The Self Contradiction

This is a very simple technique for improving characters. Every time I’ve written a story, every time I used it, I realized it was even more powerful than I thought.

I call it the “self-contradiction” or the “paradoxical character”. To me, there are two levels. The first is easier to write, but less powerful. The second is harder to write, but will create a truly compelling character.

Level 1: competing desires

The technique is simple.

Give your character two competing desires. They desperately want two things, but can realistically only have one.

A few chapters ago I gave the example of a hacker who wants to sit in their room behind their computer … but who also enjoys nature and wants to go outside all day. Two simple competing desires, but they immediately lead to interesting story.

The character is always moving, because there’s always this tug-of-war happening inside them. You never know for certain what they will choose or what they’ll do, making them less predictable or superficial. The trick of competing desires is a very simple way to ensure a dynamic character that never sits still, while presenting a problem that many will have faced in real life.

Of course, you can apply this to any desires. But as always, it’s better to make the contrast as big as possible. If somebody only “kind of” desires something, it’s not strong enough and the technique doesn’t work.

Level 2: paradoxical traits

Instead of competing desires, you can go one step further and build a character out of multiple contradicting parts or traits.

On the surface, these traits seem paradoxical or nonsensical. How can a character be both “angry” and “calm”? How can they be both “a murderous criminal” and a “gentle lover”? How can they be both “unbelievably smart” and “incredibly stupid”?

Well … that precise question makes the character interesting. If you present your character as this great contradiction at the start, the audience will become interested and ask such questions.

But how does this work? How do you write it? How do you prevent this contradiction from simply being an inconsistent mess?

It starts by realizing that character traits are often situational. Every character has an emotional limit. When they’re below the threshold, they display behavior X. But when pressed, when pushed beyond the limit, they display behavior Y.

An easy way to formulate this, is by writing down the following sentence for each character.

They always do X, except in situation Y.

Obviously, you replace X and Y by anything you invent.

With this simple technique, you can get a character with a wide range of (competing or contradicting) traits. But it makes sense and is understandable to the audience, creating empathy and interest.

This is also a great way to show who a character is without telling the audience directly: by creating a contrast or contradiction between how they portray themselves and who they truly are.

You might call this the trait of a good character arc: the whole story builds to the moment when somebody’s true character is finally revealed. The thing that was inside them all along finally comes out during a twist, or climax, or impactful conflict. (Could be good—which looks like a change into a better person—or bad—creating the antihero or the fall from grace.)

Now write!

Write a story with characters developed using this technique. Use level 1 for most characters, but level 2 for the main character(s).

You’ll notice your characters will surprise you. If you stay consistent to their definition, they’ll constantly make interesting choices or turn scenes into a surprising event. Hopefully you also notice how this constant tension within the character keeps the story moving forward and yearns to be resolved.

I know this simple trick helped me a lot to improve my characters. I use it almost in reverse nowadays: if a character has no conflict inside them, then they’re boring and superficial, and I want to change them.