writer's block: the impossible wall created by... less than perfect characters

I have a theory, and I'm pretty sure I'll get a little flamed from the writing community, but I stand by it. This is certainly my experience, and I've written quite a few stories with quite a few characters, and I've only hit a genuine wall that I felt I couldn't write over under one specific condition: I didn't know who I was writing.

Look, I'm aware that there are a hundred things that go into writing that could leave you feeling completely locked out of your story, locked on one side of a door while the rest of the world you've created breezes by, your characters standing frozen on a street corner, unable to move forward. But it doesn't matter how intricate your world is. When we're developing our worlds is when our brains work at their fullest and most passionate. Where our brains usually stop is when figuring out how our main character gets from Point A to Point B and all the little stops between. However, the thing about strong characters (the kind that make really good stories) is that the way the interact with the world is entirely within the kind of person they are. A character needs to have a strong enough personality that you can never be blocked for long because there is a clear direction that your character would take in the situation you present to them.

It's like the way that your friends know exactly where you go when you're upset, or they know exactly what you order at your local coffee shop. And if you deviate from the norm, what you do next always makes sense to them because they know you so well. This is the kind of relationship you need to be having with characters that influence your plot because it means that the plot can essentially write itself. You get to throw in some creative swagger to block their way, but how they react to said thing will always be known to you, as someone who knows them better than you probably know yourself.

Characters are everything in a story. You can have a wonderful world and an insane plot that could grip even the most distracted readers, but those key parts (though still important) are not what your reader has to spend the entire novel having to put up with. Readers see your world and everything that happens in it through the eyes of your characters. Even when there's a third-person perspective involved, that third person isn't just objectively viewing the passings by of your world (though, I'm sure that's a fun experimental idea), they're following characters. Readers only see the world based on the way your characters interact with it.

They are the most important aspect.

If you have good characters? Not even the trashiest world will push away every reader - some will stay simply because they have connected with a well written character. And likewise, I've turned away from a few good books with fun plots and a cool, cyberpunky world (my environmental weakness) just because the characters rubbed me the wrong way, or they had done something genuinely so embarrassingly trashy that I couldn't bare to indulge any longer.

Admittedly, on the surface I prefer creating worlds. I'd like to think I've invented a bunch of cool sci-fi related creations and made some massive worlds that I don't think would be so bad to live in. But, I know that these worlds mean nothing if I don't create an effective means to translate them to whoever's peering in.

It's out of respect for my worlds that I make brilliant characters, and I think that this is the ultimate cure for writer's block, and those moments where you have no idea where the story will take you next. Let your characters take the reign.

Just make great characters.

P.S. As a resource to help you on your journey to cool characterisation, here is a copy of the questions I always answer for any character that has influence on my story. I usually have about four or five characters that fit this description. I hope this helps, and there's a better copy I will be posting on my instagram (@neofae_) that I will be linking at the bottom of this page.

1. What’s their earliest memory?

2. What’s their strongest memory?

3. What was their homelife like?

4. What makes them angry?

5. What makes them sad?

6. What are their fears?

7. What is their biggest flaw?

8. What are their top strengths?

9. What do they pretend not to care about?

10. How do they feel about love?

11. Is it easy for them to say, ‘I love you’?

12. Is it easy for them to lie?

13. What image do they have of themselves?

14. How do others see them?

15. Who do they want to be?

16. Would they persevere if they weren’t good at something immediately?

17. What’s their greatest failure?

18. What biases do they hold against people?

19. How do they act around people they don’t like?

20. What biases do they hold against higher powers?

21. How do they feel about currency?

22. What skills do they have?

23. Do they have any nervous ticks?

24. What does their body look like?

25. What do they eat?

26. What do they smell like?

27. If they were an animal, what would they be?

28. What do they keep on them at all times?

29. What apps would they have on a phone?

30. What’s their MBTI?

Good luck, writers.:)

< 89% baked >