What I’m about to suggest is one approach among many. Adopt it if you will, or take what I say here to challenge or affirm your current approach to building round characters. Keep in mind that not all characters need be round. Many side characters are flat, and in some ways, that contrast helps provide the illusion of life where it counts.
A Question of Character
The test of a round character is whether is it capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises, it is flat. If is does not convince, it is a flat pretending to be round. It has the incalculability of life about it—life within the pages of a book.
E.M. Forster
For the moment, we must read Jung with some suspension of disbelief, for while we might not employ his methods in counseling, he has something to say on the nature of building a round character. We present a sense of self to the world that he called the persona. We could describe that persona in a character sheet and feel the temptation complicate the sheet, obtaining roundness with the accretion of details. Instead I ask that we take a step back and consider what Jung called the shadow. These are aspects of the self we hide not just from the world but from ourselves, and those aspects we complain about most in others are those also found within our shadow.
When I quit a novel or a television series, it’s often because I’m bored or irritated by a central character. People need variety in how they interact with each other, and one way to achieve that variety is through instances of the shadow breaking through. Important characters also need personas that aren’t repellent to the reader. Instances of repulsive attitudes are absolutely acceptable, but this will usually be the exception, a glimpse of the shadow. A repulsive persona is generally someone the reader wants to escape, and the easiest way to do that is by putting down the book.
When we talk about “likeable” characters, I suspect we often don’t know what we mean. The word “likeable” is a simple cover for a series of complex systems, but in part, it speaks to a persona we want to spend time with and a character who actively, purposefully, and meaningfully moves the plot through motivated and genuine action. We don’t have to craft infallible characters to connect with our readers.
There’s a sense in which our characters aren’t created for our readers, for our heroine has no desire to impress our readers. She doesn’t know they exist. No, the questions we need to ask are who is she trying to impress; how is she trying to impress them; and why does she bother?
Impress. Honor. Prove wrong. In this context, it’s all the same.
She need not be conscious of this need, but it will be instrumental in how she builds her persona. Is she living her life to impress a living or long-dead parent or some parental stand-in? Even if she’s seeking to impress a hated rival, in most cases, it will be because that particular person or entity has unconsciously taken over the parental role.
This need to impress will drive her behavior and the persona she puts forth, but it will also put her at odds with herself. The persona is not pure self expression. We like to act like social media invented the pretense of a perfect life, but this is an aspect of society itself, whether or not technology amplifies its signal. The persona is the walking Facebook-self, and even when it is carefully crafted for authenticity, it remains false.
None of this means that the shadow is the true self. The shadow is simply that aspect of the self that would disappoint those she most seeks to impress. For most characters, none of this is contrived. They’re simply trying to be their best selves but keep failing.
Not giving a damn about impressing anyone is also an attempt to impress someone.
Let’s consider this concept in view of modifying the concept of a character sheet. If we’re going to do so through the eyes of Jung, we’ll start with the character’s parents, and this is a perfect opportunity to apply Hemingway’s iceberg theory. It’s perfectly fine if her parents are never directly addressed on the page. What you know and what appears in the book are not the same thing.
The work these chapters have inspired is a fantasy, a fantasy romance, to be specific, and my heroine’s name is Anna. Let’s study her through this Jungian approach.
Anna
Who does she live to impress? Her parents.
How do they relate to her backstory: Anna had an early sensitivity to magic, which was displayed rather dramatically when she broke into the city’s relic room. Although captured, rather than being imprisoned, she was taken to the capital for training. Anna never saw her parents again. They died early in her training, and the Lord Chancellor has taken an interest in her development, perhaps trying to fill that parental void. Her behavior in the story is not an attempt to impress the Chancellor, however. Her actions are very much driven by the parents she lost when she became a warrior.
Backstory focus, persona: Her mother taught her the importance of family and home, and when her father was attacked by some yet-unknown creature, Anna sought the proximity of the relic, where the most concentrated magic in the city could be found, for the great days of the city’s magical past are gone. Now, they depend on the Council for protection, and there’s nothing legal left that could offer any hope.
Motivation, persona: Anna took to heart her mother’s teachings, but she has nothing she’d consider family or home. When she has the opportunity to lead a troop assigned to protect her old city from a growing threat, it feels like an opportunity to find her way home again.
Key personality trait, persona: Anna’s true loyalty is to her home and its people, not the military mechanism that took her away and trained her. She’s been a good soldier thus far, but this is her first time home, and no order is more important than her own people.
Backstory focus, shadow: She asked her mother to go with her, to help her gain access to the relic, but her mother refused and begged Anna to stay. If she went, she’d bring ruin upon her family and the city.
Motivation, shadow: Anna unconsciously believes she is the cause of her family’s ruin and seeks redemption.
Key personality trait, shadow: Anna is highly defensive in one key area, guarding herself from having to address what became of her family because of the choices she made.
Now we have the capacity to answer a few more questions.
Is she living to impress / honor / prove wrong someone living or dead / absent? Dead. Her parents passed away after she was taken. There are aspects of all the connotations here. She wants to honor her parents while also proving her mother wrong, that she is not a cause of ruin and shame for her family and her city.
If dead or absent, who does she look to for validation in their place? At the beginning of the novel, that’s undetermined, although she has tried to seek that validation from the Chancellor, only to find it empty as he cannot represent her parents’ ideals. Over the course of the novel, she will learn to seek validation in the eyes of the citizens of her city, especially with William and his found family.
If alive and present, does she get the validation she needs and how does that drive future action? n/a
How does she emotionally respond to her need for validation? Does she embrace it or resent it? Initially she resents it because it’s an unmet need, not because she’s personally at odds with her parents’ ideals. She sometimes resents her current training for the internal conflict that causes.
What characteristic does this manifest in her life? Anna is independent, a loner forced to be a leader. It’s an ill fit because she can’t live the life her parents would have wanted and also be a warrior for the Council. This need to be alone isn’t fundamental but symptomatic, and with a found family that shares her ideals, everything changes.
We can end the exercise here.
To apply this to a character you’re creating, begin by asking yourself who she fundamentally hopes to impress. In most cases, the desire to win a lover is an act that would please some figure in her life. The answer isn’t that she’s attracted to Greg and wants to impress Greg. Now, a lover may eventually fill the parental void, that’s possible, but this isn’t a momentary thing. She’s living her life for someone else, even if she doesn’t want to, even if she doesn’t realize it.
Everything is designed to please that fundamental someone. Decide who that is. Understand her history with that person. An aspect of that backstory will drive the persona she puts forth to the world. With Anna, she has the facade the military has taught her to wear. The persona is the face beneath that mask, and she’s tried to make the military her home. It’s not. She needs more. Her backstory drives this need.
A different aspect of that backstory will drive her shadow self and those aspects of herself that would disappoint the very people she most wants to impress. We’ll see flashes of Anna’s defensiveness, but it won’t be what defines her in our eyes. She’ll be seen as likeable but complex, with faults worth exploring.
My personal verdict: When I majored in psychology, I told myself that one of the reasons for it was to understand my characters better. It didn’t work. Now, all these years later, I think this approach suggests the answer lies in a simplified psychology. It need not be this psychology, but it fits the bill with only three parts: who does she live to impress; how does that express itself in her persona; how does that express itself in her shadow?
That should provide the means to answer Forster’s challenge and have our characters surprise, convincingly.
There is another component, however, one I’d like to see survive the transition into a more thoroughly planned novel, and I think we should discuss that next.
— Thaddeus Thomas
P.S.— Outside of the surface details, these are perhaps the most important points in your typical character sheet. What Jung doesn’t help you answer, the plot will probably gift wrap for you.
Goals and Motivations
Outer Goal: What physical thing the character wants to win or reach.
Inner Need: What emotional or mental lesson the character must learn.
Motivation: The deep reason why they chase this goal.
Personality and Psychology
Flaw: A bad habit or weak trait that causes them trouble.
Strength: A great skill or good trait that helps them win.
Fear: The scariest thing the character wants to avoid at all costs.
Backstory and Connections
Past Event: A major memory from their childhood that shaped who they are today.
Secret: Something hidden that the character does not want others to know.
Relationships: How they feel about and connect with other people in the story.
Character Arc
Start State: Who the character is at page one.
End State: Who the character becomes by the final chapter.