What to Know About Main Characters Before You Start Writing
Hey everyone, happy Thursday!
I’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about main characters, how much detail to give about them to make them believable but not too overwhelming to the reader.
And it is a tricky balance, to be sure, not to mention all the information out there for authors. So let’s discuss what I believe you need to know, and leave out, as you plan your main characters.
All authors approach writing stories differently—not only just plotters versus pantsers and everything in between—but also what is the core drive of their story.
Is your story plot focused or character focused? Your story will always have both characters and plot, of course—the book wouldn’t work otherwise—but which drives your story?
So for example, let’s say you are writing a mystery. Is the main drive all the twists, turns, clues, and mayhem, supported by a cast of interesting characters? OR is the mystery irresistible because of the main character (think a Sherlock Holmes type) who we can see evolve and save the day, as the mystery unfolds.
The trend right now in commercial fiction is character-led fiction. Which is where all the character detail questions come in!
If your main characters are the backbone of the story, how much does the reader need to know about them? How much detail should you include?
And the irony to this is, the answer is actually in your plot.
So many of the character planners, character sheets, whatever you want to call them, out there go into so much depth. You want the characters to feel real, so they’ve got you outlining every little detail you can think of. Down to their favorite cereal and other mundane facts.
Now, can this be useful? For sure! There are definitely ways that even small details like that can make a character feel real and come to life. A trend of always seeing your main character insist on Fruit Loops for their cereal throughout a series? Not a massive plot point (most likely), but a hilarious little quirk to make the character relatable and funny to the reader.
BUT knowing this so early on in the writing and plotting process of the story, especially in a character driven story, can actually cause more issues than it solves.
This is because, if you have all this information at your fingertips from the get-go, it can be tempting to give too much to the reader. It all feels important, funny, or helpful because it does explain more about the character.
But giving too much, especially early on, can make your pacing drag, make your main character feel overwhelming, or just take up too much room, to where the reader puts the book down before they even get to the core of your story.
So, as I mentioned, the answer to “how much should I know about my characters before I start writing” is in the plot of your story.
Let’s walk through an example to explain in a bit more detail:
You have decided to write a character-driven, adventure fantasy.
The plot is pretty basic—ancient evil is trying to take over the world—so the drive of your story comes from your unique main character(s).
So, looking at this, from the start of your writing process, what do you need to know?
What does their life look like in the beginning?
What is the main character’s starting point before chaos starts to take over their life? But, within the context of what is going to show the biggest clash with the life they’ll have after. For a popular example that most of you have probably read, let’s look at the Hobbit.
Bilbo’s life is about to get rocked, not that he knows it yet. So when we meet him in the beginning, we learn all about his calm and serene life, and even the disdain that Hobbits have for anything resembling adventure (the poor Took Clan).
Now, of course, there is a ton more detail about Bilbo’s life in the beginning than just that. That is Tolkien’s style. He could talk about details for days, which may or may not be how you want to go since it isn’t as popular in commercial fantasy fiction nowadays. BUT all the author needed to know in that beginning was that base detail of their beginning life to get started.
Character Goal and Motivation
Everyone gets so caught up on planning out the details -- physical traits, culture, sexuality, personality… and all these are important, but are in actuality the supporting pillars for:
Goal and motivation. Everything about the character that works with and feeds into the plot (why they are involved, how they are involved). This is what you want to be clear on before you dive in.
So what is your character’s (protagonist and antagonist) main goal in the story, and why is it important to them? Does it change? Why do they need to meet that goal? What is their motivation?
So looping back to our fantasy adventure example, what is your main character’s goal in the story? Is it to defeat the evil to save his family? Is it to become the savior of the kingdom? And, most importantly, why? Why is that so relatable and urgent for the character and reader? Maybe he’s the chosen one. Maybe his family will disappear if he can’t defeat the evil in time?
You can use these answers to builds your character’s structure, tell you about the details you may not know yet, but you don’t need them at the beginning.
End Result
Where do you want the main character to end up? Obviously, the ancient evil will be defeated. But again, the plot isn’t your focus.
Knowing that the ancient evil will be defeated, how are we going to see the main character evolve and achieve this? Will they have to sacrifice something huge? Maybe they will end up turning evil!
Just like in a plot-led story where you want to have twists and turns, what are the twists and turns for your main character? How will they surprise us as they handle the ancient evil and adventure along the way?
Now, to be clear for all you pantsers out there, you don’t have to have every little detail of how they’ll defeat the ancient evil known right from the start. But brainstorming how you want the character to end up gives you direction, while allowing for wiggle room as you write and become inspired with new and evil ways to torture your main character.
These are the core details you want to know about your main character(s) before you start writing, for three reasons:
First, as I mentioned before, having this base will help you decide all those smaller details along the way, but make sure they stay in line with the character’s essence since you already know the defined points of their journey.
Second, only knowing this much about your character will keep you from getting lost in the smaller details. You can learn about your character as you write and add more in, but keeping it more bare bones will allow you to focus on the needs of the character in the story first, and then flesh it out later.
Third, it can save you a lot of edits and heartache along the way. This isn’t to say there won’t be changes. Stories rarely get written without taking a left turn somewhere. But having the key character threads solid and outlined, you will easily be able to refer to them (or change them, if needed!) as you write and adjust, allowing for fewer massive edits down the line.
I hope this has been helpful! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or wish to discuss.
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And until next time, keep writing!