Creating memorable book characters is one of the most important aspects of creating a book, and it’s no easy task. There’s a lot that goes into it. You have to create each character’s personality, backstory, flaws, strengths, likes and dislikes, etc. If you plan on having a whole cast of characters, you have to go through that process with each character. The goal of creating each of your characters, no matter how small of a part they play, is for them to be memorable in some way. Below, we discuss a few tips you can utilize to craft memorable book characters that will steal the hearts of your readers.
1. What’s Their (Background) Story?
A good and detailed background story is what makes a character believable and allows your reader to feel more connected to them. It gives the reader a look into who the characters are, where they came from, and why they are the way they are. Don’t be afraid to dive deep into the character and indulge in life-changing events, secrets, family history, etc. These are the kinds of details that readers want to know and ones that help shape a story.
2. What Do They Look Like?
Describing a character’s appearance will give the reader a visual of the character and allow them to picture the character in their mind. You should focus on key traits, like eye color, hair color, height, etc. To create a memorable character, you could give them a physical attribute that makes them stand out. For instance, you could give your character a scar, long shaggy hair, a beauty mark, glasses, or colored hair. Physical traits can give the character a look into their personality as well. If a character has bright pink hair, you can probably guess that the character is outgoing, colorful, and spunky.
You can also come up with little attributes that go beyond just their appearance. Does their bright smile light up a room, or does the scowl on the character’s face scare other characters away? These kinds of descriptions are important to add to your book to bring your character to life.
3. Find Their Voice
Every character should have a distinct personality and voice. This will separate them from the other characters in your story. Their dialogue will allow readers to know their motivations, personality, and background. They should have their own speech pattern, dialect, reactions to certain situations, body language trends, sense of humor, catchphrases, and word choices.
4. What Are Their Flaws, Quirks, And Strengths?
No one is perfect, not even in book form. Everyone has their own strengths, weaknesses, flaws, and quirks. It’s what makes the person or character who they are. When creating characters, provide a mix of different traits to make it more realistic. It will also give the reader a chance to empathize or relate to a certain character that they potentially have common traits with.
5. Come Up With Memorable Introductions
First impressions are everything. Through their first impression, readers will quickly decide if they will like this character or not. Introductions should be memorable and should display the character’s personality traits, body language, physical traits, etc.
6. Dive Into Their Connections And Relationships
Relationships and connections are incredibly important and should be explored. Diving into a character’s past and present relationships will give the reader an idea of who the character is, and their values based on these interactions. It will also give the reader an idea of how much the character has grown. For instance, they may have acted shy, standoffish, or detached from some of these relationships at the beginning. However, they are now more open and have created unbreakable bonds with them moving forward. It will show how far they have come.
7. Build A Strong Character Arc
One way that you can make the reader feel more connected to a character is to create a strong and compelling character arc. This will show how much a character grows throughout the story. Like life, a character should evolve throughout the story to make it more believable and relatable.
8. Create Their Goals, Motivation, And Driving Factor
For your audience to relate to your characters, they should have a goal or something that motivates them. It should display what drives the character, regardless of if it’s positive or negative. This could be a personal goal that will better them in life, or it could be a goal set in revenge to take someone down. This will give readers an insight into the behavior patterns of the character and help connect the reader.
In Conclusion
It’s not easy crafting every character in your story. When you first get started, it can be intimidating to start completely from scratch and create a whole new world, life, and journey for your characters. However, utilizing these tips by mapping out ahead of time everything you need to create memorable book characters can help make the process less stressful for you.
Once you’ve got your characters created and your book put together, the last thing you need to complete your book is an eye-catching book cover. With the help of Book Brush, you’ll be able to make your own within a few simple steps. There are countless book cover templates you can use to help get you started. Creating a book cover doesn’t have to be a headache. With Book Brush, it can actually be quite fun! Between your unforgettable characters and your stunning book cover, readers won’t have a choice but to fall in love with your book.
