are bestowing the gift.
The interesting thing about characters is that, like real people, if you put them all in the same situation, they will react differently. Even those who share the same attribute will respond in distinctive ways due to the combination of traits they possess. Let’s assume that our three lottery winners all share excitability as an attribute. The first character, who is also very generous, may promise to give his money away before he’s even collected it. The excitable but boorish winner might shout gleeful obscenities and spray beer on everyone. Our third lucky hero, an excitable hypocrite, may announce his plan to pay off all his debts when he has no intention of doing so.
The options for how any individual will respond in a given situation are endless. That’s why we’ve provided so many possible behaviors and attitudes for each attribute, to get you thinking about how your character may react.
THOUGHTS
It’s important to remember that characters aren’t always honest—with themselves or with others. For instance, your hero may act obedient because he believes it’s the right way to be, or because he’s surrounded by people who value that trait. But he might really be hiding a rebellious nature; he is compliant on the outside, but on the inside he resents anyone telling him what to do. Thoughts aren’t as flashy as actions, but they’re sensational in that they tend to reveal one’s true nature. If you want to show your character’s authentic personality to the reader, you must know what he’s thinking and how his thoughts contrast with his behaviors and actions.
EMOTIONAL RANGE
When showing your character’s attributes, his emotional range will factor into how he reacts. Is he demonstrative or reserved? Does he change the way he acts around different groups of people? Are there emotions that he hides? Most people aren’t comfortable showing all of their feelings. A passionate character who is desperate for acceptance may downplay his emotions in an effort to be more like his peers. A happy character may be uncomfortable expressing any negativity because of his determination to live up to his cheerful reputation. Knowing your character’s emotional range will allow you to convey his feelings in an authentic way.
NEGATIVES
While attributes are overwhelmingly positive, it’s important to remember that they have their negative sides too. A loyal character is highly devoted to his friends, but his devotion may lead him to support someone whose motivations or actions are questionable. Loyalty can be taken too far, leading the character to lie for others or claim to agree with things he doesn’t. Most attributes aren’t purely positive; many times they also contain a negative component. Utilize both, and you’ll deepen your character’s personality in a way that will ring true with readers.
HOW TO SHOW YOUR CHARACTER’S ATTRIBUTES
Once you’ve identified your character’s defining attributes and are familiar with all the aspects involved, you need to be able to effectively convey those traits to the reader. As with so many areas of writing, it’s important to show
