How to Get My Characters to Act

J.J. Richardson
May 30, 2021
4 min read

Updated: Mar 6

If you Google “How to get my fictional characters to act?” you’ll get advice that looks something like this:

Establish your characters' motivations and goals.
Develop your characters.
Create conflict.
Paint a clear picture.
Slowly reveal your characters' actions in light of their established backstories.

Wow. Stimulating. I'm tearing up.

You’ll find hundreds of papers repeating similar instructions. My goodness, how people like to write articles! However, such discourses don’t explain how to make characters act.

Actors are portrayed on the screen in vivid detail with perfect lighting and expensive clothing, makeup, and hair styling. But even with all that going on, they must still act--and before much character development, conflict, story, or mood has been established.

The same goes for many literary fiction characters.

"I don't want you to act like a robot. I want you to be a robot."

-- James Cameron to Arnold Schwarzenegger

How do I get my characters to act?

I don’t know who initially said the following, but I heard it from Brent Spiner, so I’ll credit him:

If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.

-- Brent Spiner

In only eleven words, the sentence provides all an author needs to do to make fictional literary characters behave like real human beings.

Here are three practical steps to help you apply Mr. Spiner's couplet:

Believe that your readers can only imagine what you write on the page and nothing more.
Write down every action the character makes, no matter how relevant or inconsequential, again remembering that your readers have no independent imagination. Believe that your readers will only imagine what you tell them, and nothing more.
When you’re done with Steps 1 and 2, filter out (delete) unnecessary character actions based on 1) what you believe your readers actually can imagine on their own, and 2) what isn't used later in the story.

When you’re done with Steps 1 through 3, you’ll have characters who act.

You must understand that if a scene is early in the story, the readers may not yet have access to the character’s motives, personality, and backstory. But this is okay because the lack of knowledge helps the reader to continue reading.

The fourth step is to intersperse your character’s internal thoughts and feelings between their actions. For a simple example, which of the two scenarios feels more genuine:

Scenario 1:

“I love you,” Jack says.

Jill slaps Jack.

Scenario 2:

“I love you,” Jack says.

How dare you say that when you're dating Betty?

Jill slaps Jack.

Let me provide a more thorough example.

Setting: A boy likes a girl, but she won’t return his telephone calls. It's been a week since their last date.

List the full physical visual description of the boy’s actions. Include everything. No editing. No internal thoughts—this is “outward” behavior only:

He pulls up to the curb across the street from her home, but one house down.
Looking at her house, he reaches for the ignition key to turn off the engine, but lets it run.
He sees her lawn, her front windows, the roof, the shrubs, and the trees.
He glances at her neighbors’ homes, still holding the key in the ignition for another minute.
He slowly turns the key, and the engine stops.
He takes his time pulling the key from the ignition.
He leans back in his seat and sighs deeply, still looking at her house.
He puts the key in his front pants pocket.
He sits for another minute before opening the driver-side door only an inch. He waits another minute, looking at her house.
He steps out and stands up, closing the door quietly.
He looks both ways down the street and walks directly to her front door, his hands at his sides, his fingers straight.
He walks up to the white-paneled door and notices the round doorbell button on the left side of the door.
He turns his right ear toward the door for a moment.
He pushes the doorbell button.
He waits about thirty seconds while looking back and forth between the door and his feet.
He checks to ensure his shirt is tucked in properly, feeling around his waist and back with both hands.
Scowling, he pushes the doorbell again and waits another thirty seconds.
He brings his right hand to a fist, raises it to eye level, and holds it a couple of inches from the door.
But he doesn’t knock.
He sees the curtained windows to his right.
He sighs again, nods, and looks down at his feet before turning around.
He walks back to his car, again looking forward, with his hands to his sides and his fingers straight.
He gets back into his car, but this time does not delay starting it and drives off, rubbing his forehead with the back of his right hand.

Yes, the preceding twenty-three steps are hideous--they're nothing more than a series of events, but hang in there. Notice that not one thought or feeling was described.

But could you feel for this guy? We may disagree on what he felt, but I'm sure we agree that he felt something.

Was he shy?
Was he desperate?
Was he angry?

All this from a bare list of actions with no commentary or explanation.

Now, imagine the scene after we trim away unnecessary actions and add his internal thoughts and feelings, informed by his motives, personality, and backstory.

The story at that point begins to feel rich, natural, and believable.

The characters must run the story

There's one more point to be made. The characters must think, feel, and behave as if they're real people. The author's job is only to report the characters' thoughts, feelings, and actions effectively to readers. The author is not the writer, but the reporter.

Readers are more likely to believe in the characters' realism if the characters are running the story. The readers don't care about the author and don't even want him or her to exist.

Many famous authors, such as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and Lee Child (Jack Reacher), don't write story outlines because the characters will depart from them anyway. Outlines kill creativity. George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones) sees himself as the "gardener," not the "architect."

These very famous authors are at the mercy of the behavior of their characters. If the readers are at the mercy of the characters, the author should also be.

If we did this on every page of our prose, we’d win awards. So, what’s stopping us?