What are the best techniques for creating complex and multi-dimensional characters?

When you develop comprehensive backstories for your characters, including their past experiences, relationships, and significant life events, it will positively inform their present actions and motivations.

Writing backstories is freeing in many ways. They are experiences that happened before the film starts. Many or none would directly involve the other characters. We don't have to film any of them. We don't even have to directly relate them in the film. Having a few or several pieces of backstory revealed throughout the screenplay provides support to plot twists, etc. The length of a backstory could be huge without impacting the script length. Lots of room for brainstorming, lots of fun, and lots of depth, from writing backstories.

This doesn’t matter. If we don’t see it it doesn’t exist. Characters are defined by choices, voice and appearance - in that order. In film, writers only really control the first one. Backstories that don’t make it in to your script fall into that broad category of things that are fine if you find them useful. It’s also a great way to waste time and avoid writing. Go write.

Motivation, situation and conflict are the three cornerstones of a compelling character arc. Motivation helps drive a character, so much so that once you have a well defined situation and characters inner conflicts, motivation helps the character write its own path. You might have heard great writers say that how after a certain threshold the character starts writing itself. However, another important aspect to this is complexity. A character cannot just have a single motivation or a single incident that shaped them they way they are. Characters have to have multiple motivations and multiple defining moments that shape them. The best way to achieve that is to draw from real life. Characters are ultimately reflective of our humanity.

I always start with motivation, and then I go backwards to the characters’ backstories. We all function on motivation. What do we want? What’s driving us? Is it that promotion, that new house, that guy/girl we fancy, that degree so we can get a better job & insure a better future for our families? Once I have that character’s motivation, I can build a better background, and that helps the dialogue write itself.

Study two things to understand character arcs: First, stories. What are your favorite character changes in your favorite stories? How does this change occur over the course of the story? Second, real life: What ways have people changed that really impacted you? How have you changed in your life in deep and profound ways? In all these things, ask why: Why do these things stick out to me, and why do they matter? Do these changes make these characters/people more admirable? Relatable? Understandable?

Acting arcs are crucial as they bring depth and dimension to characters, enhancing the overall narrative. Well-developed arcs captivate the audience, create emotional connections, and contribute to a more immersive storytelling experience. This depth resonates, making the content more memorable and engaging for viewers.

It is pertinent that your primary characters have an arc. Meaning that when we start the story, they have a scar from an old wound that covets closure but the character is unwilling to take the journey or has an inherent flaw(s) that impedes an otherwise smooth life. By the time story ends, if the character is able to at least bring a closure to the wound or overcome the flaw in a manner that brings the final twist in the story, that's when the arc is visible and the story lands.

I often do the opposite of what I was taught. I start "playing" with dialogues at an early stage. Some might say it's too early because I don't fully know my characters yet, but for me, exploring how they speak or react in certain situations gives me insights into their wants, needs, and backstory. This approach is a unique part of my writing style. Every writer should find what works best for them. Of course, the ideas that fit the characters the best come during the polishing stage, which is much later. A book that really helped me is 'How to Write a Script With Dialogue That Doesn't Suck' by Michael Rogan.

Dialogue should be the last resource you want to put your character thru, but you have to know how your character talks before you write him. As dialogue may seem like the most important part of acting, it often isn't. The really funny part about writing dialogue, though, is that you can't write it as if it were the only intention your character has, because humans don't behave like that. So think of it as a way to disrupt how your audience thinks of him. Either you confirm he's a good guy, or not, or if it's a character that doesn't speak what he thinks, but rather has deeper or crueler intentions with the plot. At the end of the day, it is just another element that complements your story and serves a purpose like everything on screen

Dialogue is not only about the words. Dialogue is sound, eye contact, mimic, guests, even sneezing is a sort of dialogue. Dialogue is how your Character communicating with the World, even ignoring is a dialogue. Wisely dialogue is a condition of a character. Condition of a character is the main thing you have to keep In You mind when you creating your character.

Simply put, the dialogue in a film or a TV Show or a web show, is not just something that a character speaks in a live action drama. Dialogue has two primary objectives - to reveal something about the character or to set in motion, an action plan, though not always but in the principal scenes that either take the story forward or dramatically change its course. In Godfather, when Marlin Brando says that "I will make you an offer you can't refuse" gives us an insightful peek into the character's psyche, background and the swathe that he holds over the region and the people. It tells us that this is man you don't want to mess with and want him on your side, at all times, no matter the cost/

A lot of storytellers just starting out hear the phrase "Show, don't tell" and immediately assume that EVERYTHING has to be shown to the audience instead of told to them. In practice, it's more of a balancing act. The key is to show the important things that matter to the plot. Minor details, facts, or data can and SHOULD be told to the audience, especially if it improves the pacing of the story. Otherwise, you run the risk of dragging things along or trying to shoehorn that information into a spot where it feels natural, which often results in a scene that feels anything but.

So many scripts I read have so much dialogue of exposition that it immediately takes me out of the story. I can learn a lot more about a character by their actions than by lengthy dialogue.

Have you ever seen someone on the street, and you can almost tell how they talk just by looking at how they behave? Oftentimes, if you get the opportunity to see them talk and behave, you'll find that your assumptions were wrong. And some other times, you are almost right. This is what storytelling relies on to build characters. We build expectations and then the characters either confirm them or confront them. You can SHOW all of this in many ways, rather than TELLING, because showing tells more than telling, you understand what I mean. If you show a big character that looks gnarly and mean, and in the next shot you show him hugging a puppy in a childish way, you're saying more about that character than anything else. Keep creating

The paramount significance of "Show, don't tell" cannot be understated and there are many filmmakers and writers who fall short of it. Principally because, "tell" is easier to implement and execute than "Show". All we have to do is either have a scene where the characters have too much of exposition dialogue or a narrator in the background. While sometimes, it becomes imperative to use either instrument howsoever counter-intuitive, but it must be borne in mind that visual memory is the strongest and when we have emotive scenes unfurl layers of the story, the audience not only relates to it, but also remembers without having to bother too much.

A common mistake when adding character flaws with the intention of adding depth is making the flaw itself two dimensional: "This character drinks too much." "This character has anger issues." "This character had an embarrassing moment in high school that haunts him." If the flaws aren't something your character (or surrounding characters) struggle with, truly contend against, then they are not flaws: they're "quirks". Ultimately, the flaws need to affect the story and how it unfolds, otherwise they are simply set dressing to uninteresting character.

Giving a main characters(s) internal and external moral dilemmas is a great way to deepen and dimensionalize them. If these 'conscience traits' come up against opposing viewpoints or objectives from others in the story ensemble, then it will invariably lead to conflict whilst in the process revealing aspects of the protagonist that can be used to interact or springboard the narrative into another direction.

Flawed is my favourite part of this truly beautiful World. But let's say that zone of growth, peculiarity and features which make you character REAL! And the best thing you can do is to attract the World by these flaws. You literally let the audience fall in love with flaws.

Challenging your characters is one of the best ways to create depth and dimensions. It will not only aid you in writing a script that has rhythm and pace, but you will also be able to unfold your character’s wants, desires, flaws and more. Give them something to achieve and then see their characters unfold

Scope defines the limits of the characters. Scope is defined by the story. For example, the Pirates of East Africa, or The heroes of the sea. From the two examples above, the story is about the same people however the perspective is different. When we talk about pirates we are introducing the characters as villains however, when we talk about heroes the characters are "heroes" the limits of the characters, their world, representation, weaknesses, strengths, and perspectives are defined and guided by the story.

Workshop your scripts! Even if it’s just gathering a few actors together for a table read (on Zoom works, too, if you aren’t in the same city). Actors love to take a character out for a spin, and will be able to give you insights that you can never get unless someone inhabits the role from the inside. This process can also help you with the overall dramaturgical structure, finding the right tone, setting emotional high points, etc. I can guarantee you that something fresh and unexpected will come out of it — that you never would have found alone at your desk.

Don't forget to use visual storytelling to reveal aspects of your character's personality rather than relying solely on exposition. Actions, expressions, and environments can convey a lot about a character. This in turn, enhances the overall storytelling experience.

Something that is often forgotten in the writing process, especially if you want to make complex characters that have dimension, depth to them: It's so much easier when the person writing is a complex person with dimension. If you're trying to fit your own identity into a neat and simple category for yourself and the world, then you won't be in the right place to generate a complex identity that isn't conforming to your own set of expectations. What are the problems you struggle with? The hard questions about yourself and others that you might try to avoid? Those are the nagging threads that most try to trim away that actually makes humans interesting. Lean into those things, and even use your characters to explore those questions.

Revisit your writing multiple times after you have completed the first draft, set it aside for a few weeks and worked on something else, read another book or watched a bunch of movies and visited other worlds. Then come back to your writing, re-enter the world and look at it, not as your creation, in awe, but as an audience and see what works for you, what doesn't. Make the changes ruthlessly and do not hesitate to deploy the "Kill-your-darlings" tenet. Any scene/subplot/dialogue you feel is dragging or seemingly out of place but in silo, you love that piece of writing, discard it. If it doesn't belong to the story, it doesn't stay with the story. Remember, the moment you move astray from the story, so does your audience from your writing.