Creating Living Characters: Adding Depth Through Desire, Lack and Voice

A list of settings is not a character

Even with a character sheet packed with height, hair color, job, hobbies and favorite food, a character may not feel alive. Settings are information, and a character is someone who makes choices. The moment readers respond to a character is when that character makes a hard choice.

So when you create a character, decide before appearance: what does this character want, and what stands in the way?

Deciding desire and lack

Desire is the goal a character wants to achieve in the story. Lack is what the character is missing, the inner weakness they want to avoid. When the two collide, they become conflict.

How to show a character through action

• Instead of writing "He was honest," write a scene where he goes back to return extra change he was given
• Decide on one small habit, such as fiddling with a sleeve when nervous or looking away when lying
• Show priorities through what the protagonist gives up when facing a difficult choice
• Show reputation and relationships through how the people around the protagonist treat them

Telling voices apart

When several characters appear, it's easy for all of them to speak in a similar voice. A good test is whether you can tell who is speaking when you cover the name before the line.

1. Sentence length: a character who speaks in short bursts vs. one who explains at length
2. Register: a formal character, one who mixes in casual speech, one who trails off at the end of sentences
3. Give each a favorite word or verbal tic (use it only occasionally, since too much repetition becomes tiresome)
4. Decide how they change when emotions run high (do they speak faster, or go quiet?)

Supporting characters want one thing too

A supporting character who only helps the protagonist easily feels like a tool. If each one also wants something in the story, characters collide in every scene and the dialogue comes alive. For example, if the protagonist's friend cheers them on while also aiming for the same position, there is tension in their conversations.

Designing how a character changes

If the protagonist is the same person at the end as at the start, readers feel empty. Change doesn't come suddenly. It builds up little by little through big and small events. Place one choice in the early, middle and late parts that this character wouldn't have made before.

Try it yourself: fill out one character core sheet

If you get stuck on a field while filling out the sheet, that's a part of the character you haven't decided yet. Rather than forcing it, try writing one scene where the character makes a difficult choice, and the answer may appear.

1. Write the protagonist's "what they want on the surface" and "what they truly want" in one line each.
2. Write what they fear most and what they do because of it.
3. Write in one line how they need to change in this story.
4. Fill out the same sheet for one supporting character and look for where they collide with the protagonist.