How to Know When Your MC Works

[Philip Overby]

Question: at what point during your stories/novels do you think, "This main character is working the exact way I want him/her to"?

Do you know before you even write the story or do you find the answers as you're writing? Maybe the MC works in a way you weren't expecting or starts to not work after you thought he/she was awesome.

What are key elements you look for in your main characters? Do you just let them grow throughout your story or do you have everything figured out before hand?

While sometimes they come out throughout the story and sometimes I plan them, these are key elements I look for in my MCs (traits that just make them work for me):

1. Able to relate to in some way
2. Interesting
3. Generally proactive
4. Dangerous (just one I like personally. If the MC is dangerous in some way, it adds extra tension, imo.)
5. Has certain identifiable quirks
6. Interacts with different people in different ways (Another one I like personally. I'm always put off by characters who treat everyone they meet the same way.)
7. Changes in some fashion
8. Has a goal and makes effort to reach it
9. Suffers and struggles in some way
10. Has a sense of humor of some kind (dark, silly, dry, sarcastic, slap-stick, whatever)

I think certain elements change depending on your MCs, but in general, what traits do you look for in your MCs that make you say "Yes, he/she is perfect for this story"?

 

[Feo Takahari]

I've never thought "this main character doesn't work", but twice I thought "this character works even better than the current main character". The first time it happened, I was writing about a salesman who fell in love with a demon, and then I switched to writing about the demon--she was a much more complicated and interesting character. The second time, I was writing about an idealistic seer stuck in a horrible situation, and I realized it would be easier to convey the depth of the problem by using the perspective of her more jaded friend.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Honestly, I think for me it's the point when they start talking to me in a strong, independent voice... which is usually followed by them chucking out my outline and running off with my story! When the characters become so alive that they can suprise me, even shock me, by the complexity of their reactions.