We want readers to connect with our characters, to step inside their shoes and invest in their journeys.

But creating that easy connection between reader and character isn’t always a clear-cut process. Do our characters need to be, in some way, relatable for readers to connect with their stories? In my opinion, yes, but perhaps not in the way you might think.

Today, writer, let’s cut through the chaos and get straight to the point. If you want to encourage readers to invest in your characters' journeys, here are two key tips you don't want to miss!

The best friend. The sassy co-worker. The fellow thief on the crew.

Our stories’ sidekicks can come in all shapes and sizes, but the one thing that unifies them is their potential to aid our protagonists through the toughest times in their personal journeys — and maybe create a little secondary tension along the way! 

With such strong purposes to serve, one would think that crafting sidekicks would be a cinch, but it’s not often that a truly sensational right-hand character finds their way onto the pages of a book. So, how can you ensure that your protagonist's sidekick adds real and memorable value to your story? Let’s break down my top tips today, writer!

With all its heart-aching tension and warm, fuzzy feelings, it's easy to see how a good love story can stand the test of time.

Crafting love stories of our own, however, is often tricky business. In a genre as oversaturated and teeming with exhausted tropes as romance, crafting a love story that feels fresh and exciting often requires more than a little hard work. Fortunately, time and intention are on our side. 

By focusing first on crafting the characters who will serve as love interests in our stories, we lay the groundwork for gripping romances to come. So whether you're writing the next great love story or simply looking to include a romantic subplot in your book, let's break down the do's and don'ts of crafting love interests today!

Are your story’s supporting characters receiving enough attention?

As storytellers, we often work diligently to bring our protagonists to life, taking pains to shape and mold them into characters that feel as real as the living, breathing people around us. Secondary characters, however, don’t always receive that same treatment.

It’s easy to skimp on the characterization of characters who aren’t always in the limelight, but doing so would be a mistake. If we want to immerse readers in a world that feels as rich and compelling as our own, our supporting casts deserve just as much attention as our stories' stars. Today, let’s talk about how to give it to them!

To create characters as real as the people around us, we must remember to forge for them their own unique voices.

With individual personalities, cultural influences, experiences, and world views, its no wonder people verbally interact with the world in different ways, and so our characters should as well. Doing so not only helps to distinguish them from the other characters in our stories, but to add depth and realism to their characterization. 

But how do you go about defining your characters’ unique voices? The process is admittedly a bit lengthy, but I promise it will prove well worth your time when your characters’ voices leap off the page truly and fully defined. Sound like a plan? Let’s get started with today's breakdown, writer!

Main characters can make or break a story’s success.

Oftentimes, the doubts we face as we work to bring our main characters to life can seem endless. Are our protagonists’ well-rounded enough? Are they interesting? Will readers root for them to achieve their goal? 

Choosing the right main character to carry the weight of your story is absolutely vital, but knowing whether you’ve selected the perfect protagonist can be tricky—or is it? Truth is: knowing you’ve chosen the right main character for your story doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s why…

Every story needs a good villain, right? Well, not so fast…

Stories need conflict, certainly, but conflict doesn't have to come at the hands of a cackling, mustache-twirling supervillain. There's more than one way to shape your story's antagonist!

In fact, there are four main types of antagonists that appear in fiction, and I can't wait to break them all down with you today. Which type of antagonist is best for your story? How can you make each type a true stand-out success? Read on for more, my friend.

No one wants to read a story about characters who feel like imitations of the people they could have been. 

Characters should be well-rounded and fully-developed. In other words, they should feel as real as the people around us. This is a topic we've discussed frequently here at Well-Storied, but strong characterization is too vital to a story's success not to examine it in every way possible. And so today, I'd like to approach the character-creation process from a new angle. 

So, writer, if you're ready to ditch paper-thin caricatures and half-hearted attempts at characterization, let's break down the six core questions you need to ask about your characters asap!

No matter how much tension you pack into the pages of your book, readers won’t care about your story if they don’t first care about your characters. After all, there’s nothing page-turning about a predictable protagonist playing out a predictable plot.

If you want readers to invest in your characters and their journeys, then you must craft characters that readers can believe in — characters so well-developed and realistic that they seem to spring to life on the page. But crafting a cast that moves beyond caricatures and cardboard cutouts can be difficult. What steps can you take to develop complex and compelling characters today?

Here are 33 tips you won’t want to miss…

We can all think of a few memorable mentor characters.

There's Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, Dumbledore from Harry Potter, Professor X from the X-Men comics, and Haymitch and Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games, among countless others who've stayed with us long after we've closed the pages of our favorite books.

Crafting our own memorable mentors who find homes in the hearts of our readers, however, is often easier said than done. Fortunately, with a little time and intention, anything is possible. So let’s get to work, shall we?

Writers often enjoy crafting their characters' appearances, yet just how important is appearance in the grand scheme of your story? Well, that depends.

In some instances, appearance plays a large role, informing a character's struggle, defining important cultural context, lending representation to under-served readers, and so on. Yet for most stories, a character's specific height or hair color bears little sway on the plot. Does this mean defining our characters' looks is unimportant?

Not at all, but we may need to change the way we think about appearance. Why so? And just how can we capture the clearest versions of our characters on the page? Let's dive into today's breakdown, writers!