How to avoid 2-D characters?

Question

If there's something I hate, it's two dimensional characters. How do I avoid them in my writing?

No test messaging language allowed.

Answer 1

The best way is know who they are first. After that, it's simply a matter of making sure your characters make some sort of progress in your story, in every chapter.

What I do is this: find a book I like to read and open it, read the first page and list what you learned so far in that page. Don't make any guesses. Just list things you've learned in that page only.

Also, remember just because you tell the readers everything about the characters it doesn't mean they are automatically 3-D. You could say (and you'll be my example):  

Martina had brown eyes and blonde hair, but she would've preferred to have blue eyes instead. Blue was her favorite color. Her family members, however, were all brown-eyed with blonde hair. She enjoyed sticking out, but it was impossible to do without a distinct feature of her own. So, to be different from the crowd, she did things her family members didn't do: skateboard, surf and study martial arts techniques.

End example. Okay, that was random, but I Martina would still be flat to me. Let's list what we learned in the paragraph alone:

-she has blonde hair and brown eyes.

-she wants to be different.

-she skateboards, surfs, and studies martical arts techniques.

-her favorite color if blue.

-she wishes she had blue eyes.

-she wishes she had feature that would make her different from the rest of her family who all look alike.

-none of her family members skateboard, surf or study martial arts techniques.

That seems a lot and it is, except the way it was presented was flat. It was TELLING and not SHOWING, which is very important in the writing world.

Here, let me rewrite that paragraph to show and not tell:

Martina ran her hand through her blonde hair, wishing she didn't look so much like the rest of her family members. All had blonde hair and were brown-eyed like her. If only she had a feature that would give her a distinction from the rest of her family.... Maybe blue eyes. Blue was her favorite color. "Hey! Martina!" One of her friends called, interrupting her thoughts. She saw him walking towards her. "Wanna go to the skatepark?"

She nodded. Skateboarding was one of the things that made her different. Skateboarding, studying martial arts techniques and surfing; she enjoyed being different. "Let's go." She went to get her skateboard.

Alright, that's not completely showing but it's better than the other paragraph I jotted down. You still learn the same amount of information, but it's presented in a better way.

I hope I helped, even if it was a little bit.

Good luck!