Creating relatable characters is one of the most vital parts of writing your story. If readers aren’t able to relate to your characters, then the story will be boring for them and then they won’t want to read it.
So here are a few tips on how you can make your characters as realistic and relatable as possible:
1. Don’t make them Aliens
This is especially true for fantasy and sci-fi stories: do not make your main character an alien. Not that they can’t be different at all from humans, but if they are too different, then it won’t make sense and they won’t be relatable. For example, if my main character was a creature called a lirimuriput, and it lived in a dwelling called a rocarescen, and lived in a world where no one could speak and no one could understand each other and everyone was independent, then no one would be able to understand what that sort of life would mean, and the character would be completely unrelatable.
2. It’s okay for them to Make Mistakes
Humans make mistakes. It’s just part of our nature. So if you want your character to be realistic and relatable, then you need to make sure they follow human nature and make mistakes as well. If they don’t mistake, and they’re perfect, then they aren’t very relatable. Now, you could make a secondary character a perfect being, and that would be okay, as long as that character isn’t influencing the plot too much. But definitely do NOT make your main character perfect, because that will ruin the whole story and really make things unrealistic.
3. Add Personality Traits Similar to You or People You know
Another way to make your characters believable is to copy the personalities of real live people. Study someone you know (even yourself!) and see how they respond to certain things. Ask yourself how this person might respond to other situations, perhaps ones that happen in your story.
You don’t have to copy one person’s personality exactly. You can also mix and match. If you do that, though, make sure you don’t use personalities that conflict with each other. For example, you wouldn’t want to make a character with a personality shy and social. If a person is social, and they like being around people, then why would they also be shy? It just doesn’t make sense.
Well, those are my tips on how to create relatable characters. If you have any ideas to share, be sure to leave a comment below!
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