Evaluating the Main Characters

Let us say you are not a career writer. In fact you have never written a book. Then one day you are hit by literary inspiration. The plot for an exciting novel occupies your mind. My advice to you is go ahead and write the book from start to finish. Get the story out while the idea is fresh in your mind. When you are done, do not say to yourself, "What a masterpiece best seller!" and then run out to get it published because there is yet a lot of work for you to do.

The next and one of the most important steps after writing the novel is evaluating the development of the main characters. The main characters are the heart and soul of the story. So when evaluating them consider the following.

IDENTIFY MAIN CHARACTERS
First of all make a list of all of your main characters. My advice here is to limit your main characters to no more than four. For many successful, memorable novels four main characters seem to be the magic number. For example in the "Wizard of Oz" the main characters are Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Lion, and the Scarecrow. In "Howl's Moving Castle" the main characters are Sophie, Howl, Michael, and Celcifer. In "Little Women" the main characters are Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth. In "Anne of Green Gables" they are Anne, Marilia, Matthew, and Diana. In "Harry Potter" there is one less character with Harry, Ron, and Ginny.

Be sure the name fits the character. The name you choose for your character is important. You would not give a tough boy character with a scruffy appearance the name of Erin. Nor would you give a gentle-natured character a tough name, such as Butch or Tegra. Mismatching names with characters' personalities and appearances can be confusing and turn off agents. A name should also be simple and easy to pronounce. Why? People in general have short attention spans. Things need to be made simple for them to remember and hold their attention.

When naming your characters, avoid using the types of names that can be used by both genders, such as Erin, Leslie, or Lee, unless the female character is tom-boyish and the male character is girlish. Otherwise, clearly defined gender specific names are best. They make it easy for readers to mentally visualize a male as a male and a female as a female.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
Make a character description for each main character. However, do not write the descriptions from your point of view. Although you are writing the story, you are not a character in the story. The description of each character should be based on the point of view of co-characters. How characters see each other is all apart of what makes the story. How they see each other influences their interaction in the story and the development of the story. From the point of view of each main character have them to describe each other. They can describe each other's appearance. However, the characters' descriptions should be focused on the impressions they make upon each other. Write what they think of each other's personalities, habits, what they like about co-characters, what annoys them most about co-characters, what they fear about co-characters, what they think is unusual about co-characters, what would they change about co-characters, etc.

Next allow each main character to describe themselves. This allows the characters to talk about themselves.

CHARACTER OCCUPATION
The occupations, special abilities, or hobbies of the main characters should support the story and its conflicts. It should give him or her the necessary skills to deal with the conflict in the story. If the characters do not have any occupational skills, special abilities, or hobbies, allow them to acquire them and develop them through the story as it progresses. Then when the time comes for the big and final conflict, whether internal or external, the main characters will be proficient enough in their occupation, special ability, or hobby to bring about a resolution to their problem.

CHARACTER ENHANCEMENT
Go back and read over what you have written about your main characters so far. Do you find them interesting? Ask some trusted friends and relatives to read over what you have written about your main character. Then ask them do they find them interesting. Ask for any suggestions for how to make them more interesting. At this time it is time to do character enhancement.

Character enhancement involves making the main characters more unique. This is done by giving the character:

A unique physical feature
An extreme personality trait
A quirky habit
A phobia
A ridiculous fear
Gross taste in food
Secret weird fetish
A uniquely identifiable way of dressing

The enhancements should support what has already been established as the main character's traits and make the characters larger than life and not average, or be sure the main characters are given qualities that your targeted audience can identify with.

Flawed characters are loved by readers. They are the characters that readers root for. When critiquing manuscripts for writers occasionally I come across main character who are absolutely perfect in every way. They have clear blue eyes, golden hair flawless milk white skin, always gives the right advice, is the perfect child, the perfect friend, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect boyfriend, the perfect spouse, the perfect parent- the perfect boring person.

I recently came across such a manuscript. The writer was rejected because the characters were flawless which made them unrealistic and hard to identify with. The writer was just trying to create a young adult story with characters portraying positive images. However, I explained to the writer that in real life people are flawed. Because of this flawed nature of ours are attracted to characters. A main character can be flawed and at the same time good. For instance the character can be an F student, a slob, live in a trailer park, be a video game junky, have red hair and zits, and at the same time have a big generous heart and is a bit naive. When he wins a $10,000,000.00 lottery he spends it all on anyone who comes to him with a sad story. In the end he is just as poor as he was at the start of the story.

So when evaluating your main characters, if she or he is to much of a saint or even an angel, give them weaknesses. Make them unattractive, and "dumb them down". Yet give them a quality and virtue that we as people desire others to have toward us, such as honesty, perseverance, or sincere love.

EXTREME CHARACTERS
If you have a main character with extreme behavior such as being hard, obsessive, or ruthless, pair him or her with a character with a balanced nature and point of view. This can provide variety to the story and bring a moral voice without giving the reader the feeling they are being preached to. Also give the balanced character a flaw.

SYMBOLIC ELEMENT
Does your main character have a symbol that defines him or her? The purpose of a symbolic element is to define the character and enhance him or hair, like Harry Potter's scar, Anne's red hair in "Anne of Green Gables", and Peter Pan's Tinkerbell. The character should only have one symbolic element. It can be anything, a piece of jewelry, a close pet, a physical flaw, buck teeth- anything. It can also be a personality trait or mannerism the character uses. The symbol should play a part in developing the character, the setting, and the plot.

CHARACTER SETTING
Another way to develop your character is to evaluate the story's setting. Make sure the setting fits the character, the conflict, and the suspense. Provide a place for all three to come to life. When working on the characters' setting ask yourself the following questions.

What does the setting say about the character's personality?
What is in the setting that means the most to the character? Does it have a sentimental meaning?
How can the setting be the stage for conflict and suspense?
How can you make the setting so real that the reader will believe it is an actual place?

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL CONFLICTS
External conflicts are the outer problems that stand bluntly in the character's way. A character's internal conflicts are emotional problems brought about by external conflicts. Internal conflicts act as roadblocks that keep him or her from reaching his or her goal. They prevent him or her from making the choice to act to resolve the external conflicts. As the story rolls on the main character must overcome the internal conflict so the external conflict can be resolved.

Early in the story the reader must be able to identify the internal and external conflict the character faces in order to be involved and care about the outcome. If you, the writer, have a vague understanding what the conflicts are the story will be filled with unfocused ideas and cause confusion to the reader. So keep in mind that the internal and external conflicts drive the plot and must belong to the main character. If the characters are not affected significantly by them, they would not be conflicts and would have any place in the story.

After evaluating your main characters you are now better able to determine their relationship to the story. You are also able to strengthen any weaknesses you may have found. Developing the main characters is key to developing a good story. Without them there would not be any story.