The Psychology of Characters


The writer’s relationship with their characters is a fundamental component of a successful story. The strength of those characters says a lot about the story and how they interact with other characters, but more importantly, it’s essential to focus on the motivations behind what they do, and why.
The psychology of characters isn’t about doing a character outline. A character outline is, in a nutshell, characterisation – the little things that make your character multidimensional, such as the colour of their hair, their eyes, skin, how tall they are, their fashion sense, their nationality, their beliefs, likes and dislikes, flaws and so on. Character traits make a character. It doesn’t tell us why they act the way they do.
The psychology of characters, therefore, goes much deeper than mere likes and dislikes etc. It’s about what truly drives the character and, consequently, the story. It’s all well and good having a character that has lots of recognisable character traits and so on, but it means nothing if the he or she lacks the essentials that drive that character to act in the first place.
There are certain elements that provide the building blocks to a character’s physiological make up, and from a simple story perspective, these are set out below:
Motivation – Every main character must have motivation. In other words, it means that there is ultimately a specific goal to achieve. Motivation is what drives the character.
When pushed, people are capable of many things; things that are sometimes ‘out of character’. We are motivated by many things - many influences, experiences or situations, and we act upon them.
Primary Goal – This is the very reason the story is created, to find out why the character sets about on his or her journey. The main character will have a primary goal, which he or she will need to achieve by the end of the story. That goal could be anything, but it must be reached, whatever happens, so the incentive is strong and palpable.
If there is no primary goal, there is no story. There may also be other goals – these would be considered secondary goals, and again, it’s important such goals are reached by the conclusion of the story, because if they are satisfactorily closed out, what would be the point of the story?
Through the course of trying to reach that goal, the character will undergo series of actions and reactions, mostly because of a combination of obstacles to overcome – deliberately placed in the way of the main character to stop him or her achieving the main goal - and the resulting conflict that it creates.
Actions and Reactions – the character’s actions as the story unfolds are an important indicator of his or her psychology. As mentioned above, actions and reactions normally happen through conflicts. In other words, the motivation, the need to reach that goal, the obstacles in the way that must be overcome all lead your main character to act and react, depending on the situation and the people.
If someone steals something from you, then it’s very likely you are going to react in a certain way, or if someone threatens or attacks you, then you will act or react in a certain way. How we act and react is down to our individual personalities. This is not dissimilar from cause and effect.
Another factor to consider is the past. What has happened in the past often drives us in the present. It serves as a foundation to behaviour traits, hence certain actions and reactions from characters.
So motivation, the primary goal and the actions taken by a character during the story play an integral role in understanding and developing the psychology of your main characters.
Personalities are one thing, but the psychology of any character always goes much deeper than that.

Next week: The primary causes of character conflict

Comments

  1. Unknown5 June 2015 at 06:55

    Keep the balls rolling!! Nice posts you have given for us.Robi Ludwig

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Just how long should a chapter be? What’s the best length? And does a novel have to fit into a set amount of words? These are just two of the most common questions asked by writers.   They assume they have to work to a strict template of X amount of words and X amount of chapters, usually because most novels have around 30 or 40 chapters and around 80,000 words.   Novel Lengths Firstly, let’s dispel a few myths - novel lengths are dictated by the story itself, not the writer or the editor or a specific written formula.   Secondly, writers don’t have to fit their word count into generic set amounts.   Again, the story will dictate how long the novel will be. It’s also worth knowing the different types of novels that work well with different word counts.   Uncomplicated stories containing minimal characters tend to be short – usually around 20,000 to 60,000 words.   These are called novellas. Longer, more complex stories, which contain a handful o...
Read more

What Makes a Story Dark?

If you’re a horror writer or you love to write dark, psychological stories and thrillers, or moralistic tales, this is the one question that needs an answer. Wanting a dark story and writing one are two different things, so how do you actually make a story dark? To answer that you first have to understand what is meant by ‘dark’. We usually define ‘dark’ as quantifiable elements that we know and are familiar with, but it’s more than that. Dark doesn’t necessarily mean scary or gory with a crazy psychopath going around chopping people into bits. Instead we have to think of ‘dark ‘as anything outside our accepted rose-tinted reality. Dark is the underbelly of our society; it’s the handling of ideas, themes, social issues and behaviours that would be seen as morally unacceptable. It’s less about fictional monsters but more about the real monsters that lurk in the shadows, something that is underscored by our fears and anxieties. It’s the unknown, because the things we don’t know ...
Read more

Modifiers, Intensifiers and Qualifiers - Part 2

Unlike modifiers, which modify words or phrases, an Intensifier is a term for a modifier that amplifies the meaning of the word it modifies. An intensifier is used exclusively to modify adverbs and adjectives and is placed  before the word it is meant to modify.  In simple terms, the intensifier emphasises adverbs and adjectives - it makes them more intense . The word is derived from Latin, meaning to “intend or stretch”. In grammatical terms, the intensifier lends no weight to the meaning of a sentence other than to give it an additional emotional nuance to the word it is modifying, however, since they modify adverbs and adjectives, they should be treated in the same way adverbs adjectives – used little and sparingly wherever possible within your writing. This is where learning to spot them will benefit your quality of writing. Intensifiers are attributive and serve only to fill space, so unless there is a valid reason to intensify the meaning and emotion ...
Read more