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Hello! Welcome to my weekly newsletter!
Enjoy a dose of my playwriting process,
writing confessions, and all the mess in between.
The thing is, we don’t remember characters because they’re nice. We remember them cos they’re broken. Because they want something so badly, and the world keeps getting in the way.
A good character isn’t just deep — they’re stubbornly rich.
They push. They fall. They claw their way through conflict with conviction or delusion (sometimes both). And the more they fight, the more we care. Because we love seeing people suffer.
As the German’s say: schadenfreude.
So, how do you write one?
1. Give them a want so strong it’s almost embarrassing.
The kind of want that drives every decision. Even the messy, self-destructive ones. Love. Power. Escape. Belonging.
Let them want it in a way that feels desperate, specific, and deeply human.
2. Put them at war: internally and externally.
A character’s richness comes from the collision between what they want and what they fear, what they say and what they can’t admit.
Make them contradict themselves.
Make them fight against forces bigger than them: people, systems, history, guilt, even their own damn shadow.
3. Let them get derailed.
The play starts with a very strong want. Then something throws them off. That’s the turning point.
But here’s the trick:
they must either try to get back on track or change tracks with just as much force.
But whatever they do, their new goal has to be just as strong as the original. Think Little Mermaid and wanting to be where the people are.
4. Make them painfully unaware of themselves.
Some characters know exactly what they’re doing and why. Others are lying to themselves until they are truly forced to confront it in the final scene. Both are valid.
But make sure you, as the writer, know the truth beneath the truth.
5. Make them BEG for it.
Satisfaction is boring. What we really want is to watch someone earn it, mess it up, or realise they wanted the wrong thing all along. This just adds colour and depth to your character.
Bonus tip: Want ≠ Need.
Your character might want revenge. But what they need is forgiveness.
They might want to win. But what they need is to be seen.
Let that tension live in every line, driving the plot and the character development to depths that just makes your play that much more interesting.
Stubbornly rich characters aren't just dramatic — they’re alive.
They don't wait for permission to move. They demand the play to happen.
So write them like they're real.
Then make them try, fail, beg, win, lose, fight.
What is your one tip for writing meaty characters?