You definitely should not play with your food…but if you want to write engaging characters, then you are going to want to play with them!

The secret sauce to know how to write engaging characters is by making them come alive, right?

When the characters feel like real people, not just placeholders for the story, then the entire world you are creating becomes deeply intriguing and inviting.

But what does it mean to “play with your characters?”

Well, I mean that literally.

If you have a character, let’s say a person who will provide a piece of information to the main character of your story in order for them to conquer the BBEG, then you could have them be some generic gangster/info broker personality…or you could put yourself in their shoes…

…

The way I have accomplished this, which I have mentioned before, is to create a character in an RPG and play as them. Make choices as if you were that character.

For me, I usually use Skyrim, but there are tons of other games you could try them out in.

If you want to know how to write engaging characters, then you are going to have to find some way to put yourself in their shoes and bring them to life in your mind’s eye.

Write engaging characters through games

Dylan, I’m not the video game type of person!

Yeah, I hear ya.

So here is another thought I would have for you: play any game, but play as your character.

And I do mean anything.

Play 20 questions for all it matters and ask/answer/think the way they would.

Let’s use an example here for how I have written engaging characters before…

There is an anime called My Hero Academia that I was obsessed with for a period of time (let’s be honest, I still am). When I had a character with a set of ideals diametrically opposed to my own…I played a game with myself…

As I watched MHA I would imagine this character watching the show, too. Then, we would, in my mind, discuss what was going on in the show.

In particular (and, spoiler alert here for those interested in MHA) I watched the episodes with a villain named Stain.

Stain had an interesting ideology about superheroes.

He believed that true heroes don’t care about fame or the money…they genuinely cared about helping people at all costs. Anyone else was a “false hero” and so he would straight up murder them.

And he was good at it.

On the face of things, he was evil, right?

But he also had a good point. The world had become saturated with people who were “pro heroes” that didn’t actually care about people as much as money and fame and power.

Something needed to change, but the way he was trying to enact that change wasn’t the right way.

Stain makes for an engaging character to watch and study.

And my character agreed wholeheartedly with Stain’s approach, not because he wanted to kill but because he wanted truth and justice at all costs. He wanted an improved society that was built on truth rather than the lies being fed to them.

In “watching” these episodes with my character I came to understand how complicated they were and ended up going back to rewrite some of the ways in which they would have reacted to various situations in the story I was working on.

And that’s how to write engaging characters–by letting them live a life of their own, if only for a moment.

Now you know how to write engaging characters, too

That about wraps this up.

I have a lot more thoughts and feelings on the subject, but we will discuss that more as time goes on. Play is a critical part of writing…and play is poorly understood in Western culture and society.

Now, if you like what you have read and want to see more about what is going on at DSM Story Forge, then you are going to want to check out Stories From the Forge.

If you just want to see more actionable tips on how to write and how to market your books as a self-publisher, then The Story Forge is going to be right up your alley.

If you are an author who has a book ready to go or you are wanting some help with the self-publishing route, then I would love to see what it would look like to be a DSM Author (read the info on the page and click the link to fill out an interest form so we can start talking).