Inventing Reality: A Guide to Writing Science Fiction
Characters: The center of your story
Your story's characters are who the story is about, who the plot is happening to. They are the players that act across the stage of your setting. Arguably, they are the center of your story.
A great variety of characters can appear in your story. They include the story's hero (such as Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker), the hero's sidekicks (such as Mr. Spock and R2D2), the hero's nemesis (such as the Klingons or Darth Vader) and the characters we just see in passing (such as crewmen in the rec room or a squad of stormtroopers marching in the background).
Generally speaking, the more developed the characters in a story, then the bettr the tale will be. That's because successful stories involve drama, which arises from tension between character and the situation in which they've been placed. That situation is your story's plot. The more developed the character, the greater the drama for more tension can arise as your heor can interact with the situation in more varied ways.
For example, if your story's hero is just a strongman, then there's really only one way for him to deal with any situation: blast his way through. But if he has self-doubts or a sense of ethics that is at odds with the solution to solving a problem, then he has to come up with unique ways to get out of jams. That's far more interesting them just blowing up every bug he encounters.
To create more developed characters, consider their motivations. Ask what is a character’s passion, desires and fears? These motivations allow for conflict – and hence your plot – to occur.
You Do It
Browse through a magazine and find a picture of a person in a tense situation (no smiling models, please). This person is a character in your story. Now imagine that they have a problem to overcome (hopefully your picture hints at that problem). What passions, desires and fears does your character possess that makes solving this problem difficult? Spend 10 minutes writing a scene in which your character grapples with this problem given their motivations.