Four Keys to Writing Compelling Character Dynamics

By Jodi Clark

They grab your attention. Their dialogue is both hilarious and sometimes cutting. These characters jump off the page, and their relationships with the other characters in the story only serve to make each character more interesting as they interact with each other. The character dynamics in this story have pulled you in and made you want to read more, if only to find out what happens next to your new friends.

A fantastic way to make sure that your reader keeps reading is through dynamic character relationships. It is always a joy to find yourself laughing, crying, and rejoicing with characters who have personalities that leap off the page, rather than sitting through hours of a book with characters who can’t even crack a joke, let alone complement each other’s personalities in a way that pulls you deeper into the story.

Today, I’ll be analyzing a few dynamic character relationships and showing you how you can write your own compelling character dynamics that will keep your readers glued to the pages of your story.

Their Differences Spark Personal Change

First, let’s define dynamic. It is “a force or factor that controls or influences a process of growth, change, interaction, or activity.” Now, as we all know, one of the main things our characters need to be doing throughout our stories is experiencing change. In other words, they need to be growing as a person and learning the lessons that will help them overcome the obstacles that they face. 

We can help our heroes to change and grow in a positive way by exposing them to other characters that are unlike them, who think, act, and live differently than they do. These other characters can then influence our heroes to change because they challenge the hero to see and experience things in a whole new light.

Let’s take Shrek and Donkey, for example. At the beginning of the first Shrek film, Shrek is living in isolation. The only things he has in his lonely life are his swamp and his hut and he wants to keep it that way. 

Then one day, Donkey comes into his life, and at once, you can see how different they are. Donkey is loud, boisterous, and friendly, where Shrek is guarded, grumpy, and hostile. The differences between them are immediately visible, and you watch as Shrek’s irritation grows while Donkey stubbornly continues to talk to him and try to befriend him.

A dynamic character relationship helps the hero to grow and realize the lesson that they need to learn in order to win the final battle. In this case, Donkey’s stubborn friendship helps to break down Shrek’s walls and get him to reveal why he hides from the world in his swamp. Check out this video to see how Donkey and Shrek’s friendship begins to affect Shrek:

Even though Donkey can be annoying and invasive, it is precisely those traits that make him the perfect companion to challenge the fearful and reclusive Shrek to grow out of his self-imposed isolation and risk being vulnerable and open to love and friendship. If it weren’t for Donkey pushing Shrek to change, Shrek would never have gone after Fiona to declare his own love for her and stop her from marrying Lord Farquaad. Shrek would have continued being miserable in his hut in the swamp by himself with no friends and no purpose to his life other than being a scary ogre that everyone was afraid of.

In what ways can the differences between your characters in your story push them to grow? One way you can immediately come up with differences between your characters would be to think of opposites: impulsive vs. strategic, logical vs. emotional, introvert vs. extrovert, loud vs. silent. How can your characters’ opposing traits serve to help your characters learn the lessons they need to learn in order to defeat their enemies and win the day?

Their Interaction Encourages Them to Rethink Their Beliefs

Dynamic character relationships can end up affecting the way both parties think about each other, not only themselves. This is especially the case if both characters come from different or feuding cultures, or if they just can’t see eye to eye because of their personal differences.

In The Lord of the Rings, Legolas and Gimli both come from remarkably different cultures that have been embroiled in a feud for many years. Initially, they don’t get along, and can be seen bickering throughout many of their early scenes. Their personal differences aside, they each have bad feelings about the other based on the hatred their cultures have for each other.

However, over the course of the story, they become friends as they go through trials together and discover new things about each other. Gimli is exposed to the culture of elves in Lothlorien when the Fellowship passes through on their way to Mordor, and he learns that not all elves are worthy of his disrespect thanks to the way the elves in Lothlorien treat the Fellowship. When Gimli is stunned by the beauty of the elf Galadriel and requests only one hair from her head as a parting gift, Legolas is then surprised by Gimli’s humility. Legolas learns that dwarves are not all obnoxious creatures that bear hatred toward elves.

Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have their personal differences in even the first Avengers movie. Tony thinks that Steve isn’t anything special, that he’s just a supposedly perfect soldier whose strengths were manufactured instead of earned. Steve thinks that Tony is a vain and selfish man who would preserve his own life over the lives of others. Over the course of the story, they are forced to work together, and their personal differences pale in comparison to the threat that they face.

While they are handling this threat, Steve helps Tony defend the airship when they are being attacked by Loki’s forces, proving Steve’s loyalty and ability to think on the fly beyond just using his physical strength to get his way, unlike what Tony believed about him. Later, Tony sacrifices himself to send the Council’s nuke into the wormhole above New York in order to save the city and everyone in it, proving that he is truly selfless, unlike what Steve believed about him.

Each character learns more about the other and comes to respect them despite their differences, since the characters are able to see that in important areas, they were wrong about their impressions of the other person. Though Steve is still physically enhanced and Tony is still vain, they were each wrong about each other regarding something important.

Think about how your dynamic relationships will have their rough edges—how each character will have differences that will clash with the others, whether those differences are based on different cultures or differences in personality.

What misconceptions and prejudices can the characters have against each other based on these differences? And in what ways can the events of the story push the characters to examine these beliefs and change them based on the actions of the other characters?

Their Skills are Complementary

Speaking of personal and cultural differences pushing people to grow and change, let’s discuss differences in skills. Complementary skills are a great way to show how the characters in your dynamic relationships can accomplish more together than they can alone.

For this discussion, let’s turn to Hiccup and Toothless! Essentially, these characters’ strengths shore up the other’s weaknesses. Though Hiccup is smart and inventive, he is small and physically weak, where Toothless is a big and powerful dragon. And though Toothless is a big and powerful dragon, his weakness is that he can no longer fly, something that Hiccup’s creativity and inventive skills can help with. They can do more together than they can alone.

But you can’t just throw two characters with different skills together and expect things to work out immediately. If their skills are different, then they likely will need time and effort to learn how to use their skills together. They will also need a reason to learn to work together. 

For Hiccup and Toothless, that reason is that Hiccup harmed Toothless, so now Toothless cannot fly. Hiccup needs to make it right by helping Toothless fly again, and in the process, Hiccup himself learns how to work with a dragon.

Though they have their difficulties along the way, by the end of the story, Hiccup and Toothless have learned to meld their different skills together to make both of them stronger and capable of defeating the massive Red Death dragon to save everyone they care about.

Think about the different skills—the strengths and weaknesses—of your characters. In what ways can your characters’ strengths fill in the gaps left by the weaknesses of the other characters? How can your characters’ complementary skills help them accomplish more together than they could accomplish alone?

Their Purpose in the Story is Unique

Finally, it is important to remember that each character’s place in the story must be purposeful and unique for the dynamic between your characters to make sense. 

Remember Woody and Buzz from Toy Story? Woody was Andy’s beloved toy. Woody thought his happy life would never change, but then Buzz Lightyear, a new toy, stole Andy’s attention. This sparked a conflict between Woody and Buzz that clearly displayed their dynamic: Woody, the once-loved cowboy doll with a grudge against Buzz, the much-loved new astronaut toy who ruined Woody’s perfect life.

If Buzz was just a random toy that hadn’t taken Woody’s place in Andy’s life, then Woody and Buzz wouldn’t have had any conflict. If there had been no conflict, then Woody and Buzz never would have left Andy’s house, and they never would have been able to develop their relationship through the events of the story. 

Buzz’s placement in the story was purposeful: to make Woody jealous by completely changing Woody’s life. This was something that only Buzz could accomplish. Woody could never have been replaced with Bo Peep, or Mr. Potato Head. It had to have been Buzz, or Andy would never have let go of Woody. Buzz’s purpose, his role in the story, was unique.

Or, think of the Pevensies from The Chronicles of Narnia. Each sibling had a purpose in the story: Lucy, to find Narnia in the first place; Edmund, to betray his siblings for the plot to happen; Peter, to lead his siblings and protect them; and finally, Susan, to be a voice of reason. 

Without each of these characters, the story would have struggled along its way, and important events might not have occurred. Each character must have a purpose in the story for the character dynamics to truly shine and push the plot forward.

Remember to consider how your characters’ actions affect all the other characters in the story. What is something that only one character can do that pushes the plot forward? What unique purpose can each of your characters serve in your story? 

Four Takeaways

Essentially, when writing character dynamics, it is important to remember four things:

To have the characters’ differences spark personal change. The characters should learn important lessons from each other that will help them in the final conflict of the story.

To have the characters’ interaction encourage them to rethink their beliefs, whether those are about something large-scale, like cultural differences, or something on a smaller scale, like personal differences.

To give the characters complementary skills, both in their personalities and their physical skills, that help them achieve more together than they can alone. Their strengths fill in the gaps left by the other’s weaknesses.

To make sure each of the characters has a unique purpose in the story. This will help their dynamics to feel solid and important throughout the whole plot.

That’s all I have for you today! I hope this will be helpful to you as you prepare to write your story with compelling dynamics between your characters. Remember, these keys can be applied to almost all the relationships in your story, whether those be sibling, parent-child, mentor-student, romantic, or even hero-villain relationships!

What are some of the best character dynamics you’ve seen in movies or books? What made those relationships great to you? And how are you planning on writing character dynamics in your own stories? 

Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your ideas.