Customizing your Character: Brandon Sanderson's Writing Lecture #6 (2025)

Mar 04, 2025

Behind the Scenes vs. What Readers See

As we touched on in the introduction, what writers worry about and what readers see are often two different things. Your reader is going to feel if your character is not proactively moving the story forward, however, they may not know exactly how to articulate that. Instead, they’ll attribute it to the character’s personality. So, you want to be thinking about your characters from all angles, not just the behind the scenes stuff.

This distinction captures a fundamental truth about storytelling. Writers need to understand the mechanical underpinnings of character (the motivations, arcs, and roles we discussed last week), but readers connect with the manifestation of those elements through personality, dialogue, and quirks.

"It's like an iceberg," Brandon explains, gesturing with his hands. The reader only sees what's above water, but as writers, we need to know the whole thing. The personality is what readers fall in love with, but that personality needs to be anchored by everything beneath the surface.

A Quick Note: Iconic Characters

Now, some characters fall into a bit more of a niche category. Though it goes against traditional writing wisdom, these are characters that don’t have much of a traditional character arc. Brandon refers to them as iconic characters.

"There's this idea that every character needs a transformative arc," Brandon says, "but that's not always true. Some characters may have small arcs, but their development isn't the story's primary focus."

Examples Brandon cited include:

James Bond (whose character remains largely consistent across stories)
The Babysitter's Club characters (who maintain their core identities book after book)
The Hardy Boys (who solve mysteries without fundamentally changing who they are)
Mary Poppins (who transforms others but remains essentially unchanged herself)

For cosmere fans, you might see the comparison between an iconic character and Raoden from Elantris. Though, Brandon does say that Roaden technically has an "apprentice arc" but remains largely consistent throughout the story like an iconic character would.

"Sometimes," Brandon noted with a smile, "we might get tired of watching characters learn something. Sometimes we might want to watch someone pick up a bazooka and be really great at it."

This approach creates a different kind of storytelling dynamic. With iconic characters, the dramatic tension often comes not from "Will the character grow?" but rather "Will the villain be SO capable that they beat our hero this time?" Or sometimes, "Will this highly capable character be able to save everyone, or will there be a bittersweet outcome?"

The Triad of Character Identity

So, now you know that a character’s presentation can alter the traditional writing wisdom you’ve heard. If they’re more iconic, the story might be more about how they affect the story then how the story affects them.

Brandon said, "Iconic characters are the phrasing I prefer to use for characters who do not have character arcs, who do not necessarily change story to story. And there are a lot of these. Sometimes they'll have a mini character arc in a given story. But that arc is not relevant to their entire personality. These are characters whose stories are written to be read out of order."

Chances are that you aren’t writing too many iconic characters, though. They’re iconic for a reason! For the majority of your character work, you’ll want to focus on the triad of character identity. Let’s take a look at what those three things are that make up a character’s presentation of themselves:

1. Motivation: What does a character want?

"This is the foundation," Brandon emphasized. "Motivation is the first and most important element for your character."

He explained his own writing process, which differs somewhat from his approach to plot and worldbuilding: "I generally outline my plot and my world heavily, but I do not outline my characters as extensively. I go into the story and start writing them as I'm searching for these three things—personality, motivation, values—and I'm exploring different manifestations of how I could express these."

This exploratory approach has led him to write multiple versions of characters before finding the right fit. "I had three Vins before I arrived at the Vin that worked,” Brandon said, referring to his protagonist from the Mistborn trilogy, “I had two Kaladins before I arrived at the Kaladin that worked. Dalinar was always Dalinar. He worked on the first try. He just is who he is. Like, the Dalinar that you read about is the same Dalinar in 2002, who is the same Dalinar who's in the story I started writing when I was 16. So Dalinar's just Dalinar, too stubborn to be anybody else."

To find compelling motivations, Brandon suggests asking questions like:

What in this character's history informs why they make the decisions they do right now?
What key decisions have influenced this character?
What doesn't this person want people to know about them?
What failure will they never repeat?
How do they interact with blaming themselves for failures?

"These questions help you dig beneath the surface," Brandon explained. "You're looking for motivations that feel both authentic to human experience and specific to this individual character."

2. Personality: How does a character express what they want?

Personality manifests in how characters pursue their motivations. This is where the reader really starts connecting with your character, because how they go about getting what they want tells us so much about who they are.

He suggested examining several dimensions:

Are they aggressive or passive in pursuing their goals?
Will they speak up directly or work their desires into conversation subtly?
Do they plan meticulously or improvise on the spot?
How do they treat others while pursuing their goals?

Take a character who loves her family. One character might express that by spending quality time with them, preparing meals together, and organizing family activities. Another might work extra hours to provide financially, rarely seeing them but ensuring they have everything they need. A third might be fiercely protective, constantly scanning for threats and teaching family members self-defense. Same motivation—love of family—but three very different personality expressions.

Brandon emphasized that each approach reveals something fundamental about the character. The first values emotional connection, the second values security and providing, the third values safety and preparedness. None is wrong, but they tell us completely different things about who these people are.

Creating your character’s personality can be daunting. Trying to avoid stereotypes and tropes can feel really, really challenging! The important thing is not to stress it too much in the first draft. As Brandon said, "At the beginning every character's going to come off as a stereotype mixed with an archetype. Right? They're going to be, 'All right, this is the wallflower who never speaks up for what they want and lets everybody walk all over them.' You will add nuance as the story goes."

3. Values: What principles guide the character?

"Values influence both their motivations and how they express them," Brandon explained. "They're often the key to making even villainous characters understandable."

He illustrated this with Magneto from X-Men: "Why did Magneto want to destroy all humans? If you understand his values, you understand him. He believes that humans will eventually do to mutants what was done to him during the Holocaust. He needs to strike first to protect his people. It's horrible, but you understand the values driving him—protection of his kind, prevention of genocide, and a deep-seated fear born from trauma."

Brandon contrasted this with more enigmatic villains: "You can have iconic villains where you don't really understand their motivations. Lord of the Rings is a good example. The story probably wouldn't be strengthened by knowing Sauron's motivations in great detail. His job is to represent a giant force that has to be reckoned with."

But he noted that Tolkien balanced this by including Gollum, "who is VERY relatable and you understand him deeply. He JUST WANTS THE RING. Why? Because he's been corrupted. That's internally consistent, even if it's not morally justified."

Character-Building Techniques

Moving from theory to practice, Brandon shared several techniques for developing characters who feel alive on the page.

Finding a Character's Voice

"Everyone has their own methods for finding characters," Brandon said, "but the key thing is to figure out some fundamentals so you can consistently determine what decisions they would make in any situation."He shared various approaches:

Ask revealing questions: Beyond the motivation questions mentioned earlier, Brandon suggested thinking about: "What would this character do on a rainy day with nothing planned?" "How do they treat service workers?" "What's in their refrigerator right now?"

The Hollywood approach: "Hollywood writers often ask: What does the character want, why can't they have it, what does the character need, and what must they sacrifice to have that? These four questions can quickly outline a character's journey."

Visual inspiration: "I have a friend who looks through magazines for pictures of people and then develops characters based on those images. The visual cue triggers something in their imagination that helps them understand who this person is."

Establish core traits: "Determine a few fundamental traits that help you anticipate how this character would act in any situation. This creates consistency and makes any deviations meaningful. If they ever break pattern, readers will notice and understand it's significant."

Writing Distinctive Dialogue

"Dialogue can do so much heavy lifting in stories," Brandon emphasized, his own pacing increasing with excitement. "This is probably the single most important tool for conveying personality to readers."

He recommended a challenging exercise: "Write a scene with three characters without any dialogue tags or setting descriptions, forcing you to make each character's voice so distinctive that readers never lose track of who's speaking. If you can master this, you've mastered character voice."

Some techniques for creating distinctive dialogue:

Dialect and accent: "These can be effective," Brandon advised, "but use them sparingly. Too much written dialect can become grating for readers. Usually, less is more—a few flourishes go a long way."
Speech patterns: "This goes deeper than accent. Does your character speak in short, clipped sentences? Do they ramble? Do they interrupt themselves with new thoughts? Do they use metaphors constantly?"
Word choice: "The words people choose tell us a lot about them. Are they formal or casual? Do they use technical jargon? Do they swear? Do they use outdated expressions?"

Brandon cautioned against common stereotypes, like intelligent characters who don't use contractions. Drawing from his experience with his college roommate Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy! fame), he noted: "Ken doesn't use $20 words [often]. He'll throw one out, but it's really precisely for the right moment, not just a word that sounds smart. And when he's with other very intelligent people, he starts shifting into a new language we can call 'Simpsons quotes'—they start cutting each other off because they know what each other are going to say."

He continued, "Highly educated people will organize their thoughts differently. Their sentences will become more complex, and they will build off of each other. If you can get that down in your diction, you will have a different kind of depth for evoking an intelligent character than simply having them not use contractions."

Character Quirks

"Characters will be remembered for their quirks first, and then you can add depth as you go on," Brandon explained, using his character Lopen from The Stormlight Archive as an example. "A well-chosen quirk can become a character's calling card."

But he emphasized that quirks should ideally connect to deeper character traits, not just exist for their own sake. He shared the example of David from The Reckoners, who is terrible at metaphors:"

This quirk works well because it reinforces David's core character trait—he jumps into things without thinking them through. That applies to metaphors too! He'll jump in without considering what the metaphor actually means, and his brain works in such a unique way that what comes out is hilariously wrong. It reinforces his primary character trait."

By contrast, Brandon admitted that not all quirks work equally well: "In The Frugal Wizard’s Guide to Medieval England, I tried something similar where the guy is constantly rating everything out of five stars, and it didn't work as well. It felt more forced because it wasn't as directly tied to his core personality."

Viewpoint Characters

As our session continued, Brandon offered practical advice on viewpoint management:

"While you can write a giant 10-viewpoint story, if it's your first book, I might recommend a single viewpoint in first person," he suggested. "Two viewpoints works even better in some ways, because you can switch to the other character when one gets boring. Network TV does it all the time—they use A plot, B plot structure."

He pointed out an important distinction about viewpoint combinations: "Two characters who are part of a romance, in the same place and interacting with each other, don't expand the scope of the novel as much as two people on two continents. So, if you want to do four viewpoints, it's easier to start with two people in two different places."

Brandon used his own work as an example: "In The Way of Kings, I have Kaladin, Dalinar, Shallan, and Szeth as main viewpoints. I also added Adolin in with Dalinar occasionally—it was a late revision addition, but though it expanded the book by about 5%, it was worth it to balance things out."

This led him to discuss what he called "viewpoint clusters"—groups of characters whose storylines naturally flow together. "Sometimes you can treat a cluster almost as a single viewpoint entity in your planning," he said, "because their stories are so interconnected."

Handling Challenging Character Types

Writing Characters Readers Might Dislike

When asked about writing characters who might provoke negative reactions, Brandon suggested focusing on what makes them interesting rather than likable:

"Cruelty towards our protagonist, especially if it hits them in their weaknesses, is something readers will dislike. But if you want readers to keep reading about a challenging character, make sure they're interesting. Give them clear motivations that make sense, even if their actions are problematic."

Writing Introspective Characters

For characters who are highly introspective and easily distracted, Brandon offered two main approaches:

External forces: "You can use external forces to keep them moving and pulling them forward in the plot."

Engaging voice: "Make their voice so darn readable and interesting that we don't mind that they're naval-gazing. This is what you'll find in a lot of first-person romance novels. It's because the writing is so interesting that you don't mind."

He cited Jane Austen as a master of this approach: "Jane Austen is one of the great writers of all time. It's not even the first person, it's the voice of the prose and the character that we are engaged by. We're there for scenes that normally don't feel like they're moving the plot along very much, but we're there for the voice."'

Brandon added an important caveat: "Not everybody is there for plot. In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you're reading for voice. Promise-progress-payoff is like seventh on the list of important things for that book series. The humor is more important than whether the mechanics of the worldbuilding make sense. The message is more important. The voice is more important."

On Writing Characters from Different Backgrounds

When asked about writing characters with backgrounds different from his own, Brandon emphasized the importance of research and sensitivity:

"Read primary sources," he advised. "This is enormously helpful. Read 'I am a forensic scientist, here is what people get wrong about forensic science.' Read 'What it's like being a transgender person in the United States.' These will tell you what media gets wrong and will tell you so much."

His key recommendations:

Remember individuality: "Any given human being doesn't fit their mold perfectly. You can write a character who doesn't fit their mold in some ways as long as you're getting other things right."

Get expert feedback: "Let people from those backgrounds read your work. Skyward got so much better because I went and got actual fighter pilots and said, 'All right, what am I doing wrong?' The book improved enormously because I had actual pilots tell me what it feels like."

Use multiple sources: "Get three or four people because again, people are individuals. Living with a specific condition is different for each person."

Consider potential harm: "Ask yourself if you might be doing damage. As a popular author, if I get something wrong and perpetuate a stereotype, it can be devastating to readers who already struggle with misrepresentations."

"The authenticity will make your story better," he concluded. "In every case where I've made changes based on feedback, my story has been better for all readers, not just a specific group."

Until Next Week

We’ve gone over lots of fantastic, applicable content regarding character development and presentation. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that it’s usually how a character subverts a stereotype that makes them interesting. As Brandon said, "Every one of us doesn't fit our role for some reason, because roles are BS—it's just how human brains have to try to process the overwhelming amount of information we have."

So, don’t be afraid to experiment! Finding the quirks, contradictions, and unique perspectives that make your characters distinctly human might be the most powerful skill a writer can develop. After all, as Brandon reminded us, "That's what books really are—they're about characters."

Join us in two weeks when Brandon returns to discuss Sanderson's Laws of Magic!

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