Writer’s Blog
How To Write Realistic Characters
How to write people that act like people.
It’s safe to say that when it comes to writing characters we want a couple of basic things.
We want our characters to be relatable, interesting, driven, romanced, usually good and usually heroic.
These are a lot of unrealistic traits to fit into one human being.
While a lot of people are nice, I wouldn’t call them good and I’ve seen very few people who would perform heroic actions without a second thought for their own safety. So it’s safe to say that we have unrealistic expectations for our characters, we aren’t off to a great start when it comes to making them seem human… or at least realistic depending on what genre you write in.
While you won’t be able to write a fully human human, there are some things you can do to help your characters feel more realistic and more interesting.
Give them lines they won’t cross.
I’m getting real tired of seeing characters cross moral lines with no repercussions. They break with their morality only to find it again when it comes to battle with the antagonist.
