Writing 101: Making Your Characters Sympathetic

As a writer, one thing you need to remember when creating your characters is this: Even the most villainous must have clear motivation.

In other words, all of your characters must behave in a way your readers will believe. Because, after all, the best villains believe they are heroes--they are doing what needs to be done for whatever reason. So, not just for your hero and heroine, you should also know your villain--his background, education, ambitions, emotional events, wounds (real or imagined), fears, obsessions, etc.

You can use physical appearance, dialogue and reactions to events as tools to create characters that readers identify with--even your villain. Physical appearance should be consistent with personality--strength of will, stubbornness and vacillation are often visible in a face. Passion and appetite can show in a mouth, as does indecision or insensitivity. Movement, expression, pitch of voice can say a lot about a person. Body language can reveal a great deal, too--hands, fingers--at rest or moving.

It's a good idea to provide some description of your characters--readers will build a picture in their mind and if it doesn't coincide with something that occurs later in the book they'll be upset. It's far more effective to "show" your characters rather than describe them (or "tell"). Dialogue is one of the best ways of doing this. The feelings that characters express and the words they choose are very strong indicators of personality, and much sharper to the reader than descriptions of vices, virtues, wit, gentleness, etc.

Try to key your descriptions to one or two features--an emotional sketch, an impression rather than a photographic portrait from which characters could be identified. Shape and coloring can be less important than expression. There are also less obvious features--eyebrows, hairline, curve of cheek or throat, ears and teeth. A description--blue eyes, brown hair, straight nose, wide mouth--says less about the person than something more personal like humorous eyes, uncertain mouth, quick to laugh but curiously sulky in repose. And above all, avoid cliches such as "twinkling eyes" or "generous mouth." (I find my heroes all have glittering eyes, especially when they're aroused. Trying to show that arousal in a different way is a challenge.)

Just remember: For the plot of your story to be powerful, the reader has to believe that all of the character would really behave as they do.