I was talking to my long suffering wife (she has skill in hiding her boredom) about characters I am writing.
I was saying that characters don’t always have to be in opposition. But the outcome of their actions must impact others in the story.
This feeds mostly into motivation.
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Character is defined by the choices people make.
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Yep. You can’t say you’re a great guy while torturing people.
Multiple readers have commented that they enjoy having all the characters I present in my story, Palace of the Golden Princess, to be overtly evil.
I believe shows like Game of Thrones encourage the belief that everyone acts selfishly.
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Your post reminds me of something I do when I outline characters, Craig D Griffiths. I think you mentioned that you do the same thing. I'll do a relationship chart kinda thing (I don't have a name for it) where I'll show how each major or minor character affects the other characters (major or minor). And I'll include how they interact and how they feel about each other.
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Maurice Vaughan John Truby calls it the Character Web.
Protagonist -> ally(s) -> false ally that eventually turns on the hero
Antagonist ->ally(s) -> false ally that eventually turn on antagonist
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Ok, thanks, Christopher Phillips. Yeah, similar to that. I'll really go into detail with them, and it helps me think of backstory, scenes, dialogue, etc.
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I believe a character needs to have “skin in the game” (for Aussies a dog in the fight). A character needs to have a reason for their involvement. For example.
You hear a young couple arguing on a bus. He says something dumb, she gets off the bus. You may think of a hundred bits of advice, but you stay quiet, because you are not invested in the outcome. Now if that was your brother, you may give them advice. You are invested in their happiness.
You often see characters that only exist to give advice or information. It bumps us, feels poorly written. When we write them we get told, they are one note, flat or unmotivated. We get this advice because the note giver may not understand why they feel the way they do about the character.
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A character needs to have an imprint on your main protagonist's character arc, or at least in the overall grand scheme of things. Otherwise, it's a waste.