After building compelling characters you should reveal them to your readers without stopping story from moving.
Creating characters is just the first step in crafting a compelling story, but revealing those characters to your readers in an engaging way is the real challenge. You may have spent time developing complex motivations and rich backstories, but the difficulty lies in unveiling these traits while maintaining the flow of your story. Pausing the narrative for an extensive explanation of a character’s motivations or history can disrupt the pacing. While narrative summary can be useful, the most effective storytelling often involves showing your characters through their actions and thoughts, rather than just telling your readers about them.
So, how do you reveal your characters without stalling the story? Here are several valuable techniques:
What a character says—and how they say it—can reveal much about their personality, values, and intentions. Through conversation, you can subtly introduce the reader to the character’s voice, attitude, and even hidden motivations. Whether they are speaking directly or avoiding certain topics, every piece of dialogue is an opportunity to reveal character traits. For instance, a reserved character might speak in short, clipped sentences, while a more open and emotional character could be more verbose or expressive.
Example: A character who chooses their words carefully may indicate someone calculating or anxious, while a more talkative character might reflect confidence or impulsiveness.
Actions can speak louder than words, particularly when it comes to character development. How a character reacts to a given situation can reveal their underlying morals, fears, or desires. Even small gestures—like how they handle objects or interact with their environment—can reveal deeper aspects of their nature.
Example: A character who helps a stranger in need without hesitation might be portrayed as compassionate and selfless, while someone who walks away could be seen as detached or indifferent.
Physical descriptions provide more than just a visual image; they can also reveal how a character perceives themselves or how they wish to be seen by others. The way they dress, carry themselves, or their overall appearance can serve as a window into their self-awareness, level of confidence, or internal struggles.
Example: A character who is meticulous in their appearance may be concerned with control or self-image, while someone with a disheveled look could be struggling with emotional turmoil or a lack of care for societal norms.
By providing direct access to a character’s thoughts, you allow readers to see their inner life. Interior monologue can reveal a character’s anxieties, desires, and inner conflicts that may not be evident through their actions or dialogue. These thoughts can provide a richer understanding of their motivations and choices, drawing readers deeper into the character’s psyche.
Example: A character may outwardly appear calm during a tense situation but reveal through their inner thoughts that they are feeling immense fear or doubt.
While similar to interior monologue, interior emotion focuses on the feelings a character experiences. Different characters express emotions in varying ways, and this range can help readers understand who they are at their core. Some characters may bottle their feelings inside, while others wear their hearts on their sleeves. Their emotional reactions to events can be just as telling as their actions.
Example: A stoic character may internally feel waves of anger or sadness but suppress them to maintain composure, while another character may react impulsively, letting their emotions dictate their actions.
Flashbacks can be a valuable tool in providing insight into a character’s past, offering context for their current behaviors and motivations. However, overusing flashbacks can disrupt the story’s pacing, so they should be used sparingly and strategically. When used well, flashbacks can provide pivotal information that sheds light on a character’s decisions, creating a deeper understanding of who they are.
Example: A flashback to a traumatic event in a character’s life can explain their present-day fear of intimacy or trust issues.
Revealing your characters is an art that requires balance. Instead of lengthy expositions, you can use dialogue, action, description, interior monologue, interior emotion, and selective flashbacks to expose your characters in a way that feels natural and engaging. The key is to ensure that these elements flow with the story, allowing the reader to discover who your characters are while staying immersed in the narrative.