Welcome back to my series on how to edit your manuscript for submission. Today we are going to look at your characters and see what sort of an impression they are making on readers.
I would argue that characters are the lynchpin of your novel, no matter what genre you write in, because character leads to everything else. You might believe that genre novels tend to be more plot heavy, while literary work focuses more deeply on character, and there is a certain amount of truth in that idea. But a complex or action-heavy plot does not negate the importance of character. Characters drive the plot, with their wants and needs, actions and reactions. Without your characters doing something, the plot quickly grinds to a halt.
When I start reading a manuscript on submission, I look for characters that feel believable and interesting. I don’t need to like them, but I do need to be curious about them. This means I expect to learn about them as the story progresses, and as information becomes pertinent to the plot. I want to watch things unfold, whether that involves all the twists and turns of a developing romance or the unraveling of a marriage or the gathering of a team to commit a heist in a fantasy world. Every action, every event, should happen because of a character’s choices or as lead-in to a character’s reaction.
Beyond that, I look for a certain balance in the cast of a novel. Different personality types and various shades of grey. Characters who skew too perfectly good or entirely evil come across as boring and unrealistic, so I’m always interested in seeing where everyone stands on that spectrum, though depending on the genre, we could be looking at scales of helpful to annoying or delightful to obnoxious, not just where their morals land. In real life, we have a diverse group of friends and acquaintances, and in a novel I look for that same range, only on a more contained level, with each character serving a distinct purpose to the story being told.
Big Picture
When considering the novel as a whole, I examine characters for goals and motivations—both external, which drives the action, and internal, which often develops the theme of the book. The best characters meld with the plot in a way that makes the reader feel like these events or adventures could only be happening to these specific characters. Whatever baggage or flawed thinking your protagonist brings to the story should be faced or reconciled for them to succeed with their more tangible goals that drive the plot. In short, for them to get what they want, they must first attain what they need.
The character’s journey should involve the struggles they face to reach their goals. Quick fixes and easily achieved milestones take away from the tension of the story and lack authenticity. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s journey from farm boy to fighter pilot and hero of the Rebellion requires him to let go of his upbringing in stages. He might dream of fighting the Empire, but he has the voice of his uncle in his head, telling him to be practical. Even after his aunt and uncle are killed and he’s free to follow Ben Kenobi, he needs to fight that ingrained idea. It takes time and several events for him to take the ultimate leap of faith, to trust his abilities and the Force and to fire on the Death Star based on instinct rather than technology.
In The Hunger Games series, Katniss Everdeen goes from being completely self-reliant and believing she has no one she can rely on to needing to trust other people if she’s going to survive the games and, later, the political machinations that result from her win. Given the nature of the competition, these are particularly difficult circumstances for her to learn this lesson, but gradually she comes to understand who she must work with to come through the other side. Her tangible achievements rely heavily upon her internal realizations.
Over the course of Pride and Prejudice, we watch both Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy develop initial impressions based upon their own ingrained pride and prejudice, operating from their positions in society and the ways in which they were raised. Darcy must overcome his sense of superiority, while Elizabeth needs to consider her own tendency to trust her first impressions without careful consideration. Each sees the other in a new light as the plot develops and additional meetings provide them with further context, background information, and evidence of their true personalities. Not only do they know each other better, but they gain more perspective on themselves, the key that truly allows them to end up with a match.
What should you ask yourself about your characters when you sit down to revise your manuscript? Try dividing your assessment into sections.
Physicality
Do you have a clear sense of what the character is like physically? I don’t mean hair and eye color, though those might be a part of it, especially if you’re writing for younger readers. More important is a sense of how they carry themselves on the page. Have you included descriptions and actions that let the reader know how the character feels in their own skin, that reflect if they are shy or confident, feel clumsy or graceful, and so on? How do their physical traits impact who they are, how they feel about themselves, and how they act? In what ways do any specific physical traits tie-in with the plot or the circumstances of the novel?
Sociology
Where did the character grow up, and how? What sorts of family and friends, culture and surroundings have contributed to this character and how they behave and/or think of themselves? Did they have loving, successful parents who provided a stable environment, or a single, job-hopping mother who struggled to keep food on the table? Consider what external forces contributed to who the character is by the time we meet them on the page, and whether any of that information appears in the context of the story. Keep in mind you likely know much more than makes it into the novel. Ask yourself how the character’s background is affecting their decisions, and whether the choices feel appropriate to them.
Psychology
What does your character think and believe, and how does the way they think drive their behavior and their choices? This helps point to motivation, and it also might inform how they will deal with whatever wounds or internal baggage they must overcome in order to achieve their goals. In many cases, you as the author might know very clearly what the character’s psychology is from the start, but your reader will not understand until near the resolution of the story once it all becomes clear and the pieces of the plot click with the internal struggles. But the clues need to be there, so a reader can look back and have an “ah ha!” moment. You want to include the behavior but also the why behind it. Ask yourself if your character is making decisions that align with their world view, and if not, is there some reason they are acting against their own type?
Once you’ve tackled the big, plot-related questions about your characters and who they are, you can tackle more sentence-level considerations.
Dialogue. Do each of your characters sound like a distinct person? Have you avoided using the same distinctive vocabulary for more than one character (unless there’s a reason they use the same sort of jargon)? Do their speech patterns make sense based upon their background, education, lifestyle, etc.?
Names. Have you given too many characters names that sound similar or start with the same letter? Did you consider what the names mean and if you’re making some sort of statement about the character (because if not, readers might assume you are). If making up names for a work of SFF, did you consider how easily a reader will be able to say and/or remember them? Did you come up with some sort of naming convention for your world?
Are they three-dimensional? Now is a good time to double-check to make sure none of your characters come across as too stereotypical. Make sure they are fleshed out and don’t fall into specific types. This is true of smaller, supporting characters as well as your primary cast. Small characters often get less attention, and obviously spend less time on the page, but that doesn’t mean they should be flat or, worse, cause offense.
A great deal of character work and decisions about how your characters function within the parameters of your plot will be accomplished either before you write or during the first draft. Once you have an idea of who inhabits your story and why, you’ll be able to go back and dig more deeply into the facets of the character you still need to discover. You want your characters’ choices to determine the twists and turns of the plot, and for this to feel genuine to readers, it’s important that you, as the author, really get to know your characters and why they do what they do. The deeper you delve into their personalities, the more they will jump off the page.
I hope this gave you all some great material to work with when thinking about and editing your characters. If this subject interests everyone, I can revisit with a more in-depth look at how to tackle creating characters from scratch. Let me know!
Thank you all for joining me here and for reading. Wishing you a wonderful week as we tick down toward the end of August. Here in the northern hemisphere, I’m not sure where the summer’s gone, but it suddenly seems in a very big hurry. It makes me anxious for big, juicy fall reads. Anyone have a good book on their nightstand? Not that I don’t have my own enormous, backlogged TBR pile, but I still love hearing what you’re all discovering.
Happy reading and happy writing. See you in the next one! 🥰
I loved reading this, and I'd love to hear more about your process for creating characters.