How to Write a Better Story, Part One: Building a Better Character

What is a character? A character is the player in the story. He can perform the action or he can be affected by the action performed. Characters doing all the talking in fact without them there would be no story. So as you can see the characters are the most important part of the story. However, most people don't know how to bring them to life. In the next few articles I want to show you some tricks you can use to make your characters more believable.

First of all, I want you to know that just about anything can be a character. Characters come in all shapes and sizes. They come in different breeds and species. They can be humans, animals (cats, dogs, lions), elements (the wind, rain, the sea), etc. Characters can be anything you can think of.

Secondly, there are really only to types of characters the main character(s) and the satellite characters. A main character is the star of the story. He is the main focus of the story. Everything that happens in the story revolves around him (which is probably why they call them the star of the movie). There can be more then one main character, but you should try to keep down to two or three. The reason being if you have any more then that people start to get confused.

The rest of the characters are called satellite characters. They revolve around the main character(s). Main characters like most people will not just reveal there inner feelings or just jump into actions without a little push and this is what the satellite characters do. The push the main character(s) into action. They ask the questions that the audience is thinking or what you want the audience to think (Do you know that girl?, Do you love him?, What are you going to do, now?, etc.). They move the story along by revealing details to the main character as well as the audience.