Is there something holding back your story? Are the characters flat and unbelievable? Do they come off as unmotivated or even dull? Let's look at how complex characters drive stories, and how you can create a well-rounded deep character!
While a flat character doesn't mean a flat story, every instance has its niche, a complex character adds richness to the story. They can drive a story with even the most mundane and boring premise in interesting, and unique ways. Even within the most fantastical worlds, these characters thrive with motivations, desires, shortcomings, and strengths of their own that alone can keep the reader's attention and the pages turning.
Motivations And Goals
Whether your character starts out with a strong driving force behind their actions or stumbles upon it later their motivations and goals are the driving force behind their actions and the things that draw a reader in. Be that to sympathize, relate, or detest them over it. Harry Potter didn't become a wizard because "meh, I guess" he was motivated to find something more, new, and out of the reach of his aunt and uncle.
Hammer down your characters motivations, what drives them. Survival, love, what is their want? Do they want to be powerful? Do they want to capture fame? Do they just want to make it through the zombie apocalypse?
Next is a goal, a manifestation of that desire, that want, that motivation. To survive do they need to get the cure for the zombie vires? To become powerful do they need to train their superpowers? To feel loved do they believe a partner will fill that void?
Think long and hard about what their motivation and goal is.
Needs Vs. Wants
A well-crafted character doesn't always need the thing they want. Sometimes the hearts desires are hidden below the surface of the perceivable wants. Perhaps it's pain they need to grow past to learn that the thing they always wanted (revenge perhaps) was not what they needed (love, acceptance, forgiveness). Figure out the thing that they truly need. While it doesn't always have to be different, sitting with the character as they slowly learn what they need can be a far more compelling experience than just the initial premise.
A character with a differentiated need, whether the reader can pinpoint it off the rip or they have to spend time with the character to figure it out, can offer more of a chance to relate, understand, or sympathize with them.
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Complexities
Think long and hard about your characters strengths, weaknesses, and minor quirks, not in a physical sense but a mental, emotional, and decision-oriented sense. Perhaps they have bad judgment, they make dumb mistakes, they have little in the way of self-control, or discipline. Are they quick to anger, or not quick enough at all? Are they passive, willing to sit through any amount of vitriol just waiting for it to pass? Do they like spicy food? Is it because of a fond memory, or because it is one of the few tastes that are strong enough to move them? Do they hold on to a memento of a lost friend or loved one? Do they always mean well? Are they kind?
Consider each one in a realistic sense. Consider why they are that way, what in their past or experiences made them that way. You don't need to put too much thought into every reasoning, but just knowing "hey, she likes warm foods because her mother made soup when she was sick" can put a lot of meaning behind why your character always gravitates towards soup when she's sad or trying to cheer others up. Even if that fact never comes up.
Keep the list of these things small. One or two quirks, and three of four strengths and weaknesses are more than enough.
Example:
In my novel Hollows, my protagonist Nymue tends to wipe her hands on her skirt when she's nervous or uncomfortable, she tends to bite her lip before lying, and has a pension for being too quick to put herself in danger. While the reasonings for these are almost never brought up, save one character pointing out her lying habit, it is shown throughout the text by the repetition of these quirks in situations that they would apply to.
“You can't just wish strength for yourself. Or wisdom. Or resilience. Those things have to be earned.”― Katherine Center, The Lost Husband
Creating a complex character isn't as simply as saying Character A wants this and needs that, it requires you to think long and hard about that character as if they were a real person. Have conversations with them, listen to the woes, loves, and experiences of their past as if they were real. Craft them as if they were real. With each new character you create you gain experience, and a chance to create an even more compelling, complex, and rewarding character to introduce. Never stop trying, with ever little interaction you grow as a writer.
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