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“Curse Your Sudden Yet Inevitable Betrayal!”

Sometimes the characters that we think are good guys turn out to be bad guys. How do you create believable traitors?

In The Lord Of The Rings, Saruman was Gandolf’s friend and mentor, the wizard that he trusted most. In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo turns to his old friend Lando Calrissian.

Many dramatic scenes in fiction begin when the hero realizes too late that a trusted friend is actually working for the other side. As writers, we create all kinds of characters, good guys, bad guys, innocent bystanders. Creating characters that end up turning on their friends, however, has some particular challenges.

On the recommendation of a coworker, I started reading Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy. The books are apparently known for Follett’s meticulous historical research, but when I first opened Fall of Giants, I was wondering why no one had warned me about the seven-page list of characters.

Seven. Pages. Of character names.

What’s the most important element in a piece of writing? Is it the plot, the characters, descriptions, dialogue, or the style? Obviously, you can’t single out only one. A powerful work succeeds in combining all of them in a unique mix producing a master creation.

A mundane theme can be saved by a great writing style; poor dialogue can be replaced with a fantastic storyline, and descriptions can be skipped altogether if it’s not your cup of tea. Undeveloped characters, however, are not to be hidden or overlooked by anything else. So, how do you build a strong character?