It is said that a story is only as good as its characters. Whether it’s a short story or a full-length novel, fiction or nonfiction, it is important to give your characters unique voices and features.

What sets your protagonist apart from the antagonist? How real and relatable are your characters to the readers? These are important pointers to whether or not you will have a great story in the end.

The first step for you as a writer, is to understand your characters. If your work is nonfiction, you might have to ask lots of questions and conduct research. At first, those little details might seem irrelevant, but they eventually come together to paint a complete picture.

And when you’re writing fiction, most of it is imaginative. This means you get to create stories. One major shortcoming with storytellers is that we tend to focus on the main plot, leaving everything else in the dark. Hear this now: Your minor plots require attention as well. They provide balance and validation for your major plot.

Now, you should be able to define each character individually, away from their involvement in the story. Who are they? What do they do? What at their backstories?

Here’s a practical guide to help you understand and define your characters.

• • Visualize the idea for your story. This is how you know that your story is ready to be written. You should have at least ¾ of it figured out.
• • Get a book or create a new document on your writing device. You haven’t started writing your story yet. This is still preparatory.
• • On this page, list your characters, from the major to minor ones. Do not struggle to name them all. You do not know all the characters till your story is complete. Still, name as many as you can think of.
• • Then, begin to define them one after the other. Let’s say you have a John…

John: Has notably black, glowing skin. A bit insecure, and would return remarks about his complexion with blunt sarcasm. Always had an admiration for morning birds. Survived a fire at 12 that left a scar on his thigh. Was raised in a dysfunctional home. Inclined to act towards women in a degrading manner. Mechanical and old-school with love…

Mary: A hopeless romantic. Sings her words to keep herself from stammering. Easy to tears. Terrible with alcohol; gets drunk at the slightest sip. Was raised by a single mother. Always afraid of being abandoned again, resulting from her father leaving when she was little. Feels awkward with girls her age and more comfortable with old women…

• • Update this list, even as your writing progresses

Notice how this describes the characters and not the plot? It’s a story of how John and Mary met and fell in love, but it doesn’t say so here. What this does is help your understanding of the characters—a crucial step in story development.

The next step then, is writing & execution. You will be tempted to lift these descriptions of your characters into the story. This is exactly what you should NOT do. Rather, give your characters life and breath.

Do not tell us who they are. You’re not writing an essay. Begin spinning your story. Take us on a ride. Let us meet your characters in there.

This will be discussed further in the next part.

_{Meanwhile, if you enjoyed reading this, leave a comment. Stay tuned for more tips.}