Anyone who has struggled with building fictional characters knows from experience that figures from “true” life don’t import well into fiction, especially if you try to preserve the full range of their complexity. The law of diminishing returns starts to kick in, causing the character to be come less, not more distinct.
By contrast, a good character in fiction, one who successfully projects the sort of complexity you’re talking about, without being swamped in it, is actually a simple one or two-trait machine, no more.
But wait a minute–the goal of fiction is to represent life and living characters in all the richness of their complexity, isn’t it?
Sure it is, but if you’ve ever tried importing a full load of real-life complexity into a work of fiction, you’ve seen first-hand that raw complexity simply comes across as confusion….
And yet– simplifying it down to one or two functional traits carries its own peril: you have a character so simple as to be predictable, even boring.
How do you keep your characters functionally lean ‘n’ mean and still manage to bestow the illusion of complexity?
The simplest and best way I know of is to “rough them up” with some unexpected, contradictory character information:
• A protagonist, the character we want to succeed, possesses the essential qualities of courage and determination, but is also a depressed alcoholic, constantly doubting himself.
• An antagonist, the bad guy standing in the road, is a stock villain, predictable, boring until you add genuine charm and vulnerability. (Hannibal Lector, anyone?)
• A friend, a lover, a mentor, etc. help the protagonist succeed, and stories need that. But even though a 100% percent faithful friend is good to have in life, in fiction it’s a yawn. So try this: your loyal buddy lacks moral strength and is tempted to betray you. This wonderful little detail of character not only roughs up the Pollyanna pal, it sets him up to sacrifice everything later, even his life, to undo whatever harm he committed.
Trust me, no one is going to yawn at that.
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