This is a more detailed synopsis of the questions we usually subject characters from the dramas we watch to.
There are many ways as to how you can determine strong characterization. Different critics focus on different aspects of the characters they analyze (not to say that we’re critics at all, nope, we’re not) and our set of questions, we believe, are the most basic ones.
The three things we like to pay attention to the most about a character are: flaw, development, and consistency.
Here it is:
1. Does the character have a story to tell besides romance?
A character cannot exist to pursue a romance even in a 100% romantic story. A character should not be defined by how much they love someone else. They must have their own story, their own ambitions and emotional development outside of their love life.
2. Is he/she an active character? Does the character make things happen or do things happen TO him/her?
A damsel in distress in this case does not mean a weak person, or a person who is incapable of getting herself out of dangerous situations. We use the term to refer to passive characters whose only purpose is to be there and be themselves.
A well written character drives the plot forward with his/her decisions, which, in turn, should be based upon his/her personality. These decisions consequently lead to more plot.
Circumstance (or plot) plays a major role in storytelling but what the character decides to do given the circumstance is even more important.
A princess being locked in a tower is a circumstance. Trying to escape from this tower is the first step towards making things happen. The princess may succeed, she may not, but the point is: she does something about it instead of waiting for someone to come, and while doing so, she may create other circumstances that may directly impact the story.
So, not only does a character have to take actions, their actions also need to yield some consequence that drives the course of the narrative. Hence, “making things happen”.
3. Does the character take action to accomplish his/her goals? Is he’s she motivated by things outside of his/her life?
This questions deals with goals on a smaller scale. It doesn’t have to be a grand goal, random/ordinary ones will do just fine.
But here are the criteria: if a character has goals, he/she must be seen to work towards these goals. It is no use introducing a character whose wish is to become a warrior but never show the steps he/she takes to reach this goal. And it helps tremendously if the character sets his/her own goals and if the goals are guided by the character’s beliefs.
It is no use saying that a character plans to do something grand but then let other characters work out his/her problems for him/her and only have him/her do some major sacrifice in the end.
Romance-related goals earn the character 1/2 point. If they also have other goals, they earn one full point.
4. Does the character have an interest?
This is the one aspect that fictional characters (especially drama characters) almost always lack. Even the best written characters sometimes lack an interest. When they do have interest, the particular interest is not consistently developed and serves more as a plot device.
Why is having an interest important? It is what makes the character realistic. Interest has nothing to do with emotional, mental, or physical strength. Lacking an interest does not mean the character in question is “weak”, but having one would make him/her more realistic, more closely resembling real people.
Here we do not require the particular character’s interest to be tightly connected to the plot (because if we did, all characters from drama nowadays would probably not get this point), although it should be. All that is required here is the character having something he/she consistently enjoys doing.
5. Does the character stand up for what he/she believes in?
Belief is among the most important things about constructing a character. Real people have beliefs and they act on those beliefs. Beliefs are what guide our actions, what make us who we are.
Knowing a character’s beliefs enables us to understand why they do what they do, why they react to certain things in a certain way.
Why does Ruoxi (Scarlet Heart) decide to leave the person she loves in the end?
Why does Bai Zihua (Journey of Flower) deny his love for Hua Qiangu until he basically passes out?
Why does Xin Ziyan (Rise of Phoenixes) refuse to bow to Ning Yi after the latter is crowned Emperor?
All of the above characters’ actions are guided by the values they are raised to believe or identify with and these values of theirs remain consistent for the most part throughout the story they take part in.
And no, “I love [someone] very much” is not a belief.
6. Does the character develop throughout the story?
When someone goes through something, they change, sometimes only a tiny bit, but still, changes are a part of real life. And it should be the same for fictional characters.
If a character is constantly put through near-death experiences, physical and mental suffering but in the end remains the same, then those experiences are pretty much meaningless.
Development does not necessarily mean major change. It can be something as small as getting over your fear of spider. But big or small, the change has to be there and has to be brought about by experience and consistently executed.
However, it is should be noted that a lot of times, especially in older novels (Huan Zhu Ge-ge, for instance), the writer chooses to leave the characters the same – or give them very little change – reason being they would like to honor the idealistic version, the best version of their characters and emphasize the qualities these characters stand for – kindness, forgiveness, etc. In some cases, to be too realistic would defeat the purpose of the novel as a whole.
Whenever this is the case, we do take it into consideration before deciding on whether the character can earn the point.
7. Does the character have a flaw?
FLAW. IS. IMPORTANT.
And no, by “flaw” we don’t mean unable to cook, adorably clumsy, or harmlessly naive.
A flaw is a trait that prevents a character from being otherwise perfect and fully functional. A flaw should get the character into troubles that he/she has to overcome himself/herself. A flaw, most importantly, should be something that causes problems in the character’s daily life, or causes the character to be taken advantage of, or causes them to fail in the most pivotal moment so that they could consequently development as a person.
Flaws should not be treated as attributes. We notice that many loved characters in popular stories (especially those that are made into C-dramas) are given the flaw of INDIFFERENCE – male characters, to be specific. But all this so called flaw does is make readers/viewers as well as other characters fawn over the guy more. Very rarely do we see an indifferent, ice-cold guy who fails at something he does BECAUSE OF this flaw.
Female characters, on the other hand, are constantly given the flaw of NAIVETE; but this flaw, too, usually serves no purpose other than to make the character look more adorable in the eyes of her admirers.
The bottom line is: fictional characters should get the chance to make real mistakes, and should have real weaknesses. FLAWED is what makes them human.
8. Does the character have meaningful relationships with other characters beside her love interest?
While analyzing a character, looking at his/her relationship with other characters can tell you a lot about their personality – the kind of people they hang out with, the influence they get from these people, how these relationships affect their decisions and drive the course of the story.
If a character’s only influence in his/her life is a love interest, then it is an incomplete character in terms of personality. How do we (as in… all of us) interpret a character whose only interest is gawking at the man she has a crush on, or a character who spends the entire story doing what he thinks his girlfriend wants?
If a character is said to have a best friend, but we never see their relationship go beyond idle chatting for comic relief, then this relationship does not count.
If a character is said to care a great deal about his/her family, but never mentions them, or never takes them into consideration when making a decision, this also does not count as relationship.
A meaningful relationship does not necessarily have to be a positive relationship. It can be any kind of influence as long as it is solid influence – the influence Yehua (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms) gets from his grandfather, the Heavenly Lord, is an example of negative influence.
9. Is the character consistent?
Consistency seems to be what characters in recent dramas lack the most. Writers of these shows usually would change a character’s personality and beliefs for the sake of a tragic ending, a quick ending, or a final showdown they believe viewers want to see.
A character should remain consistent throughout a story in both personality and ability. They can change after an experience they go through but the core of their personality should remain the same, unless we’re talking about some tragic, unbearable experience that does a complete 180 on someone. Even then, SOME core qualities should stay the same.
Ex. If a character is presented to be a bad-ass female warrior who knows no fear and can sweep out hundreds of bad guys at once, she should not suddenly become useless so that someone else has to burst in to save her life just for the sake of starting a romance, she should not be detained by some random and unexpected means that have never been explained in detail before.
Female characters in C-dramas usually suffer from personality inconsistency while male characters’ skills and abilities are all over the place.
In dramas based on popular fantasy stories where male leads are always expected to be top dogs, a guy can be an excellent swordsman/strategist/military commander, an awesome cook, a skilled painter, an unrivaled chess player, etc, without any limits or explanations whatsoever as to how he acquired these skills. He can basically use up all of his magical powers to save someone in order to impress his woman, and is still able to battle more bad guys and monsters afterwards. When the need arises, however, some kid can just push him from the back and he will cough up blood and falls into the female lead’s arms.
You get the point.
While all of these things, if executed right, can bring about entertainment, they significantly harm the consistency of a character.
10. Can you define the character by personality?
This question sums up everything the other questions address and is kind of a bonus point, mostly because we don’t want any character to end up with zero point. If a character has consistency, flaw, beliefs, and development, ect, he/she naturally earns a point here. If his/her personality is inconsistent, we can look at the level of inconsistency to determine the answer.
It is important to note that two characters with the same score are not necessarily equally well written. In most cases, it is because, once again, our questions are incredibly simple; and while a character maybe deeper, more well developed than another, the fields that we explore do not cover all aspects of their character in order to give them credit.
BOTTOM LINE: if a character gets a low score, it does not automatically mean we dislike the character. Respectively, well-written characters aren’t always the most likable ones. Looking at these characters critically is one thing, but at the end of the day, we’ve never lost our ability to just lay back and enjoy a good, simple drama with simple characters (…if it’s GOOD…).