4 Tips for Writing a Great Character-Driven Novel

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again: no matter how amazing your plot, how intricate your mystery, how mind-blowing your world-building: without characters that the reader cares about, you don’t have a book people are going to read.

Why? Because characters are how we relate to the book. They are how we explore new worlds. Why we care who killed Great-Aunt Sophia. Our stake in the uprising against the Empire.

So how do we get readers to care about our characters and their journey? Try out some of these tips when you’re writing.

1. Make sure your character’s choices directly affect the plot

This isn’t just a case of “is my character going to do X or Y?” This is why so many times you hear the recommendation: “Get to know your character first.” Because this tip is about not only your character’s goals (it’s about that too), it’s about your character’s past. Their values and their baggage. Their biggest aims and their biggest traumas. 

In Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Anne Elliot is persuaded not to marry Captain Wentworth. When he comes back eight years later, all of his actions stem from being hurt by Anne’s earlier rejection. We don’t necessarily know it as readers, but he’s holding onto a lot of baggage he has to sort out to get to the happy ending we all want.

2. Make sure the plot directly affects your character

Just because your characters start out with certain wants, needs, and goals doesn’t mean they’ll stay the same throughout the entire book. More often than not, the point of the book is that our characters learn and grow and something in their perspective will change by the end. Every scene along the way in the book should be helping lead to that change.

In Persuasion I would argue that Anne has what is often called a “steady character arc.” She doesn’t change her basic nature: a quiet, kind person who puts the needs of others first.

What does change? Captain Wentworth sees her make choices putting other people ahead of her own happiness, or caring for others when it would be easier not to, and comes to realize that this is her core nature. This is what he loves about her. He needs to accept that’s what happened eight years ago and hope she’ll chose him this time.

3. It’s never plot vs character

It’s easy to say “don’t make your characters cardboard.” But how does it work?

Always ask yourself: “when this happens in my book, how will my characters react?” Or, if you’ve planned for them to react in a certain way, ask yourself honestly: “Would my characters really act that way?” Once you start writing, your characters take on a life of their own. Just because you’ve planned for something to happen doesn’t mean it is necessarily what your characters think need to happen.

How many times have you read a book and found yourself thinking “That’s not what she would do!” When that happens, you’re thrown out of the book, and more often than not, you don’t get back into it.

Once you lose the trust of the reader, once the reader is out of the story’s flow, getting that trust and flow back is tough to impossible. Think carefully when you write every action and reaction. Just because you plotted it a certain way doesn’t make it the right way in the end.

4. Show and Tell

It’s our familiar mantra “show and tell” again. A classic for a reason. One of the best ways for readers to become lost in a great character is to feel what that character is feeling. Let your reader see the world through your character’s senses. Not just vision but taste, touch, smell. What is your character physically feeling when something happens? Mix showing with telling where it’s most appropriate to keep up the pace and your reader’s interest and they won’t put the book down.

Having trouble making your characters as three-dimensional as you want them? Are you finding the plot and the characters are meshing the way you want them to? 

As a writing coach and developmental editor I can help you develop your characters from your imagination to your page. Contact me today!