How to Create Realistic Characters: Exercises for Bringing Your Characters to Life

Memorable characters are the beating heart of any great story. They breathe life into the narrative, captivating readers and immersing them in a world of imagination. Crafting well-rounded, relatable, and dynamic characters can be difficult, but with the right approach, you can create characters that leave a lasting impact. In this post, we will explore five exercises that will help you create realistic characters.

Exercises to help you develop realistic characters

Character worksheets

Character worksheets prompt you to explore different aspects of your character's life. These worksheets typically include sections on physical attributes, backstory, relationships, and character arcs. By delving into these details, you gain a comprehensive understanding of your character, fostering a deeper connection with them. Think of these worksheets as guidebooks to your character's interiority, backstory, and journey.

Start by finding or creating a character development worksheet that suits your needs. Begin by jotting down basic information about your character, such as their name, age, gender, and occupation. Then, explore their family background, childhood experiences, education, and significant life events. Consider how these experiences have shaped their beliefs, values, and behaviors. This exploration will help you understand the motivations and emotional landscape of your character. Use the worksheet to delve into their backstory, strengths and weaknesses, goals and conflicts, and relationships with other characters in your story.

Character development is an ongoing process. As you write and your characters evolve, revisit your worksheets to revise and expand upon the initial details. This constant exploration will enrich your characters and ensure their growth throughout your narrative.

Explore the question, “Why?”

According to Mary Kole, editor and instructor of Writing Mastery's Crafting Dynamic Characters course, the fundamental question writers must ask themselves about their characters is, "Why?" Understanding why someone behaves and reacts the way they do is crucial for making your characters three-dimensional and memorable!

Build your characters around answering the question "Why?" to delve into their motivations and create characters that are both believable and compelling. Look beyond surface-level desires and explore the underlying forces that drive them. Consider their fears, past traumas, and conflicting emotions. Remember, people are complex, and our actions can often conflict with our values. Giving your characters flaws and contradictions is one of the best ways to make them feel like real people.

To use this exercise effectively, put your character in a moment of conflict and examine how they react. If you feel that a moment in your story should have a deeper impact on a character, or if you sense that there is more happening beneath the surface, ask yourself, "And? So?" This question encourages you to dig deeper and uncover additional layers of your character's emotions and experiences. Keep repeating the question as you delve beneath the surface, uncovering the emotional core of your protagonist's problem.

Stream of consciousness writing

When crafting compelling fiction, delving into your characters' inner thoughts and emotions is paramount. One effective writing exercise that can help unlock this treasure trove of character depth is "stream-of-consciousness writing." This exercise encourages writers to set aside their inner critic and allow their characters' thoughts to flow freely onto the page, offering unique insights into their psyche.

To begin, set a timer for fifteen minutes to create a focused writing session. Start writing in the first-person perspective, channeling your character's voice and allowing their thoughts to pour out unfiltered. Don't worry about grammar, punctuation, and structure during this exercise—simply capture the character's raw stream of consciousness. Encourage them to delve into their deepest thoughts, fears, desires, and memories, unearthing hidden layers of their personality.

Once the timer sounds, take a moment to reflect on what you've written. As you read through the unedited text, you may discover valuable insights into the character's personality, conflicts, and aspirations. This exercise allows you to gain a deeper understanding of their interior world, empowering you to reveal the rich inner landscape of your character on the page.

Get to know your characters through journaling

Another exercise you can try is writing diary entries or letters from your character's perspective. Similar to stream-of-consciousness writing, journaling from a character's perspective will help you uncover hidden layers and complexities that will help you bring your cast to life on the page.

Begin by choosing a character whose perspective you want to explore. Set the tone and purpose of the character's journal entries, whether confessional, introspective, or simply documentation of their experiences. As you write the journal entries, embrace the character's unique voice, vocabulary, and writing style, fully embodying their thoughts and emotions.

Allow your character to react and respond to what happens in your story, capturing their immediate reactions and observations. You can go further by exploring one event of the plot from multiple characters' perspectives. Every character is different, and their thoughts and feelings around the events of your story will be different, too!

Explore your character’s wounds

A character's actions and reactions are often influenced by their "wounds"—those events in their life that have hurt them or helped shape who they are. Wounds don't have to be physical; they can also be emotional or psychological. These pieces of a hero's past provide a rich source of conflict and complexity, allowing you to delve into their vulnerabilities and create a more realistic and emotionally resonant portrayal.

Start by identifying the specific emotional, psychological, or physical wound that your character carries. Explore the origins of the wound, its impact on their life, and the defense mechanisms they employ. Visualize their personality as a metaphorical bandage that covers and conceals their pain. Through your writing, gradually peel off the bandage, revealing the wound layer by layer. Uncover the character's vulnerabilities as you delve deeper into their emotions and thought processes.

Then, spend fifteen minutes writing a scene that centers around how your hero's wound was formed. This could be a single event, a series of events, a situation, or another scenario. It could be a significant moment that had a profound impact on the character or one of many smaller moments that contributed to the overall wound. Begin the scene with the words "It all started when..." and follow that train of thought.

Ready to create realistic characters?

Creating memorable and compelling characters is crucial in the world of fiction. The five exercises discussed in this post—character worksheets, exploring motivations through the question "Why?", stream of consciousness writing, character journaling, and exploring character wounds—provide valuable tools for bringing your characters to life. By using these exercises, you can develop well-rounded and relatable characters with depth and complexity. Continually revisiting and revising these exercises as you write allows your characters to evolve and grow throughout your story. By engaging in these exercises, you will ensure that your characters leave a lasting impact on readers and elevate your storytelling to new heights.