There is nothing that makes a reader put down a book faster than boring characters. Even if your plot is fascinating and action-packed, if the reader doesn’t care about the characters, why should they read on?
I know there is a lot written on how to write characters in depth, 3-D — whatever you want to call it—but I figured it couldn’t hurt to discuss it again (especially since I just finished editing a book where one of the main characters was a fascinating, broken person with clear goals and a complicated backstory… and the other main character was practically a cardboard cut-out of a person).
That’s the thing—you can’t do all the work for one character and leave the others alone, especially if you’re writing romance. Yes, in romance, there is usually one character who is more of the protagonist than the other, even though they are both the focal point of the book. But you still need to know the backstory, goal, motivation, and conflict of the other main character. And if you can know this for the secondary characters as well, all the better. Tertiary or walk-on characters don’t need to have this information established, we just need to be able to see generally what sort of person they are either through a brief description or, even better, their dialogue.
So, what exactly do we need to know about the protagonists?
Their goal — what they want and need by the end of the book. This is broken down into internal (what they need to make them happy, whole people) and external (what outside of themselves do they want: fame, fortune, a nice house in the suburbs).
Their motivation — why do they want or need these goals? What is it that will drive them into doing absolutely anything and everything to get them. (Think of Dorothy in the movie the Wizard of Oz — she killed the Wicked Witch to get back home. Why? To be with her aunt who was like a mother to her.)
The conflict keeping them from attaining these goals. For the internal goal, it could very well be the character themselves who is stopping them from success. These conflicts need to last the entire book and are only defeated at the end when the character has grown enough to know how to get beyond them.
To make things easy, I always fill in this sentence—one for the internal goal and one for the external:
(Protagonist) needs (Goal) because (Motivation) but (Conflict), therefore (what they’re going to do to achieve their goal).
In addition to the character’s GMC, you also need to know their history. Where to they come from? How were they raised? And what wound are they carrying around with them the determined how they view the world and what they believe?
This is essential information you need to know. It is not necessary for you to tell the reader straight out, but as you, the author know these things about your character, it will color the way you write the person. Because of your knowledge, you’ll know how the character speaks, how they behave (especially in a crisis), and how they view themselves and the world around them.
Knowing all of this information—both GMC and backstory—allow you to create well-rounded, deep, 3-D, lifelike characters. And with such characters your reader will care and need to know how they achieve their goals.