Yay! The chapter we've all been waiting for!

That's right, I'm here to talk to you about writing three-dimensional characters. I covered some of planning your character under the chapter for that, but I purposefully didn't get too into detail. Why? Because I'm going to cover some of that under here! Remember that in the end, how you shape your character is completely up to you and my suggestions for you today are just a bit more in depth than what you may have heard. However, no person writing a guide like myself would ever be able to give you the exact formula to an awesome character. It's up to you to give it your special touch and make the words breathe.

Having good characters is important because they are the ones in charge of the story. They control how it goes and a boring character inevitably creates boring plot lines. On the other hand, an interesting character will carry the story a long way. Plus, readers like to connect with the characters. In real life, 2D people just don't exist. We are not confined to one trait, we have separate parts, sometimes even identities it seems. For this reason, readers just cannot relate to a two-dimensional character. They have to be 3D.

On that note, let me give you some tips and knowledge to help you on your journey as a writer.

Part One:

I actually found this in "WRITE YOUR NOVEL: Tips from a NYT Bestseller" by CJLyons. She is a brilliant author and I really encourage you to read her book on Wattpad if you are seeking more help in writing. One thing that she said for creating character profiles was that it is absolutely necessary that you can fill the following out.

Outer Goal: What your character wants.

Inner Goal: What your character needs (but doesn't necessarily know it).

Outer Conflict: The person or thing that prevents them from achieving their goal. It should be fairly obvious.

Inner Conflict: A moral line, flaw, or hesitancy that prevents them from achieving their goal. They might not be aware of it, but something about achieving their goal makes them feel dirty.

Motivation: This is the reason that they need to achieve their goal. What happened in their past that makes them want to win so badly. Maybe a murderer killed their father and they want revenge.

Default Action: What their automatic reaction to all problems is. They might not think about it before they do it. Often, they are unaware of their default action. Ex. Violence, retaliation, obedience etc.

Those six things are absolutely necessary and if you can't fill it out for all of your main characters, you need to rethink things. What I have above is what makes your character human and in-depth. Not everything about them is black and white and that's a really important concept to grasp.

For part two, I'll just be covering what wasn't above. These are all still important things to consider that I haven't talked about just yet.

Have you ever hated a person so much, but had no real reason to? Was it just because you saw everything in them that you wish you were yourself? Is the word you are looking for to describe them "perfect"?

The thing is, we can't help but dislike the people we know in our hearts are better in every way than ourselves. Perfect people only accentuate our own flaws and after a while we start to grow spiteful. The same goes for fictional characters, even if they aren't real. Readers despise character's that are flawless, even if they don't realize that's why they dislike them so much.

Plus, even though people may seem perfect on the outside, no one is. We just can't relate to characters whose only flaws are that they have none. The point I'm trying to beat to death is that your character may be perfect, but your story certainly will not. Give your character flaws!

By flaws, I don't mean that your character's teeth are crooked, or that her hair is chopped unevenly, I'm talking personality traits that make them flawed. Although, it's a good idea not to make your character the most beautiful person on Earth unless that is an important plot device.

An important thing to remember is that just because a character is flawed, that does not mean they are a bad person. Often times, a trait that is supposed to be good turns out to be a flaw. For example, if a character always tells the truth, but they need to lie in order to protect a family member and they find they just can't, that would make their honesty a flaw. However, you still should have other flaws because it's not all that effective to make their one flaw a "good" trait. A lot of the time people do bad things with good intentions and their naivety can also be a flaw.

Another thing is that your character's major flaw should cause problems for them. If they lie all the time, but no one ever finds out, it's pointless. However, if they're best friend finds out they were being told lies for years, that would be an appropriate flaw. It's up to you how you make your character flawed, but don't settle until you've found the perfect way to make them imperfect.

A dynamic character is a character that changes over the course of the story. They can change for the good or they can change for the worse. Both can be done well and both can be done poorly. I'll be doing another chapter on this.

Moving on, your character needs to be dynamic because readers love to see your character change and how everything they have gone through affected them. This doesn't mean that you can make your character perfect in the end because that sucks, but they need to come to a realization or have a change of attitude or heart by the end.

This could mean their priorities changed, they have been taught a lesson by someone or something else, that they are required to change in order to protect what it is they care about, or the events they have gone through completely blurred what they used to believe. Something else to consider is that usually when a character changes, they realize that the new person they became was somewhere inside them all along, but it took something specific to happen or to be said for it to reveal itself. You don't have to make it this way, but it makes the change more realistic.

Just be sure that your character changes for a reason, not because you wanted them to be better where they weren't. Everything you write needs to have a purpose.

As soon as you decide that your character is only going to have one trait, one way of thinking, and one way of acting you've created a stereotype. The problem with this is that you can offend people, but also every stereotype has already been seen before. Stereotypes are black and white; they are predictable, everything your character should not be. Unless you are writing a satire, it's not a bad idea to avoid this.

I'm not saying that your characteristics can't be slightly stereotypical -- let's be honest, we've all done it -- but they shouldn't fit the exact definition of their stereotype. Let's take a look at a common stereotype: the nerd. Well, the nerd is generally anti-social, quiet, super smart, and wears glasses and navy vests every day of the week. They are a teachers pet and aren't involved in any sports whatsoever.

Now let's give them multiple characters. Nina is a nerd. Plain and simple. She works hard in school and cries whenever she gets a mark below an A. Why? Because her father is very strict and beats her. But secretly, Nina sneaks out on the weekends to go to parties and have a little fun. Her greatest fear is that her father will find out.

Right away, we have two things: backstory and an unexpected characteristic. Backstory powers a character; it gives them motives and shapes who they are. I mentioned that briefly in part one. Her unexpected characteristic? She's a party girl! And, I actually gave more than one, because she is also a bit of a rebel because she doesn't want to be controlled by her parents. This could be a character worth reading about.

Make sure your character's have more than one trait.

Being afraid makes us human. Your character can't be unafraid all the time because if they never once felt fear, if they never once worried about the outcome of a situation, you might as well get rid of the conflict and once that's gone you can throw out your story as well.

Once there is fear of the outcome of something, your character will have reason to ward of the antagonist or stop what they are doing. Not to mention that your readers will understand the motives more and feel the suspense more intensely. Plus, a lot of the time those fears make them relatable.

A really great thing you can do is make your character have to face whatever their greatest fear is because it says a lot about them in the ways that they react. Will they cower down or go forth, putting themselves aside? It's even better when the conflict is based around their fear. For example, a character is horribly afraid of the dead and graveyards and the antagonist released angry spirits into the world. The protagonist must banish all of the spirits to the underworld, but to do that she must first face them.

Overcoming fears is satisfying to read about and it makes for a great story.

No one feels nothing. Your character may act like they are above everything, but they are not and if they are, make them feel something. Even the antagonist. They must have some sort of emotion charging their motives. This is another thing that your readers will relate to and something that makes your characters human.

Emotions sit in the heart of the story because without them, your character has no purpose. You may think your character is superman (maybe they really are) but this does not mean they won't feel remorse over the death of a friend or that they will get over it in a matter of days. It needs to cut deep because the deeper the emotions run, the more your character will change and the stronger they will be.

This is a really important part of developing characters that is so often overlooked! Every person has some sort of weakness, something they would do almost anything for. This can be a person or an object, but whatever it is, their Achilles heel makes them weak because they would put aside anything else to protect it, no matter the costs. Sometimes, a character's Achilles heel is taken from them and they lose their purpose (again, that word). Make sure if they lose their Achilles heel, they have another one to replace it.

The reason for this vulnerability in your character is because without it, they could be unstoppable with no fear of the results of their actions. Unstoppable characters are no fun; books are all about the struggle. Your Achilles heel will ensure that your character has something holding them to the ground.

This will be short because I've already mentioned backstory about one thousand times in this chapter and throughout the rest of the book. Backstory makes up your characters motives because whatever happened in the past feeds their desire for vengeance, justice, or prevention of what happened before (or what they were told would happen). Remember that those are just a few ideas and it could be any number of things. This could be seen in my example with Nina earlier.

The important thing is that anything significant that happened in your characters past will affect them. It will affect how they think, why they act the way they do, the things they say, the relationships they have, and basically anything else you can think of.

Those are my main points! Don't forget to do this with all of your major characters (including the antagonist), not just your protagonist. Every little detail is important. You should also sketch out your minor characters, but maybe not quite as in depth. The key to good characters is by making them 3D and the key to achieving that is above you. I hope that this helps! This was an interesting chapter to write and one of my personal favourites so far.