Characters are the most important part of a story. I don’t care how good the plot is, if I don’t like your characters, I am out. Writing characters can sometimes be very easy, and other times difficult. It depends on the characters. Some characters stick their hands out of your computer screen, shake your hand, introduce themselves, and then start running your story, often taking it places you didn’t intend it to go. Other characters are more illusive, and you as the author have to create them bit by bit and discover them as you write. Those characters are not always as fun to write, because it doesn’t feel as authentic.

There is also the difficulty of how to make all of your characters different while still maintaining a connection with them. There are easy things you can do to diversify your characters, but there are also challenges that come along with it. Sometimes we avoid diversity because we are to afraid to face these challenges. (I, myself, will admit to doing this.) You also don’t want to make your characters so different that you can no longer relate to them. There is a delicate balance between making your characters different than you, and not ignoring traits that you share.

Writing from Experience

When I first wrote Aurella the Witch, I didn’t connect with Aurella as a character. I loved Mavic and the whole rebel gang, but for some reason, I didn’t love Aurella. I’ve since discovered why, and oddly enough, it also relates to how I made her more likable.

Wait, how could the reason I dislike her be linked to reasons I like her? 

Well, it has to do with subconsciously putting pieces of myself into her as a character. In short, I didn’t like her because of the ways she was me, and I liked her because of the ways she was me. I’d given Aurella weaknesses that I also struggle with, which caused me to often be very frustrated with her.  I wanted her to be better than me. Throughout the entire series, Aurella struggles with insecurity and cowardliness. She never thinks she is good enough. I got so annoyed with her, as I wrote, because she is clearly a really awesome person who does amazing things for other people and she should have had more confidence in herself. But, I know from experience, that insecurity does not go away when you accomplish things. In fact, sometimes it gets worse! For example, I have now written one-and-a-half novels. I should feel more accomplished than I did before I wrote any books. Wrong! I’m constantly pointing out to people that my books are only self-published which means they weren’t good enough for an actual publisher to want them. Sometimes that makes me feel like a failure. Back to my point, Aurella always made me uncomfortable because she was a reflection of my flaws.

Yet, when I went back and tried to make her more likable, I added in fun quirks that I found endearing. Why did I find them endearing? Oh… because I related to them. She hums as she walks, she has a strange imagination, she loves books. I didn’t intend to make her even more like myself, but as I did, I related to her even more. She became a friend I’d like to get to know better.

The first reaction one of my friends had when he read Aurella the Witch was to comment on how Aurella was me. I had never seen her that way. She’s way cooler than I am! She’s selfless and smart and fights bad guys. She’s powerful! Yet, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had subconsciously wrote her to be a sort of alter ego. She kinda is me… She talks like me and thinks like me. I’m pretty positive that she’s a Ravenclaw like me. When I first realized these things, I felt very uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to make her me! I’m lame and stupid! If I were a book character, who would want to read about me? Isn’t the whole point of being an author to hide behind the characters and let them take the spotlight?

The answer is no. I’ve recently realized that it not only is unavoidable to give characters some of your own characteristics, but it is also advisable to do so. The reason I resisted the idea of making characters like myself was because I was embarrassed. It made me worried that people would think I’m egotistical. See how I made this character like me? That’s because I think I’m so cool and I think that others should be like me too! I know now that this is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with characters being like me. In fact, this makes the story more personal, witch makes for more powerful writing, because it is coming from a true and honest place within your heart.

Since having this realization, I’ve embraced the fact that every main character I write, though they are all different, will be a little piece of me. Aurella is my insecure, stronger-than-she-looks, daydreamer side with a bit of a Napoleon complex. Mary (a character from a future book that you don’t know yet) is my naive, embarrassing, unintentionally funny side. David (another future book character) is my half-Mexican, book nerd, somewhat chill side. I still feel insecure exposing my own personality and experiences through my characters, but I know that it makes for better, more enjoyable writing.

Including Diversity

While it is important to put ourselves into our writing, it is also important to make all kinds of characters, even if it is exploring aspects of a character that you cannot relate to. There are different types of diversity. One kind of diversity that I made a point to include in my trilogy was diversity in abilities. I have a blind character, a character with no arms, a character with one leg, a boy character who does the “girl” magic, and a character that has too much magic. I wanted to include differences in ability to show that anyone can accomplish great things, and disabilities cannot hinder a person who has strong conviction.

Disclaimer: This is where I start pointing out my mistakes…

So I have diversity in abilities. You know what I don’t have? Ethnic diversity. Now, to be fair, I wasn’t quite sure how to do this, because my books take place on a fantasy world, which means they do not have the same nationalities, ethnicities, and races as we do. But that doesn’t mean I needed to make them all the same. For most of my characters, I avoided explaining their skin color, because I like the idea of leaving it up to the audience to decide. Yet, there is one small problem with that. The only time I mention skin color is to describe my characters that have darker skin. Now, I don’t think it’s wrong to describe a person’s skin color, but it is wrong when you only point out the color of their skin when it’s different than yours. Yeah, I went there, because this is a trap so many white authors fall into. By only pointing out a character’s skin color when it’s not white, is assuming that all of the other characters are white. And if it’s assumed that they are all white, that means that is “normal” and expected. This is soooo wrong!

We need characters from  different background and with skin colors. Why? Everyone wants to see themselves represented! White people grow up seeing themselves represented, so they often do not realize that not everyone experiences that, and how lonely that can feel when no one looks like you. I’m going to open up about something really stupid that I struggled with growing up. I don’t look like everyone in my family. I’ve grown up being the “white one” in a family of beautiful brown sisters. When we take pictures together, I practically glow. We used to joke that I came from a different planet or that I was switched at birth. Every time we went to the beach, I would foolishly hope that one day I would tan as dark as everyone else. By now, it’s actually really funny, but I’m not going to lie, as a kid I felt out-of-place and uncomfortable. I always wished I was brown like my sisters, and the fact that we joked about my fair skin made me think that it was wrong. Not to mention the fact that being brown would give me a connection to my extended family. I always wanted to look like my family so I would look like I belonged. Now, if I, a white person, can feel this out-of-place feeling within my own family, how must if feel for people of color to realize that the main characters in movies, TV shows, and books hardly ever look like them? My African-American nephew gets so excited when he sees a brown character, because it is so rare. It should not be rare. Everyone deserves to see themselves represented.

Another trap that is easy to fall into is the fear of including diversity. I have this fear because I’m afraid of doing it wrong. I want to be realistic, but I fear stereotyping. Writing about people that are different than you is difficult, because you have to tap into things that you are not familiar with. This requires research and hard work. You know what else it requires? Knowing diverse people! If you only hang around people like you, you grow up thinking that your way is “normal” and everyone else is weird or wrong. Expand your horizons! Learn about different cultures! If you’re not sure if you’ve represented a character correctly, ask someone! It takes some hard work to diversify writing, but it is worth it. I have not done very good job of this in the past, but I am willing to put forth the effort in the future.

Conclusion

Don’t be afraid to put yourself into your writing.

Don’t be afraid to put people different than you into your writing.