10 Best Tips for Writing REALISTIC Characters in your Book

This video is sponsored by ProWritingAid.

Today we’re talking about characters! I love crafting characters; you’re building human beings or human adjacents from your own imagination! The problem is, character creation is really tough for a lot of writers. If this is you, never fear! I’m here to change that. I’m breaking down my 10 best tips for writing realistic characters, including how observation can help you improve your writing skills, how to write a multidimensional character, how to make a character profile, and more! If you want to know how to write realistic characters, how to make your characters relatable, or how to develop your characters in general, this video has your name on it. Be sure to stick around, too, ’cause I may or may not have saved the most painful tip for last. Don’t ya just love me? 😁

–Straight from my cold, dark heart,

Your Cyborg Queen
#JennaMoreci #CyborgQueen #CyborgArmy

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[NyssasOrbit]

To add to this: Real people can make mistakes. Real people can be tricked into doing bad things without realizing they are bad. Real people can be mislead to doing bad things that they think are good things, then realize later that what they did was wrong and try to atone for it. Not all villainous characters have to be so EVIL that they kick puppies in their free time. Not all heroic characters have to be wholly virtuous with their only flaw being that they think about the horizontal mambo sometimes. Your villains can have friends or family or people they love, and your heroes can have some bad habits outside of horniness (or having repulsion to it otherwise, especially when it comes to other characters of the same gender). I could make this rant longer but I won't.

[badcatzgamedevelopmentcomp]

"AND BEHOLD, you've written a pile of SHIT", that's how I felt after my first draft.

[musicaltsunami]

A really useful tip I got from my English teacher about writing good characters is the use of paradoxes. For example, having a character be a devout Christian, but does things that go against God's teachings.

[dontmindme.imjustafraidofe]

I’m trying to create this character for this book I’m writing, and I’m having trouble making her realistic. Thank you so much for making this!

[aurthurpendragon]

When it comes to character profiles, I'm actually a huge fan of the interviewing your character. I forget the first person who came up with this idea. I first heard it from Brandon Sanderson, but he got the idea from somewhere else.

[alexinator-hhfe]

I usually just put little snippets of things I do in some of my characters. Not enough that it's like a self-insert. But maybe one character has dry humor, or another sometimes can't be bothered to do things. If it's something I don't experience personally, I do a lot of research to make the character feel both real and respectful.

[pLanetstarBerry]

Tip one hits home, considering how much I like writing himbos and I've been blessed with having a few in my life. Like the friend who stuffed his jacket pockets with jerky before going to jury duty and was more than willing to share when I realized I forgot to eat breakfast.
Also, with tip seven I like to do this with my dnd character's backstories. I just enjoy making up the details and have no immediate need to share them, so they never usually come up unless it ties with the plot. My party will probably never find out why my bard hates the lute so much because it's something they don't know about him yet.

[VorpalSpider]

I think creating characters for stories is my favorite part of the writing process, and it’s definitely easier for me to write them than to write a plot🤣 (then again, I don’t actually _write_ them; I just make up scenarios in my head and put them in those scenarios bc I’m too busy making excuses to not write)

[ludovico]

I write crime fiction and what I find challenging is creating characters that are realistic, plausible and yet larger than life.

[Xanman-pq]

One thing I try to remember is that the profile, personality, etc. of any character probably won't survive the first draft. Let your creativity of the moment grow them as you write then update the profiles before the first self edit. As long as you trim off anything that goes awry, this tends to make much better characters.

[DragonsDummies]

I do internal armchair therapy with my characters, taking important story beats and asking, "Why would you do that?" and, "How did that make you feel at the time?" then finally, "Do you regret that moment and how do you cope with that regret/ what will you do in future moments like this?"

[confusion]

0:00 intro
1:20 sponsor
3:25 tip 1: observe
4:42 tip 2: layers
5:52 tip 3: character profiles
6:26 tip 4: diversity
7:38 tip 5: characters can share traits
8:38 tip 6: uniqueness
9:26 tip 7: info-dumping = bad
10:28 tip 8: self inserts
11:41 tip 9: small traits matter
12:40 tip 10: get people to read ur book
14:00 outro

[AlexLaLobos]

Funny, this video dropped just when I'm doing some character work.

Honestly I do feel more confident that I'm on the right track now, thanks Jenna!

[SleepyHollowKnight]

Am I the only one that likes to imagine my character in random scenarios that don’t happen in the book, but just to experiment on how they’d react?

[GorillaReviews]

Alright - Jenna is the MOST HELPFUL content creator when it comes to writing tips. SO MANY creators give you a bunch of information that doesn't really tell you anything. I've watched 3 of her videos and I've found A TON of ways I can improve my writing. If there was a guardian angel in the writing community, Jenna is she.

[mariodelvalle]

You never desapointed me Jenna..thank you for making me laugh and cry at the same time while I'm learning.

[FYFAYAS]

*Insert joke about her being a cyborg and her reading my mind about what kind of video I needed.* But seriously you seem to always upload videos of something I struggle with

[zephyr]

Jenna, I've just finished my first draft and I'm now working on fixing my dialogue. Recently I've noticed that all of my characters sound exactly the same. They all sound like me!
What tips do you have for giving them a unique and recognizable character voice? How do I make the female characters not sound like males?
Thanks!

[corenlavolpe]

I think self inserts can work if the author is a humble and self aware writer. The MC in my main project started out as a bland self insert (bc I was in middle school), but after a lot of introspection and tweaking the intensity of various traits to hone the characterization, think I've made someone who can be rather compelling. I avoided wish fulfillment like the plague. In fact, most of the stuff that happens to her and a lot of the other characters is pretty brutal, and no I'm not a masochist. At this point she's her own character now, just some superficial traits stayed the same, like how she has long hair or really like sweets.

[llindberg]

One theme I like exploring with my characters is: The lies we tell ourselves. So I look at where they came from, their childhood, experiences, self-view and such things, and then ask myself which lies they believe about themselves, and how it drives their internal narrative, choices and actions.