Hi Saraina, thanks for agreeing to a written conversation like this. You have been blessed with eleven siblings [am I right?], which, I think, exposes you daily to a glorious variety of characters.
For those who don’t know, Saraina, as a wordsmith, will be discussing what makes a great character and how to think about them. I’ll be adding thoughts on how his points are relevant for visual storytelling. We hope to come to a place where we can all learn something and hopefully better glorify the Author who wrote us into being.
Introduction
Dragon-storming knights, beanstalk-climbers, ark builders, shepherd kings, crow-fed prophets, fishermen apostles, down to the cloud-haired, creaky-jointed grandpa loosing a hymn to rattle the coffee shop windows or the hair-curlered mountain, glittering with Christ’s hope through greasy spectacles. All characters; men and woman God loves and examples to us. Our Author, it seems, abounds in variety and has created all the great characters profoundly different yet similar by the thread of their devotion to his kingship. There is so much to learn from observing God’s characters, and we hope to do that in this conversation.
I’m looking forward to this discussion and discovering the significance of characters in storytelling and our own lives.
Character Anatomy
Saraina, I would like to start off with discussing how characters are crafted. What makes a character admirable? How do we make a character unique? Are characters perfect? Is it important that they change? What attribute do all the great characters of the Bible share?
The best characters feel like real flesh-and-blood people. Someone you could meet around the corner any day. And because our goal in crafting characters is to make them as realistic—as human—as possible, that comes with the daunting reality that characters should be just as complex as you and I. Full of conflicting desires and beliefs and fears. Beset with distinct yet relatable flaws. Possessing an equally unique set of gifts and strengths.
And bouncing off that last sentence, I love that you ask what makes a character admirable. I think as modern writers, we tend not to think about that aspect of characters, instead fully focusing solely on what makes a character relatable. But I remember reading my favorite books as a little child and looking up to the characters for their noble qualities. For their examples of courage, loyalty, faith, resilience—leaping off the page and into our hearts. And I believe THAT is the secret to admirable characters. It doesn’t have anything to do with superhero qualities, special abilities you could never have yourself, or some other such vague, out-of-reach heroism. It has everything to do with that which can be inside of you too.
We need characters who possess (and learn) noble qualities, from staunch integrity to fierce loyalty to unflinching bravery. And that’s because when couched in the setting of a story, messages stick with us in a more memorable way. (Hence the many parables in the Bible.)
However, no one wants to read about a cardboard cutout good boy hero who’s only known for and defined by his numerous virtues. Not only is that not realistic, but it's off-putting, because humanity is flawed and sinful, and “no one is good, not even one.”
There is a certain hero archetype where the main character is nearly perfect, and accomplishes amazing feats, slaying the dragon and saving the damsel. These characters aren’t meant to be relatable. They don’t need to undergo any change. They are celebrity-level heroes, out of our reach and meant only to inspire and admire. A certain part of us loves those kinds of characters...because we love to see justice carried out and innocent lives rescued and darkness defeated.
But just like the best characters feel like real flesh-and-blood people, deep down, we’re far more drawn to the imperfect character. The character who makes mistakes.
In the Christian fantasy novel A Cast of Stones by Patrick Carr, Errol, the hero, starts out as a drunkard. (Yes, not just the stereotypical drunkard’s son...but the town drunk himself.) The author didn’t sugarcoat his weakness and flaws, didn’t shy away from his repulsive traits.
And we as the readers end up falling in love with him. The kid has major issues, to put it lightly, but even if we can’t relate to his external conflict, we know exactly what his emotional struggles feel like, his despair and guilt and hopeless resignation.
Now, if Errol was only a drunkard, and had no positive, valuable qualities whatsoever, I probably would have thrown the book away because that’s just depressing. But there are just enough flashes of the gold beneath the dirt for us to see the potential. The hope. And as he embarks on his journey and we see his character arc play out, we’re not disappointed. He makes plenty more mistakes, but he grows.
Noble characters may not be born with an innate courage and resilience, but to face their fears and grow, they need to be willing to make the hard choices that force them off the easy, well-trodden path, just like Errol does.
I believe that’s an attribute that all the great characters of the Bible share: courage that chooses the hard thing, that chooses the narrow path. Esther risked her life to save her people, clinging to the hope that mercy would be granted. David refused the armor Saul offered him, instead facing Goliath with only a sling and a stone to prove that God alone was his shield. Hannah persisted in praying for a child even in the face of mockery, when it would have been easier to give up and wallow in self-pity. Abraham left his home to follow God’s calling when it would have made more worldly sense to chase his own comfort.
Change requires choosing the hard path. And we crave characters who change because that speaks to our humanity, and it gives us hope that the same can happen for us.
***
Well said, Saraina. A prow set in the right heading and courage to weather the storm is the centre of a great character.
The tales of the scriptures you mentioned remind me of G. K. Chesterton, who, in his wonderful work Orthodoxy, comments on how vividly different the saints all are. Light exposes colour and those who are turned toward it find their characters growing more vivid. A man who laughs in jolly defiance as he is mocked for sharing the truth has a far richer joy than the man who laughs as he suspends a cat above a bathtub. It’s because he has the genuine item; the fuller joy. Emotions and characteristics become thicker and more vibrant the closer they get to the light. And so the beauty of a character comes first from whether they are sailing toward the sun, because as they approach it, their uniqueness becomes all the brighter. As artists and writers, we should show the creativeness our Creator shows in the variety of his people. The goal in visual design, as with the actual crafting of them in stories, is to create characters that are each wildly unique, but connected with a chord of design that makes them belong to the same story. They are each moving toward the same sun, but with different coloured sails.
Figure 1
Character in Story
Characters don’t live by themselves. They exist in an environment. Noah had scoffers and rainless country; David had Saul and Goliath; Jesus had the pharisees, rag-tag followers, the romans, Jerusalem (palm leaves, colt and all), and the weight of the world. How does environment show character? Is conflict good in a story? How do characters harmonise or clash with other characters or surroundings? How do you use these effects?
Environment plays such a powerful role in story! From sweeping fantasies with craggy cliffs and mythological creatures, to small-town mysteries with old cobblestone streets and lampposts shrouded in fog, the world the story is set in can immediately set the tone and mood of the whole story.
I think one of the best fictional examples of this is from The Lord of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Frodo and his friends come from the Shire, an idyllic place full of gardens and gently sloping hills and cozy homes with round doors. When disaster strikes, he and Sam undertake a journey to Mordor, the polar opposite of the Shire. It’s dark, cold, sharp, barren. When the hobbits are in the middle of Mordor, the contrast between innocence and evil couldn’t be any more stark. It heightens the stakes, deepens the conflict, and is so symbolic of the entire theme of the story.
Environment is also the key to external conflict. The plot is influenced by what surrounds the characters - including the season, the weather, the area the character lives in, the people they regularly interact with. How the character responds to this external conflict will reveal their internal conflict.
The surrounding side characters can be also used to strategically highlight qualities in the main character. That morally grey hero with the tragic past will be more understood and loved when pitted against a far worse villain who’s cold-blooded from top to bottom. But when that same morally grey hero is paired with a sweet-tempered, innocent character, he can come across as an unforgivable rogue while the “good” character appears angelic.
A fun example: in Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Bingley are best friends, but Bingley unknowingly contrasts with Darcy’s character. Bingley is infectiously cheerful, generous-hearted, and warm. Darcy is already reserved and distant, but when compared with Bingley, he seems intolerably stiff and cold. Some would even call him rude.
Characters need other people in the story, just like we need people in real life. Taken by themselves, a character can lack a distinct personality, but when plopped in the middle of a diverse cast and carefully crafted setting, their true colors will emerge. We understand them better when seen in conjunction with their environment.
***
I enjoy what you said about conflict, Saraina. In art, we also use contrast to emphasise the differences. A circle in an angular setting looks rounder, a red car in a forest of greenery looks all the redder. I think it was C. S. Lewis who said that one doesn’t know the force of the wind until you walk against it. It is the man who fights sin who knows the real force of it, and the same applies to character. We don’t know the depth of someone’s character until it is tested. Then we can better see the type of courage or dedication or humour he has. And maybe this is part of why (as with my first comment) the saints are far more vivid than their adversaries. They are men and women facing the current, and not surrendering to it.
Real-Life Characters
What type of characters should we aim to be? What traits should all of us share with the great characters and aim to cultivate [or hoping to have cultivated in us by pursuing our maker]?
How should we see our environment? How should we see conflict?
How can we better understand and appreciate people (God’s characters) who He has made wildly different from us?
Writing and reading characters doesn’t just make you an expert in the world of fictional characters. It directly applies to real life (as all things do, really), and I know for myself, I’ve come to understand the people around me so much better. I can place myself in their shoes and give them the benefit of a doubt when otherwise I’d be quick to judge.
And just like there are endless differences between fictional characters, there’s a wide, rich variety of personalities in real life. Some are quiet and thoughtful (*raises hand*), some are sociable and wear their heart on their sleeve. Some are good with expressing emotion verbally and others do it best in writing. Senses of humor range from sarcastic to dark to comical to silly. The spotlight draws some, while others would listen intently from a cozy corner. Some crave adventure, others familiarity, and many people, both. Not to mention how everyone has some delightfully contradictory aspects to their personality. (I’m your classic hobbit – a quiet introvert who loves books and comfort. But I hate being home alone. Contradictions abound in real life, just like they should with fictional characters!)
God made us wondrously different. And yet, at our core...we’re all the same.
In our fallen world, conflicts abound everywhere, and our individual environments each come with their own curses and difficulties. It takes courage to find joy and contentment to “bloom where we’re planted,” as the saying goes. Ultimately, we’re all the prodigal who’s stubbornly following his own warped desires. We need our own redemption arc...and we need to trust our Author to write a far better story than we could ever write.
By ourselves, our stories all end in tragedy. But with Him, it ends in triumph.
Conclusion
Triumph. What a good way to end. As every protagonist’s story should. Jesus has overcome death and we live in the hope that he will fully conquer our dead hearts. We read about drunkards becoming kings, exactly because we are drunkards longing (and made) to be in the King’s house. We love the flawed characters, not because they are flawed, but because they are in the darkness (as we are), and sailing toward the light. May each of us be a character in God’s vibrant setting with our prows dipped sunward, Jesus at the helm, and our coloured masts leaning against the gales trying to push us off course.
More From Saraina
Saraina writes romantic Christian fiction and is currently working on A Noble Princess, book 5 of her Cornerstone Series. Itis available for pre-order on Amazon. She also has a great blog.
Cosmic Chaos Sample
If comics are your thing, or meaningful stories, I have set up a sample of my upcoming comic Cosmic Chaos for you to view.
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