Lesson 2 of 9 Free account 4 min read
Characters Readers Care About
How to build characters with a want, a need and a wound, give them agency, shape their arc, and keep a supporting cast consistent with a character bible.
Key takeaways
- A character's want drives the plot, and their need drives the arc.
- A flaw rooted in a specific wound makes a character's mistakes feel inevitable rather than convenient.
- Readers forgive unlikable characters but rarely forgive passive ones.
- Every supporting character should want something of their own.
- A character bible keeps details consistent and helps you notice who has gone flat.
Readers will follow a character they care about through a slow plot, an odd structure or a hundred pages of quiet. They won't follow a character they don't care about through anything. The good news is that caring is not magic. It comes from a few specific choices you can make on purpose.
What Is the Difference Between Want and Need?
The want is what your character is consciously chasing: win the case, find the missing sister, get the promotion, get out of town. It is concrete and visible, and it drives the plot. The need is what they actually have to learn or accept to be whole: that they can't control everything, that they deserve to be loved, that the family they ran from wasn't the problem. They usually don't know they have a need.
The richest stories put want and need in tension. A lawyer wants to win at any cost, and needs to learn that some wins aren't worth the cost. The plot keeps offering chances to get the want by sacrificing the need. The climax forces a choice between them.
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