Our Checklist to Craft a Realistic Character

Bringing a character to life is a challenging but rewarding part of storytelling. It’s more than just giving them a cool name and a heroic arc; it’s about making them feel like a real person: flawed, complex, and relatable. A character that feels authentic can stay with readers long after they finish the last page.

We crafted a simple checklist to help you create a character that feels real. (You can find the checklist format right at the end of this post).

1. Give Them a Flaw (Or Two): The Necessity of Human Imperfection

Nobody in real life is perfect, so why should your characters be? We know it’s tempting to create an idealized hero, but by giving your protagonist an identifiable weakness or character flaw, you immediately make them feel human and relatable. These imperfections are the building blocks of authentic drama.

The Flaw as a Story Engine

A well-chosen flaw is not just a personality quirk; it's a story engine.

• Internal Conflict: A flaw creates internal conflict that amplifies the character's journey. For instance, a hero might struggle with pride (hubris), making their eventual defeat or moment of vulnerability far more impactful.

• External Conflict: Flaws create stakes. If your character always makes impulsive decisions (a common flaw), this will logically lead to poor judgment calls that propel the plot forward in believable ways.

These flaws don’t take away their good intentions; they only amplify the effort and active choices they must make to become better. Every major challenge should force your character to confront their primary weakness.

2. Define Their Motivation and Goals: Driving the Narrative

What does your character truly want? Every action they take, big or small, should be driven by a clear motivation, which ties directly to their goal. This concept is the single most important factor in making a character's choices understandable to the reader.

Goals: Internal vs. External

When establishing motivation, distinguish between the two types of goals:

• External Goal: The observable thing the character is trying to achieve (e.g., finding the lost artifact, winning the race, stopping the villain). This is the plot.

• Internal Goal: The emotional, personal, or psychological need that drives the external pursuit (e.g., finding self-worth, earning forgiveness, overcoming fear). This is the character arc.

Think deeply about the "Why." Is your character willing to sacrifice their relationships, their morals, or their safety to get what they want? The tension between their internal needs and their external pursuit is where the most realistic drama lives.

3. Establish Their Backstory: The Hidden Foundation

Like in real life, a character's past shapes who they are today. A well-developed backstory explains their current beliefs, behaviours, and fears. This doesn't mean you need to write a full-length biography; it means you need to know the crucial pivot points that define them.

Strategic Revelation

A common mistake is "info-dumping" the backstory. To keep the character realistic and intriguing, the past should be revealed naturally and gradually:

• Revealed Through Dialogue: A character's casual reference to a childhood home or a past relationship can ground them in reality.

• Revealed Through Reaction: If a character has a paralysing fear of fire, their extreme reaction when confronted with a match is a dramatic, immediate way to reveal a traumatic past event.

A character who is trying to hide a significant piece of their past often acts with greater emotional complexity, making them immediately more intriguing to the reader.

4. Give Them a Unique Voice: Authenticity in Dialogue

A character's unique voice is what makes their dialogue feel real, ensuring that the reader can often tell who is speaking without needing a dialogue tag. This voice should be a subtle reflection of their background, personality, and place in the world.

The Subtlety of Speech Filters

To craft a truly unique voice, consider the following filters:

• Formality: Does their background suggest they use highly formal language, or do they rely on casual slang? (Reflects education/social class).

• Rhythm and Filler: Do they speak in short, blunt sentences, or do they use verbose, long-winded clauses? Do they rely on specific filler words (e.g., "like," "literally," "you know")?

• Tone of Expression: Do they primarily communicate through sarcasm, brutal honesty, or careful hesitation?

Always aim for subtlety. While a unique voice enriches the story, exaggerating traits (e.g., making a character use slang in every single line) quickly turns a complex character into a one-dimensional caricature, overwhelming the reader and feeling forced.

5. Consider Their Mannerisms: Physical Subtext

A character’s personality is often expressed through their body language and physical habits. These small, repeated actions, or mannerisms, can subtly communicate a character's emotional state without you having to explicitly state, "She was nervous."

Mannerisms as Emotional Cues

Mannerisms function as physical subtext, acting as visual cues for the reader:

• Nervous Tics: Does the character fidget when they're nervous, chew their lip when concentrating, or tap their fingers when impatient? These tics ground them in reality.

• Confidence vs. Hesitation: Does the character walk with a confident, open posture, or do they hunch and avoid eye contact? Their posture and gait speak volumes about their self-esteem and social standing.

• Clothing as Character: Consider their dress. Does it reflect their inner state (e.g., dressing carelessly because they are depressed, or hyper-fashionably to hide insecurity)?

When used consistently, mannerisms provide a tangible, physical component to your character, making them feel like a person you could actually observe.

6. Make Them Change: The Necessity of the Character Arc

A truly realistic character doesn’t remain static. Throughout the story, they must grow and evolve based on the challenges, failures, and triumphs they face. This journey is commonly called the character arc.

The Core of the Arc

A satisfying narrative requires the character to learn a crucial lesson or adopt a new worldview.

• Starting Point vs. Ending Point: Define what lie or false belief the character holds at the start (e.g., Self-reliance is the only way) and what truth they must adopt by the end (e.g., Vulnerability is strength).

• The Transformation: The change can be subtle (e.g., becoming slightly more compassionate) or dramatic (e.g., a total philosophical shift). However, this change is essential for a satisfying narrative. A character who ends the story the exact same person they were at the start leaves the reader feeling like the journey itself was pointless.

The character arc ties all the other elements together, showing how their flaws, motivations, and backstory force them into a process of meaningful transformation.

Conclusion

Creating a realistic character is a process of layering, adding one detail at a time to build a person that feels genuine and relatable. By giving them flaws, clear motivations, and room to grow, you can craft a character who will resonate with your readers long after they’ve turned the final page.

Checklist

Flaws & Imperfections

• What is their biggest weakness or flaw?

• How does this flaw affect their relationships or decisions?

• Do they try to hide it, deny it, or embrace it?

Motivations & Goals

• What is their main goal in life, or in this story?

• Why do they want it?

• What are they willing to sacrifice to get it?

• Who, or what stands in their way?

Backstory

• What key childhood or past events shaped them?

• What is their greatest fear, and where did it come from?

• Which parts of their past still haunt them?

• Do they have secrets that influence how they act?

Voice & Dialogue

• Do they use formal or casual speech?

• Do they have favourite phrases, slang, or filler words?

• How do they express emotion when speaking (sarcasm, bluntness, hesitation)?

• Does their background (class, culture, education) show in their speech?

Mannerisms

• What’s their posture, or way of moving?

• Do they have habits (chewing lip, tapping fingers, twirling hair)?

• How do they show emotions physically (nervous tics, confident gestures)?

• Do they dress practically, fashionably, or carelessly?

Character Arc & Change

• What lesson or truth must they learn during the story?

• How do they start emotionally and mentally vs. how do they end?

• Do they grow, regress, or resist change entirely?

• What event or decision forces their transformation?