Do you really know your character?

[Ace_Sorou]

I have a test for you. I understand it as "ladder reasoning."
Now, full disclosure, this is not my idea. But it is very useful for discovering whether your character is good. And when performed honestly, it creates a great character for your story.
The way it works is like this: every rung of the ladder represents a different decision based on how a character reacts to a situation. The first rung is always "when I am blank, then I will blank." And every rung after that is a variation of "if that fails, then I will blank."

Let me use my own character to make my point. My character is named Jack Calder. He is a Hot Rodder from Arkansas. When his story starts out, there's nothing really special going on around him. He is at peace. So what does he do?
"When I am at peace, I will drive to the next town."
Okay, we've established the first rung. Let's move on to the next. What if the car breaks down?
"Then I will get out and fix it."
And that's the second rung. What if you don't have the tools?
"Then I will make or find the tools."
That's the third rung. What if you can't get the tools, and can't fix the car?
"Then I look for help to fix the car."

Now granted, in this example, I don't have Jack's accent. But I do have his thought process and his reasoning. What can you tell about Jack just from his answers?
- He values survival as motion
- His car is not equipment; it is part of his identity.
- He believes problems are solvable through mechanical logic.
- He prefers agency over surrender.
- Asking for help is a late-stage concession, not a first instinct.
- Even his fallback still preserves the original goal: keep the car alive.
That last part matters enormously.

A weakly constructed character eventually abandons the original value under pressure because the author runs out of psychologically consistent answers. A strong character keeps revealing deeper layers of the same value.
Most authors can easily answer the first rung. Maybe the second. But they have difficulty answering the third and the fourth rung. And that is where your story is. That is where your character shows his true colors.

See, as an author, you might think you know your characters. You could easily answer what they do, you could easily tell me all about their personality. But that's just an illusion. If you really want to know your characters, use ladder reasoning. Because it will get them to reveal who they really are.

 

[CountVanBadger]

He is a Hot Rodder from Arkansas.

Suspension of disbelief shattered beyond repair. The only thing anyone drives around here are pickup trucks.

 

[Ace_Sorou]

Suspension of disbelief shattered beyond repair. The only thing anyone drives around here are pickup trucks.

I said he's from Arkansas, not that he stays there.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Interesting thought experiment. Have too many characters to do this with - though it pretty much IS the first chapter of Strange Awakening.

 

[Tetrahedron]

basically it's the part of "what will he/she/they do given a certain situation and how he/she/they will do it?" process.

And the "how" part may be simple, but it's ideally going to be having so many layers. Along with many more questions (most, if not the whole 5W+1H)

 

[Dawnathon]

Let me use my own character to make my point. My character is named Jack Calder. He is a Hot Rodder from Arkansas. When his story starts out, there's nothing really special going on around him. He is at peace. So what does he do?
"When I am at peace, I will drive to the next town."
Okay, we've established the first rung.

I'm not sure if that's a great example. Maybe with more context it makes sense, but "Everything's fine so I'm leaving" leaves a very big question of "why?" It's more important for any deep understanding of a character.

When Jimmy Bob Jones hears a sound at night, the first thing he does is grab his gun before investigating anything. The question is if he's doing it for fear of a break in, experience with wildlife causing trouble, excitement that he'll have the chance to kill a burglar, out of instinct without any real thought, etc. For some characters it's fine to just know what they do, but for others it's even more important about why they'll do it.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

Every murder mystery needs some unique aspect to the killing
every crime story needs some kind of investigation trick

In the "how to writing guide" game, I see you need some novelty characters exercise.

Here's mine...

0--- If I needed a "hot rod" character, okay, I got one.
1--- His name is "Frank".
2--- A-N-Y question you could ask me about Frank? I can answer it. The answers will be all over the *map*.
3--- Because Frank, is a r-e-a-l person. I knew a "car guy" in college. You know, a real gear-head.
4--- I can tell you his height, weight, skin tone, background, course of study, personality quirks, anything.
5--- Its easy to decide how Frank would react to anything. I just imagine the real "Frank", its a easy task.
6--- I'm using a real life person, Frank, as a "character model".
7--- The only real work, is finding a real-life person you can assign your character model to.
8--- Hell, if I was reading *your* book, my movie in my head would probably generate "Frank" to play the role.

--- You can use two character models if you have to. One for looks, one for answering any questions.
--- The power of this system? Your character model is a REAL PERSON. your book character, is now very real.
--- This solves hollow character voice, as a bonus. The real Frank serves as a guide. I can close my eyes, and conjure up his wit.
--- I find this makes dialog easier/better/more realistic.

Every "character system" is designed to create a supposedly "real" character out of thin air.
Why not just start with a real character in the first place.