Character Depth and Empathy!

In the previous post we covered, what makes your characters more believable, what stereotypes to avoid and an online test that allows you to avoid them!

This time we’re looking at:

* Adding more depth to your character and,

* How to get readers to empathise with them.

First things first, the initial idea of adding depth to your characters is quite simple.

Write a back story.

This is where you write a short, or long, story of your character before the your novel started, if their a teenager or young adult you might want to write about their childhood, if their in the mid thirties or forties you might choose to write about a time when they were in their teens.

The idea about a back story is to create a bit more depth with your character, there’s no point writing a back story if absolutely nothing bad or good has happened to your character because that doesn’t affect who they are now in the current state of your novel.

 So use it to probe around:

* Why is your character afraid of the dark?

   -  Was it because when s/he was younger they saw something terrible happen in the middle of the night and have never been able to tell anyone about it?

* Why are they so mistrustful?

   -  Did their family have a messy separation where both the parents fought bitterly over custody?

* Why are they so aloof?

    - Did they spend a childhood in a distant boarding school where they hardly ever saw their friends or family?

Obviously it doesn’t always have to be as melodramatic as that, you can quite easily includenon-dramatic events:

* Why does your character has a phobia of flying?

   - Once when they were in a simulator plane they threw up.

You can also have positive evens affecting them negatively.

* Why is s/he so selfish?

   - Maybe they won the lottery and forgot about what’s important and focused on moneymoneymoney.

* Why do they struggle to make friends?

  - Are their parents famous or fabulously wealthy?

And of course you can have negative things affecting them positively and positive things affecting them positively, it’s your playground to do with what you will!

The point is looking at a trait your character has and deciphering why. 

By adding a back story they’re no longer a 2D character. Essentially you’ve given them a life, past experiences, memories, lessons, and as we all know, everything we experience in the past affects how we act in the future.

It doesn’t have to be a long passage, you might choose to write a few pages on one time when they were sixteen, its completely up to you. So long as something happens or there’s some connection between what happened in their past to how they are presently in the novel then you’ve managed to create a whole other side to your character…then you’ve created some depth!

This links in nicely to how you can get your audience to empathise with your character/s. Having a back story is a brilliant way to make your readers empathise with just about anyone in your novel, good or bad.

Naturally, we’re normally on the side of the ‘goodies’ , we want them to save the world from chaos and destruction against which ever evil-schmeval baddie is causing problems. However, I always find myself wanting to know more about the villain and what turned them bad. In most cases you don’t find out, you just have the good, the bad, and the ugly battle in between, but this is where having a back story comes in to play.

You might get to a part in your novel where the main Hero/Heroine knows how they’re going to defeat Mr Evil Whoever, and you’re glad for it, but if it then comes to light that actually, Mr Evil Whoever is only evil because his baby sister was kidnapped one Christmas, his parents blamed him even though he was only seven and he’s never been able to forgive himself, no, you don’t want him to be forgiven necessarily (or you might), but you suddenly understand. The back story doesn’t have to affect the plot, so your Hero/Heroine might still decide to go out and end him/her and their dastardly deeds but you’ve created something for your readers to connect with, you’ve made them empathise with your baddie which automatically creates yet more depth within your story.

So rounding it all up:

* Back stories are the best way to create more depth in your characters, we don’t just have random phobias or behaviours, everything is a product of something that’s happened before.

* Back stories are also great ways of adding in twists, we want the whole “good will out” thing, it’s human nature, so shake it up a bit and make us empathise with the villain, make us realise that actually, there might have been something there worth caring for after all.

* Don't worry about having a back story that's too long or too short, too complicated or too simple! It's only really there to give you a better idea of what your character is like and why they're like that. 

* If you get really stuck try picking out two or three of the more prominent traits in your character and writing past scenarios for them either individually or together in one main past event.

Who knows, it might even give you some more ideas to write about!