{"id":115334,"date":"2023-10-14T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T17:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=115334"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:29:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:29:55","slug":"how-to-write-complex-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-write-complex-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write Complex Characters Your Readers Can Relate To"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How is it possible that people can relate to a fish named Nemo? Why is Annie Wilkes (the kidnapper in Stephen King&#8217;s <em>Misery<\/em>) so terrifying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;re not one-dimensional, nor is anyone else. Real people are complex, and fictional characters must reflect that complexity if they&#8217;re going to be true to life and relatable. We&#8217;ve put together some insights into complex characters from Stephen King, Robert McKee, Lisa Cron, and Thomas C. Foster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn how to write complex characters that will help bring your story to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/society-culture\/arts\/storytelling-guide\/\">Shortform\u2019s guide to storytelling<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-write-complex-characters\">How to Write Complex Characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you learn how to write complex characters, it&#8217;s important to understand something that storytelling experts agree on. <strong>One of the most vital components of any story is a relatable<em> protagonist<\/em><\/strong>. The protagonist is the character whose shoes we\u2019re stepping into. They provide us with our point of view for the rest of the story, and they\u2019re the lens through which we interpret everything that happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/wired-for-story\/1-page-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Wired for Story<\/em><\/a>, story coach Lisa Cron asserts that the protagonist <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/wired-for-story\/1-page-summary#how-to-build-your-protagonist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">helps you, as a writer, determine what information is important and what isn\u2019t<\/a>. <strong>The audience relates to the protagonist and understands the importance of the story\u2019s events through the protagonist\u2019s emotions.<\/strong> The details in your story feel significant because of their <em>emotional<\/em> <em>impact<\/em> on the protagonist. If the audience doesn\u2019t understand how something makes your protagonist feel, the detail will seem unimportant, and they won\u2019t be interested in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How do you make your protagonist relatable? In his book <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/story\/1-page-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Story<\/em><\/a>, Robert McKee explains that, when you show the audience that your protagonist has the same universal human desires as they do, <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/story\/1-page-summary#ingredient-1-an-active-protagonist-to-empathize-with\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">they\u2019ll empathize with that character<\/a>\u2014that is, they\u2019ll recognize themselves in your protagonist and feel emotionally invested in the character\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If you want the audience to relate to your protagonist, make them three-dimensional<\/strong>; that is, complex and multifaceted, like someone in real life. The more realistic your protagonist is, the more truth about life the audience will expect from them, making the character more compelling. As Thomas C. Foster explains in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/how-to-read-literature-like-a-professor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>How to Read Literature Like a Professor<\/em><\/a>, complex characters have <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/how-to-read-literature-like-a-professor\/patterns-part-i#secondary-and-minor-characters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">backstories, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and contradictions<\/a>. Additionally, they grow and change throughout the story. (While Foster is specifically referring to fleshing out <em>secondary<\/em> characters, ensuring your protagonist has these qualities too will likely make them more relatable, too.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephen King also notes that <strong>adding complexity to your characters <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/on-writing\/the-elements-of-a-story#characters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>can make them more compelling<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> If you portray the motivations and complexities of otherwise wooden characters, the audience will find something to identify with. In <em>Misery<\/em>, King showed how the motivations of kidnapper Annie Wilkes were perfectly reasonable to Annie herself, thereby helping the audience understand her obsession. This made her even more terrifying\u2014instead of being a cardboard cutout monster, she could plausibly exist in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exercise: Analyze a Character<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Pick a story you\u2019re familiar with. This might be your favorite movie, a book you\u2019ve read, or a memorable play. Who\u2019s the protagonist, and what\u2019s their main goal? Do you find that character relatable? Why or why not? (For example, in Pixar\u2019s <em>Monsters, Inc.<\/em>, the protagonist is the monster Sulley, and his goal is to return the child Boo to her home. Although Sulley isn\u2019t human, he\u2019s relatable because he has human emotions and goals.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How is it possible that people can relate to a fish named Nemo? Why is Annie Wilkes (the kidnapper in Stephen King&#8217;s Misery) so terrifying? You&#8217;re not one-dimensional, nor is anyone else. Real people are complex, and fictional characters must reflect that complexity if they&#8217;re going to be true to life and relatable. We&#8217;ve put together some insights into complex characters from Stephen King, Robert McKee, Lisa Cron, and Thomas C. Foster. Keep reading to learn how to write complex characters that will help bring your story to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":114551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9],"tags":[1295],"class_list":["post-115334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-psychology","tag-the-master-guides-storytelling-for-fiction-writers","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Write Complex Characters Your Readers Can Relate To - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fictional characters must reflect the complexity of real people. 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