How To Write Unforgettable Book Characters

For any novel to connect with readers, the author needs to pay close attention to character development. Even if you’re writing an action-packed, plot-driven book where the characters are robots, it’s the human element that will resonate with readers.

Below will show you how to develop a character who will linger in your readers’ minds long after they turn the last page. To write such a character, you must:

1. Justify the character’s reason for existence by establishing the character’s story goal and motivation
2. Make sure the character has both strengths and flaws
3. Give the character an external and internal conflict
4. Decide whether the character is static or dynamic
5. Give the character a backstory
6. Develop the character’s external characteristics to make them distinguishable
7. Make the character stand out with distinctive mannerisms
8. Do your research to make the character believable
9. Steer clear the biggest character development mistake

Every step helps you build a character’s depth, from the inside out. By the end of this process, you should emerge with a realized, multidimensional character. Let’s start with internal character development. You can think of internal character development as a concentric circle, radiating outward from your character’s fundamental goals and motivations. All the other characterization choices you make, from their backstory to how much they change over time, will flow from these two core elements.

Establish the Character’s Story Goals & Motivations

Your character’s goal is why the story exists — and why it’s worth telling. It’s what your character wants from the book’s plot, and what will propel their inner journey. Without it, the overall narrative arc would fall flat.

Let’s look at a character goal example:

• Harry Potter’s goal is to defeat Lord Voldemort

Then, there are the motivations for your character’s goal, the ‘in order to’ that gives it meaning. What internal and external influences drive their desires? There can, of course, be more than one. For instance:

• Harry Potter’s goal is to defeat Voldemort… in order to ensure the safety of wizarding world — and to find closure from the murder of his parents.

If you’re struggling to nail down your character’s goal, try asking, “What would make the character feel happy or satisfied with their life?” This is their motivation. Next, ask yourself, “What could they do to obtain that happiness?” This is their goal. If you’re struggling to get to the crux of your character’s motivations, try playing the “why” game. This will help you develop a multilayered chain of motivations:

Suppose your character’s goal is to connect with their long-lost sibling. In that case, their motivation might be because they are an only child who always longed for a brother or sister. Why? Because they felt lonely as a child. Why? Because their parents moved around a lot and they had trouble keeping friends? Why? Because they eventually tire of getting close to people, only to say goodbye.

By playing this game to its logical conclusion, we’ve learned that the character wants to meet their long-lost sibling [goal] because they feel it will establish a bond stronger than geography [motivation].

Give the Character an External & Internal Conflict

Your character only becomes interesting when you put a few obstacles between them and their goal. If Frodo walked on up to Mount Doom, dropped the ring in the lava, and made it back in time for second breakfast, it wouldn’t make for a very compelling story or a very memorable protagonist. It’s the obstacles — the army of orcs commanded by Sauron and the power the ring has over Frodo, to name a couple — that create conflict and tension in the story. And that’s what makes it worth reading.

You’ll notice in the example above that we mention two conflicts. One is Frodo vs. Sauron (character vs. character). The second is Frodo vs. himself — his struggle to not lose himself to the ring. All characters should undergo an internal conflict that makes them question themselves and mirrors the external conflict they’re facing. Even static characters who do not significantly alter throughout the novel will face an internal conflict — you can find Sherlock vs. self, for example, in his fraught attempts to communicate with people.

Make Sure the Character has Strengths & Flaws

All the intrigue in your story will flow from how your character responds to their external and internal conflicts. In facing these challenges, your character will need both strengths to draw upon and flaws that threaten to drag them down. The iconic characters we know, and love have a nuanced mix of positive and negative traits. Harry Potter, for instance, is brave and loyal. But he’s also stubborn and reckless, flaws that have put himself — and his friends — in danger. Frodo, meanwhile, is selfless enough to take on a thankless and dangerous mission. But he’s also highly dependent on protecting his allies, and very vulnerable to the ring’s seductive pull.

To give your adoring fans something to root for, your character should be plausibly able to overcome the challenges the plot throws at them, destroying the ring or saving the wizarding world. You need to keep your readers on the edge of their seats. That’s why there should be a real risk that your character will fail — fall prey to the ring’s power at the very edge of Mt. Doom, or die in a burst of green light from the Dark Lord’s wand. Writing a character with both strengths and flaws will help you maintain the tension in your plotting, but that’s not all it does— it’s also crucial to making your readers feel for the people at the heart of your story.

Your character’s strengths — whether that’s their sparkling wit, their skill at wind magic, or their unwavering moral center — will get readers to root for them, admire them, maybe even swoon over them. But don’t forget your character’s flaws: say, their recklessness, their greedy streak, the insecurity that makes them lash out at their more accomplished sibling. These very human weaknesses will make them relatable. 

Decide Whether the Character is Static or Dynamic

There’s a myth that characters must fundamentally change throughout a story — in other words, be dynamic — in order to be considered well-written. But a host of great characters emerge from a long internal journey without changing much. These are static characters, and they’re a valid part of your character development repertoire.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the idea of static characters vs dynamic characters…

(Characters who don’t change because that’s just who they are…) Captain America, Captain Nemo, and Sherlock Holmes are a few examples of characters who do not significantly alter throughout the novel. With Sherlock, his unchanging nature makes him a compelling character. Unlike many of us, he does not feel the need to adapt to his surroundings. For Sherlock, that’s both a strength and a flaw: he is always true to himself, but he often fails to learn from his experiences. This is a “traditional” static character.

(Characters who undergo substantial change…) A dynamic character is altered by the conflict(s) that they face. This might be a subconscious change, such as Jack adapting to the island in Lord of the Flies by becoming as wild, unconstrained, and “savage” as the nature around him. Or the change might be more of a conscious decision, such as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy overcoming their obstinate pride and prejudice for the sake of love. This is a “traditional” dynamic character.

(Characters who don’t change to effect change in the world around them…) Writers often rely on complex, fast-paced plots with lots of external conflict to compensate for static protagonists. The world around them may try to shift these protagonists from their core principles. Still, they will rebel to try and alter their circumstances. This character is both a little bit static and a little bit dynamic: even though they might not change much themselves, they’re causing major change. A great example of protagonist is Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. 

(Reinforcing your protagonist through secondary characters…) Often, authors write static secondary characters to act as pillars around which a dynamic character can develop. Think of Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird: he changes little throughout the novel. But his steadfast belief in justice allows Scout to evolve from an innocent child into a girl with a strong sense of right and wrong.

Consider writing a “foil”: a character who contrasts with the protagonist to highlight the main character’s particular qualities. For instance, Harry Potter’s foil is Draco Malfoy: privileged where Harry is scrappy, self-interested where Harry is recklessly selfless.

Give the Character a Past

Just as your history has contributed to the person you are today; your character’s history has made them into the person we see on the page. Develop your character’s past as much as possible. Still, it’s especially important to create and zero in on memories that inform what we see in the story.

Develop the Character’s Physical Characteristics

Yes, the internal goals and motivations are the “heart” of a character. But that doesn’t mean that their external characteristics should just be an afterthought. Sure, the fact that your protagonist has blonde hair may not impact the plot. But it may color how other characters respond to them. And it can only benefit you, as the author, to have a detailed image of them in your mind as you write your story.

Early in your character development, put time into sketching out your protagonist’s physical features, including their…

• Appearance: What do they look like? Does their appearance play a role in the story?
• Voice: What do they sound like? Do they speak with an accent, or an unusual cadence? Does their voice appear to “match” their appearance?

Make the Character Stand Out with Distinctive Mannerisms

Figuring out your character’s external traits doesn’t stop at deciding on an eye color and a voice type. To make your brown-eyed alto stand out from all the other brown-eyed altos in the literary canon, you’ll want to round out that physical profile with some distinctive mannerisms. A character’s physicality takes so much more than describing their body in isolation. It’s about how they move through space — and about how they interact with everything around them, from objects to other characters.

Reflect on how your character responds to the world around them, including their:

• Communication style: How do they interact with others, and how does that shape their relationships?
• Gait: How do they make their way around their environment, and how does this impact how they’re treated? Do crowds unconsciously gather to watch their fluid, graceful strides, or do others give them a wide berth because their heavy tread is intimidating?
• Tics: What do they do when they’re nervous, uncertain of how to proceed, or about to collapse from exhaustion?

Some character mannerisms will be situationally dependent, coming out only when they’re acting under the compulsion of some strong emotion. Harry Potter, for example, understandably rubs his forehead when his scar hurts. Other mannerisms, however, are part of a character’s default state — as essential to our view of them as their coloring. Just think of Draco Malfoy’s permanent sneer: it’s as much a part of him as his pale blond hair.

To make your character truly memorable, you’ll want to consider adding both these mannerisms to their behavioral repertoire. Anger shouldn’t look the same on everyone: someone might flare up like an inferno, going red in the face, while others turn icily polite, smiling insincerely. Your characters’ default states should show some variation too, a good pace 

Do Your Research to Make the Character Believable

With character development, empathy and imagination will take you far. You can’t expect your readers to get into your protagonist’s head if you cannot think your way there. But say you want to craft characters so lifelike they seem more flesh than sentence, capable of walking right out of the pages and moving around without the puppet-strings of your plot tugging on their limbs. Then you’ll want to go beyond the limits of your mind — and do some character research.

Character research comes into play when you’re writing about your character’s aspect you know little about off the top of your head. For instance, say you’re writing a British character when you’ve never set foot outside of Florida. You’ll want to do research when you’re doing their dialogue. You don’t want to pepper your British character’s speech with American regionalisms. But you also don’t want to him sound like the wrong Brit.  Your character’s dialogue must fit the background you’ve given him, and that requires some research.

Now, how do you go about that? Luckily, character research need not feel like you’re cranking out a school paper — it can be a lot more experiential and quirkier in its methods. You can Google “croydon slang” and read the articles that come up or hit up your library for some books on linguistic ethnography. But you could also watch some British-made TV set in your character’s hometown. You could even find some YouTubers from the area. Note that research is especially important if you’re writing a character whose identity or experiences differ substantially from your own — say, someone from a different ethnic background, or someone with a mental illness you’ve only read about.

There, your research should start with reading. Besides looking at the facts — whether that’s an article on Chicano culture, or a clinical description of depression symptoms — consider seeking memoirs and personal essays by writers in the demographic.

Steer Clear of the Biggest Character Development Mistake

By now, you’ll have built up a character from the inside out, moving from the goals and motivations that define their role in the story to the mannerisms that make them stand out from the crowd. Congratulations! You’re well on your way to giving your story an unforgettable human element. But your job isn’t over just yet. Now, you have to make sure you aren’t making the biggest character development mistake of all: making your character too perfect.

We talked about giving strength and flaws before, so you might think you’re covered. Your character might be a heroic warrior who earns the well-deserved respect of her community, but she’s got some weaknesses too! You might well be in the clear. But the key now is to make sure that your character’s strengths and flaws are well-balanced. You need not counter every positive characteristic with an equal and opposite weak point. But you do want to make sure your character’s flaws are just as consequential as their strengths.

Say your protagonist is a gorgeous, violet-eyed sylph with a heart of gold, who fights like Mike Tyson and writes like Mark Twain, but she sings like a squawking parrot and once got a B- in math. Sure, her tone deafness and mathematical ineptitude are technically flaws. But they’re pretty inconsequential. Suppose your character has only a couple of minor weaknesses to balance out their tremendous strengths. In that case, they’ll still read as unrealistically perfect. Watching them dazzle their way through your story will have your readers rolling their eyes — or even worse, suspecting you wrote them as a wish fulfillment exercise.

Make sure your character has meatier flaws, the vulnerabilities that will actually play a role in her character arc.