Character is King.

Ross Tuohy
Sep 3, 2018 · 4 min read

I finished Pet Semtetary this past weekend (what an ending!) I loved the book and Michael C Hall of Dexter fame reading it on audiobook made everything that more poignant and horrific in equal measure. I won’t spoil the book here but I will say if you haven’t read it then do, even after just one read I consider it to be one of King’s most affecting works. I had an epiphany while the end of the book came closer and closer, fantastic prose can often stick in the mind and it is undoubtedly an integral part of the writing process the things that drill their way into reader’s heads are characters. While King’s plots can sometimes get away from him the one thing I think he does better than anyone else is create characters. The reason I go back to Duma Key time and time again is because I identify with Edgar Freemantle, Wireman and Elizabeth Eastlake. Everyone knows the name Jack Torrance and King fans hold a fearful respect for The Man In Black and know just who followed him into the desert.

King’s characters are inescapably human, even his antagonists, we as readers can empathise with their struggles and cheer for their triumphs, it’s what makes his stories scarier, after all we’ve all been watching a horror movie where a character we love is chased by the monster and we scream ‘NO! Don’t go up the stairs!’.

Bringing characters to life is one of the hardest things for writers in my opinion, transforming something from simple words on paper to a living, breathing being is as close to alchemy as we can get. I think very few people have found the philosopher’s stone when it comes to characters, having said that, here’s what I think you need to make a great character.

It’s easy to come up with a basic outline for a character in fact I’ll pull one out of my head right now. How about a watchmaker so obsessed with creating the perfect timepiece that he neglects his new wife and young daughter? I just gave you three for the price of one, how’s that for value for money? Can I tell you where this man lives? Most likely. How old he is? Definitely. If you asked me to tell you what his favourite sandwich is or how he likes his steak, I wouldn’t have a clue and that’s because I haven’t spent enough time with him. I could give him these traits of course but I think we all know they’d be placeholders until such a time as a finally finds his voice and tells me he’s a vegan or he likes it blue and then I have to go back and edit every reference I made to well done steak. You can give your characters basic signifiers to start with but to really get to know them you need to spend time with them. Write a small scene in character in a random scenario that’ll take them through the gamut of emotions. Dig into your setting because your world will certainly reveal the lives of those who live in it, maybe have them talk to a character from an older story. The possibilities are endless however, once all this is said and done put that character on the backburner for a week, two at the most and see if they start talking. If you find yourself unable to sleep because you can’t wait to write their next piece of dialogue, or you want to see just how they’ll escape that tricky situation in chapter five and you’ve drifted off in a meeting thinking about it then you might just have a keeper.

Think about how they dress or what they carry with them at all times. What do they have and why do they have it? Does the watchmaker wear his grandfather’s broken wristwatch because his grandfather introduced him to the world of watchmaking but he can’t bring himself to repair it because he still feels he lacks his grandfather’s natural grace and talent for the work. Are you writing fantasy or sci-fi? What weapons do your character carry? How do they feel about their friends and enemies? What do they love most in the world and what would losing it mean?

You can dig into your characters in a myriad of ways just make sure you give them enough time to percolate inside your writer’s mind because when you do you might just find that they start telling you how THEIR story should go.

Ross Tuohy

Written by

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade