[Link] The Character as Text: On Being Read and Misread

by Matthew Hand

Every character I have ever written or portrayed on stage has never belonged to me. That’s the secret. We build from scraps, molding habits, memories, desires into something new. And then hand them over to strangers who will decide, confidently, what they mean.

A character is always read twice: once by the author, and again by everyone else. The first creates, the second dissects. Somewhere in between those two readings the truth gets smudged - sometimes valiantly, other times blasphemously.

Reading is a Talent

The moment someone engages with a text, they interpret character. That is a kind of ownership. We don’t mean to, but we do it constantly.

We say: She’s selfish.

We say: He’s in love.

We say: They’re just lost. 

Each declaration flattens something that once breathed. Interpretation feels generous, but is often a form of control. When we name a thing, we fix it in place. The character can’t move anymore - we align them with our own categorical narratives.

In life, we do this too. We read people the way we read stories. We assume subtext when there’s only exhaustion, irony when there’s fear, desire when there’s confusion. The act of reading becomes a way of keeping our world neat, comprehensible. 

It’s how we quietly distort each other.

The Seduction of Certainty

There’s something addictive about believing we’ve “figured out’ a character. The addiction to certainty is numbing because it spares us the discomfort of not knowing. The impulse is everywhere: the YA dystopian novel that insists a protagonist is about capitalism or trauma or redemption. The friend who insists, “I know why you did that.” If you require a frame of reference, I suggest you observe political interactions on social media. 

We crave clarity because it makes emotion manageable. But people, and the characters who resemble them, aren’t created for clarity. They’re created for contradiction. The moment a character stops being slightly unknowable, they stop feeling alive.

It’s why the best stories leave a residue of confusion. You finish the last page still turning them over in your mind, still wondering who they were trying to be. The story keeps happening because you haven’t decided yet.

Read the full article: https://www.southernmelancholic.com/post/the-character-as-text-on-being-read-and-misread

[Link] How to Show Your Character’s Repressed Emotions

by Angela Ackerman

Crafting characters that readers will connect to is every writer’s goal and dozens (hundreds?) of methods exist to achieve it: deep backstory planning, character profile sheets, questionnaires, etc.

Regardless of the roadmap a writer uses, writing an authentic character boils down to one important action: intentionally drawing from the real world, and specifically, the human experience.

The human experience is powerful, an emotional tidal wave that holds us in thrall. We understand it, relate to it, and live it. This is why, even when a character faces a challenge, barrier, or struggle that readers have not experienced in the real world, they can imagine it and place themselves within the folds of the character’s viewpoint.

Portraying an accurate mirror of humanity in fiction means we must master emotions. Getting raw feelings on the page isn’t done solely through a character’s shrug or smile; instead, a marriage of internal and external elements should show readers what is being felt and why. Body language, behavior, dialogue, vocal cues, thoughts, and internal sensations weave together to draw readers into the character’s emotional landscape.

Showing a character’s emotions isn’t always easy, especially when powerful emotions are at work. Characters may feel exposed or unsafe and instinctively try to repress or disguise what they feel. This creates a big challenge for writers: how do we show readers what the character is feeling when they are trying so hard to hide it?

Thankfully again, the human experience comes to the rescue. If a character is repressing an emotion, real-world behaviors can show it. Readers will catch on because they’ll recognize their own attempts to hide their feelings. Here’s a few ideas.

Over and Underreactions

When you’ve done the background work on a character, you know how they’ll react to ordinary stimuli and will be able to write reliable responses. Readers become familiar with the character’s emotional range and have an idea what to expect. So when the character responds to a situation in an unexpected way, it sends up an alert for readers that says, “Pay attention! This is important.”

Read the full article: https://writershelpingwriters.net/2025/09/show-repressed-emotions/

[Link] Establish characters’ intentions in every scene

by Rob Bignell

Every time you start a story, you want to quickly establish a problem for the main character to solve and their intention of solving it. Maybe a hacked up dead body is found, and a detective intends to bring the murderer to justice. Possibly a divorced woman who’s been by her herself for the past five years sees a man she’s interested in and decides to meet him. Perhaps a starship captain finds a far-flung colony where his brother lived has been destroyed by some unknown force.

Regardless of the genre, as the story progresses, the main characters’ intentions must be established at the beginning of each scene and then played out. In fact, that’s true of every significant character in your tale.

Characters’ intentions drive your plot. When they are the focus of your writing, your story has action, tension and suspense because some characters will oppose and even temporarily thwart your story’s protagonist. The consequences of that action sets up the next scene. When those intentions aren’t the focus, the story drifts with irrelevant scenes, and character development suffers.

Read the full article: https://inventingrealityediting.com/2017/08/27/establish-characters-intentions-in-every-scene/

Writing Folks Who "Just Ain't You"

As writers, we all know that little swell (or maybe massive swell) of butterflies when we try to capture the voice/characteristic/personality of characters who clearly aren't us. It may be writing across gender lines, racial lines, sexual identity lines, or just a pessimist trying to write an optimist, or a rural trying to write an urban. 

For this roundtable, let's talk about how we do that in a way that satisfies a writer's need for authenticity. 

Where do you fall on the scale between "I can write any kind of anybody" and "It's really hard to write people who aren't like me"? Why do you think that is?

Ron Thomas: Fortunately, there is more than one “me” in my head! I can draw on my serious side for a lead character and my wise ass side for the sidekick. Even the villains draw on a bit of “wish fulfillment” for me. I heard a long time ago that mystery writers are closet criminals...

James Palmer: This is always a challenge, especially if you're writing BIPOC or LGBTQ+ characters. I don't know what the answer is except for getting to know different types of people, especially those from these groups, and read the fiction they write. Any writer who gets it right is a good choice too. Matt Ruff is a white dude, but his Lovecraft Country is a masterclass on how to write black characters without comparing their skin to coffee or cocoa every paragraph.

Brian K Morris: I like to think I can write, pretty much, any type of character. To do it correctly, I need to research them, their way of life, their mode of thinking. In a way, it’s profiling the subject by studying others.

And this doesn’t just cover a demographic. When I’m asked to write an existing character, or I pitch a story to do so, the same kind of research needs to happen. I need to get them right. If they have a distinctive way of acting or speaking, I need to emulate that as best I can.

Sheela Chattopadhyay: I find that this is more of a matter of perspective, rather than just a straight line issue. You need to understand the cultural differences that can affect someone's perspective to make this happen in some cases. In other cases, you have to understand where the person is coming from and their motivations.

[Link] Don’t fully commit protagonist in opening scene

by Rob Bignell

Typically when a story starts, there is an out-of-whack event, an upsetting of the status quo that the main character must deal with. How the main character addresses this event forms the bulk of the story’s plot.

Sometimes, though, the main character is reluctant to act. That is, he is not fully committed to resolving the issue.

For example, what if our protagonist comes to believe that something bad has happened to a neighbor, as she mysteriously hasn’t been seen for days. He files a report with the police and decides he’s washed his hands of it, has fulfilled his civic responsibility.

To ensure we have a story, though, something must occur that convinces the main character to become fully committed.

Read the full article: https://inventingrealityediting.com/2016/11/25/dont-fully-commit-protagonist-in-opening-scene/

[Link] Everything You Need to Know About Developing (and Writing) Characters

by Ali Luke

I’ve covered a lot about developing characters and writing about them, here on Aliventures. I wanted to collect those posts together in one place so you can find them easily.

Whether you’re just figuring out who your characters are for your story, you’re in the messy middle of your draft, or you’re trying to nail your characterisation as you rewrite, hopefully there’s a post here that covers just what you need!

Read the full article: https://www.aliventures.com/writing-developing-characters/

Writing Non-Human Characters: How Other Should Other Be?

During Stellar Fest, I was fortunate enough to be on two panels on characterization, both of which addressed the idea specifically within the realm of science fiction, and with a focus on non-human characters. But, sci-fi doesn't have a monopoly on non-human characters, so I realized immediately that I wanted to take this discussion to the blog. (And here we are.)

When writing characters who are not human, what is your starting point? The race, the species, the human characteristic to use as an entry point, what?

E. Robert Dunn: Typically, it starts with a race/species that I'd like to develop ... which may or may not include 'human characteristics.'

Danielle Procter Piper: First, I must realize that the story requires a non-human entity, after which I then decide what sort of being it should be. My background in biology helps me create realistic creatures, as does my artistic ability. When I wrote Quasar 169, it was based on a dream I had where a news anchor described a murder, and an image of the victim slowly morphed into an image of the killer. That's what inspired me to create a species of humanoid sexual shapeshifters. 

Bobby Nash: I start with the character. Most non-human characters can still have a human-ish trait that I can start with like how family works, or something about their personality. Then, I build from there.

Sean Taylor: I have to start with the character, plain and simple. That's always true for me whether I'm writing a straight white dude, a poly black woman, a purple Glorp from Vendellia 45, a Loup Garou from the Bayou, or a gaseous floating cloud above the top of Kilimanjaro. For me, that means something human in terms of characters, some need, some drive, something that man, woman, Glorp, Lou Garou, or cloud wants and must overcome some hardship to achieve. If I don't have that skeleton to put a coat on, then I can't start moving on the story. 

6 Villainous Character Types Infographic