Every book lover knows the feeling of connecting to a protagonist so deeply that they seem human to you. It’s often the case that certain characters feel more “real” to the audience than others. While some are simply characters, others become our friends or foes who are capable of feeling more "real" than even the person sitting next to us.
Characters aren’t just in books and movies, they can also be used in marketing. It’s just as important to make the main protagonist of a brand story relatable to the audience as it is the main character in a book. They also need to have brand personas in order to have human traits, so people feel they can emotionally connect to them as more than just as customers.
The case of making a brand persona seem human is a little more complicated than your average storybook character. Not only are you making a character seem human, but you are also making a non-human character seem human. A process called anthropomorphism. Another major difference is the lack of a character arc.
While in book and movie storytelling it’s important to develop your character over time, for brands it's best to have a consistent brand persona that’s demonstrated through the narratives you choose.
Finally, brand personas are created with a specific goal in mind, namely to make your brand easier to engage in a positive way. While flaws are a big part of making a human character, with brand marketing, you don't want to highlight those. Despite the added complications, I wanna know your general techniques which can be applied for making your character feel real to your audience.
Usually, some authors themselves act like the character in their stories. They try to perform the part out of a dialogue they have written with great acting skills, (or even with poor acting skills) in order to make their character feel more realistic. However, in my case, I think reading Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is better than writing garbage characters. Oh well, you probably shouldn't be reading this in the first place. Hahaha.
As I am a teacher, I get to benefit by observing my students' behavior in class. In fact, all of my characters are based on real people and how they react to the situation.
Isn't the first step not to see them as characters but as people, though? If we wrote people as people, I highly doubt we'd have problems with relatable characterizations.
In essence, a lot of people are probably trying to write someone likeable..... but I don't feel it's that often a necessity. Some of my favorite authors, classical and modern, write them simply as people living in a particular world. It's more descriptive than anything else, really, and it works. They don't have to have too much dimension - just enough to drive a story and pique interest should be enough. That sort of openness may colour imaginations too.
Another way is to just observe our friends, relatives and the people around us whom we talk to and interact with. Sometimes I go quiet at parties just so I can listen to groups of people talk. Half the time my friends think I'm drunk, but most of the time I'm watching how they get along with each other.
It helps that we already like our friends, so we'd probably know which traits about them are lovable. Even if we can't see them physically now (thanks, Covid), there's stuff like Zoom and Meets.
EDIT: And also the times they make us sad and angry! Mix them all in - bam! A very human character
This is a really big one that helps a lot! Writers often forget to have their characters be flawed, and it gets boring fast then.
But also not just flaws, just odd little quirks too. I read a story the other day for a review swap that made me laugh, because the character (a dual wielding swordswoman) went to a public restroom to wash up, but didn't want to put any of their swords down on ground just because it 'felt wrong' to place them down in a public bathroom. Mind you, these are swords that have cut through guts and all sorts of baddies bowels and hearts, so they're hardly clean themselves. So in the end she ends up clenching one between her teeth the entire time.
You know, just little things that seem nonsensical but are just really 'human'. We're all flawed beings at the end of the day, so we can connect with that easier than we can with something perfect.
I think the basic is to dumb them down, not let them become super smart. Humans are always think we start out smart but we all started from being dumb in the first place. We just evolve from sticks and stones to the technological advancement after long periods of time. Human Imperfection is always the main idea of humans becoming real. When you think that dumb characters in fiction doesn't exists in RL, think again to those people whose names are usually common such as 'Karens', Flat-earthers and other people I won't mention. While making humans smart with flaws is ideal of being a human, deep down we are all stupid but just arrogant that we don't believe we can't do idiotic things.
I think which is why I sometimes understand JP MCs being dense is because we can't always understand girls, CN MCs being arrogant and hypocritical about their own contradictions and stuff and KN MCs being hardcore grinders. Our cultural differences had cause us to develop our own understanding that we sometimes don't connect until you decide to study their culture. Hell, I always think I was dumb in my own country because I was always labeled as a weirdo until I slowly understand American Culture and how they have their own stupid people as well. I then realize that while i'm stupid, I not as stupid as those people that lived there who had more privileges than me and yet act more dumber than me.
So, while imperfections can build character it isn't always that you need to have them imperfections, just let them be yourself and hell, just add up your own personality in them to create a new character that belongs to you.
I look at some of the social issues people face. Certain things that happen in life. How will one react realistically? I also was on my university student forum for awhile ago, and I can see some share their thoughts, feelings, frustrations, etc. Also talking to those around you about their personal experiences, what they feel like, etc. etc.
I always think I think of a plot first before the characters, but lately I found that usually, its me thinking the characters first and how flawed they are, or some goal they want to accomplish, and that sets the conflict and main plot of the storyline.
Writing to me is also about putting yourself in people's shoes because often you're imagining many different scenarios and things where it doesn't relate to your life at all and you don't have any personal experience in it. But what if you were put in that position? How would you feel and react? That kinda sets my perception of the type of characters I want to create and write about, plus writing how characters are flawed leaves to a plot revolving around them to get to a resolution.
And just like real life people, realistic characters have their flaws. Some characters may not change, but a lot of times, people change over time and so do characters themselves. Plus I kind of think of it as a wish fulfillment in this way (not in the everything is all perfect, fantasy type) but if there was a better way to fix things, or how will re react to a situation again if we had the chance? Although granted, sometimes its not wish fulfillment, because writing realistic or "believable" characters mean that sometimes not everything can be pretty, it can be grim too.
On a completely different related topic, your username reminds me suspiciously of someone who always claims themselves to be handsomest...?
Every book lover knows the feeling of connecting to a protagonist so deeply that they seem human to you. It’s often the case that certain characters feel more “real” to the audience than others. While some are simply characters, others become our friends or foes who are capable of feeling more "real" than even the person sitting next to us.
Characters aren’t just in books and movies, they can also be used in marketing. It’s just as important to make the main protagonist of a brand story relatable to the audience as it is the main character in a book. They also need to have brand personas in order to have human traits, so people feel they can emotionally connect to them as more than just as customers.
The case of making a brand persona seem human is a little more complicated than your average storybook character. Not only are you making a character seem human, but you are also making a non-human character seem human. A process called anthropomorphism. Another major difference is the lack of a character arc.
While in book and movie storytelling it’s important to develop your character over time, for brands it's best to have a consistent brand persona that’s demonstrated through the narratives you choose.
Finally, brand personas are created with a specific goal in mind, namely to make your brand easier to engage in a positive way. While flaws are a big part of making a human character, with brand marketing, you don't want to highlight those. Despite the added complications, I wanna know your general techniques which can be applied for making your character feel real to your audience.
Usually, some authors themselves act like the character in their stories. They try to perform the part out of a dialogue they have written with great acting skills, (or even with poor acting skills) in order to make their character feel more realistic. However, in my case, I think reading Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is better than writing garbage characters. Oh well, you probably shouldn't be reading this in the first place. Hahaha.
To me, making a "human" character isn't something that could be easily boiled down. People would say "give em flaws and odd quirks", but most of the time they read like idiosyncrasies, or redundant flaws that seem to just pad the story run-time, like a misunderstanding that can be easily resolved if the MC could just EXPLAIN the situation but since the MC's """shy""", you gotta sit through 3 more chapters where the plot grinds to a halt and they have to resolve this shit when the MC could've just as easily said it at the start.
They'd also tell you to "put yourself in their shoes" when all it really does is slam you in a situation where you only understand the problem on a superficial, surface level. Humans don't just go by with random encounters, nor do events transpire out of the blue. Past events, experience and emotions all play the part within the butterfly effect. You can't just plop yourself in their shoes, because the truth of the matter is that no one will ever fit in it unless its the owner themselves.
What I'd do is elaborate upon those two points I've mentioned.
Before that, you have to pin down the THEME of your story. The theme will serve as a pivot to EVERYTHING within your story. I cannot stress this enough. Theme is the be all end all for your story. Your plot, setting, tone, pace and ending ALL CIRCLE around THEME, characters included.
I'll use a story of mine as an example, since I'm most familiar with it. I won't link it; I'll just explain the details.
The theme of the story will be past trauma, repentance, and power.
For traits or flaws, I don't just concoct some random weaknesses on the fly. They HAVE to coincide with the themes so they wouldn't seem out-of-place or artificial and to avoid them being redundant or a straight-up hindrance to the plot.
So, my main character has an unfavourable past and such, will try to remain away from the general picture as much as possible. He'll be more or less reserved, opting to speak in short bursts of sentences and generally being more reactive than proactive in situations, regardless if he's suited to engage with it. As for repentance, he'd be very apologetic, bowing down to mostly everyone and saying sorry for the most simplest of things, so much so that it'll annoy some people and see him as a weakling.
These two traits all tie in to the last theme: power. My main character used to be a very strong individual, but somewhere along the way, that trait has managed to cause him severe trauma, and thus he lowers himself and repents a lot. He keeps himself out of the picture to stay out of the spotlight and apologizes so much that people see him as a weakling, serving to hide his true strength through his behaviour. And that's his motivation and goals covered; to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible and distance himself from the past.
However, with power, comes perception. My main character finds it hard to empathize with other people. He doesn't faze when he gets ridiculed or ostricised or even being physically assaulted, since he's perfectly capable of tanking everything. To others, it's a matter of personal principle and emotional pain in a degree where my main character simply cannot comprehend. When he tries to help, he'd end up seeming robotic and utilitarian, doing more harm than good. It'll sometimes come to the point where he's seen as an alien to the setting; a man in a place where he doesn't belong, speaking in alien tongue with alien understandings of the world around him.
After you pin down his traits, you don't even need to step into your character's shoes anymore. You've essentially built their personality through those traits and, based on the tone of the story, can already tell what they'd do in a situation. You don't need to control your characters. Your characters can do it themselves. You just need to provide the situation, which is where your plot comes in. How will they proceed within the story, and what kind of side characters/elements will you introduce to advance the story/spice up the plot? That will become your main focus; to find a stage for your characters to shine.
I'm not touting my character as the prime, golden example, but I am serving an example of how I'd do it. As of how "human" they are, I'd leave it up to the readers to decide but for me, I'm satisfied with what I've created. They have their flaws, personalities, character traits, and motivations; all the necessary ingredients to build a "human" character. Again, regarding how "human" they are, is up to the readers to decide. You don't need to worry about their opinion, you just do your best and learn from their feedback.
To conclude, a "human" character isn't a perfect emulation of real life people but simply an individual that is complete. They has to have justification for their personality, flaws, behaviour, not just from their bare motivations but from the setting they reside within and (broken record moment) the theme of the story. The moment you feel like you can release your character into the wild and be confident that they can function without your control, you've made yourself a "human" character.
As I am a teacher, I get to benefit by observing my students' behavior in class. In fact, all of my characters are based on real people and how they react to the situation.
Another way is to just observe our friends, relatives and the people around us whom we talk to and interact with. Sometimes I go quiet at parties just so I can listen to groups of people talk. Half the time my friends think I'm drunk, but most of the time I'm watching how they get along with each other.
It helps that we already like our friends, so we'd probably know which traits about them are lovable. Even if we can't see them physically now (thanks, Covid), there's stuff like Zoom and Meets.
I don't know about others but I've tried this before myself and I usually end up with my characters acting contradicting or just plain weird. Maybe it's me who's misunderstanding everyone else but, to reiterate my point above, events are built upon experience and emotions, and those events help shape who people are as of now. You can try to jot down superficial behaviour (how would a smoker act, what kind of beliefs would a religious person hold, how office politics work) but beyond that, it's pretty much ripping off the icing on one cake and plopping it down on another. It simply can't fit. Every human being is different from one another, and that goes down to the simplest of interactions.
What I'd suggest is observe, but never take it as gospel. Take what you see as a suggestion with the biggest pinch of salt you could give. You're writing your story, your creation, not a play-by-play of daily life. Your characters needn't be realistic; they need to be believable.
What I'd suggest is observe, but never take it as gospel. Take what you see as a suggestion with the biggest pinch of salt you could give. You're writing your story, your creation, not a play-by-play of daily life. Your characters needn't be realistic; they need to be believable.
@LinXueLian
You're a worthy foe of the art of being handsome. But don't worry, I won't become your destruction nor become the architecture of my own destruction. Still, I'll say, a HandsomeProtagonist cannot be defeated by someone who has eternal handsomeness for plot armor reasons.
Ah I was just talking to my brother about this topic, and we both reached a conclusion that one can be believable by giving them a reasonable goal/motivation and flaws.
Like a mercenary who fights because for profit, and his mind is torn between his employer's goals and his own conscience.
@LinXueLian
You're a worthy foe of the art of being handsome. But don't worry, I won't become your destruction nor become the architecture of my own destruction. Still, I'll say, a HandsomeProtagonist cannot be defeated by someone who has eternal handsomeness for plot armor reasons.
See, here's what I like about you, @HandsomeProtagonist. You know what handsomeness is about. It's about love. It's about friendship. It's about pain, it's about passion. It is a science, and it is an art. It is both intrinsic and artificial. It is all these that make us true handsomes.
I don't see you as just a foe, brother. You and I, we're eternal handsomes, comrade in handsomeness, here to spread the handsome to add glory to the world. Worthy rivals, worthy adversaries, also worthy in fellowship.
Seriously though, on the topic of characterizations, having a gimmick's pretty entertaining. I tend to add one or two of these silly ones to my characters and let them do whatever they want with it. Never a boring day writing these, bless~
Before that, you have to pin down the THEME of your story. The theme will serve as a pivot to EVERYTHING within your story. I cannot stress this enough. Theme is the be all end all for your story. Your plot, setting, tone, pace and ending ALL CIRCLE around THEME, characters included.
For traits or flaws, I don't just concoct some random weaknesses on the fly. They HAVE to coincide with the themes so they wouldn't seem out-of-place or artificial and to avoid them being redundant or a straight-up hindrance to the plot.
After you pin down his traits, you don't even need to step into your character's shoes anymore. You've essentially built their personality through those traits and, based on the tone of the story, can already tell what they'd do in a situation. You don't need to control your characters. Your characters can do it themselves. You just need to provide the situation, which is where your plot comes in. How will they proceed within the story, and what kind of side characters/elements will you introduce to advance the story/spice up the plot? That will become your main focus; to find a stage for your characters to shine.
They have their flaws, personalities, character traits, and motivations; all the necessary ingredients to build a "human" character. Again, regarding how "human" they are, is up to the readers to decide. You don't need to worry about their opinion, you just do your best and learn from their feedback.
To conclude, a "human" character isn't a perfect emulation of real life people but simply an individual that is complete. They has to have justification for their personality, flaws, behaviour, not just from their bare motivations but from the setting they reside within and (broken record moment) the theme of the story. The moment you feel like you can release your character into the wild and be confident that they can function without your control, you've made yourself a "human" character.
You can try to jot down superficial behaviour (how would a smoker act, what kind of beliefs would a religious person hold, how office politics work) but beyond that, it's pretty much ripping off the icing on one cake and plopping it down on another. It simply can't fit. Every human being is different from one another, and that goes down to the simplest of interactions.
What I'd suggest is observe, but never take it as gospel. Take what you see as a suggestion with the biggest pinch of salt you could give. You're writing your story, your creation, not a play-by-play of daily life. Your characters needn't be realistic; they need to be believable.
If you're looking to make a character more human, then give them flaws. That's always the simplest answer. All creatures have flaws, desires, motivations, ambitions, etc. Also, it isn't the appearance that makes a character "human". What the character does is what can separate a character from being "human".
Villains can be some of the most "human" to the most cruel, and the audience can enjoy them either way. In the case of the former, someone might relate to the villain's struggle. While in the latter, people may cheer for their downfall and enjoy their inevitable destruction.
Additionally, make sure that whichever character is acting is acting according to their own personality or desires. For example, a paladin who follows the law and strives for good wouldn't suddenly go on a murderous rampage out of nowhere. However, you could expand on their history and desires to then do this. Maybe this particular paladin is a religious zealot, blinded by faith, and has been manipulated into committing evil all the while thinking he's actually enacting the will of his god.
You could also make a "perfect" character who ends up slowly cracking under the pressure of reality not going the way he or she intends. The audience then gets to revel in their slow decent into madness while wishing for the character to fail more and more.
I could probably ramble more, but I think my brain is running out of ideas at this point.
