Character Mistakes You’re Probably Making as a Teen Writer

Besides the actual writing and plot of your book, the characters are arguably the most important part. And yet, it’s often the part that most teens (and beginner writers) get wrong. But the flaws in the characters themselves don’t begin with the writing — they start when the characters are still just ideas.

Mistake 1: Too Much Tragedy

Also known as the tragic backstory.

Thanks to BookTok and Bookstagram, there’s been a rise in characters with abusive pasts or dark, traumatic histories. And as heart-wrenching as these are, your book should not feel like an episode of America’s Got Talent. The “winners” — the reader’s favorite characters — shouldn’t be shaped by something so heavy if it doesn’t truly belong to them.

The average background for the average character. This is some people's unfortuanate reality so don't just have it as a trope

As a teen, I get the appeal of these characters.
Morrigan Crow, Keefe Sencen... the list goes on and on.

What they all have in common is this:

• Their pasts genuinely shape who they are, and that directly affects the plot.

• Their backstories follow one of the hardest rules for teen writers — the dreaded “show, don’t tell.”

Take Keefe. His emotional abuse by his father is shown through small moments — a line here, an interaction there. It builds slowly, making the later twists hurt even more.

Or Morrigan. We see how her family treats her. It’s woven through the story, and we understand the impact it has as the series progresses.

These things aren’t just explained in a few flashbacks or tossed in for drama. They’re not costumes that can be put on or taken off. These characters carry their tragedies like tattoos — permanent, defining, and real.

And — most importantly — not every character in their world is like this. Usually (with some exceptions), only a small handful have these painful backstories.

So please, I beg you, teen writer to teen writer:
Don’t give every one of your creations a sob story.
Because eventually, your readers’ tear ducts will dry up. And when that happens, you’ll have nothing left to give.

So now that we’ve (hopefully) toned down the tragedy, let’s move on to the second point.

Mistake 2: Too Few Proper Questions

When we create characters in our minds, we usually start with the basics:

• What are the character’s physical features? 
  

• What’s their personality?

• Who are they friends with?

• What quirky trait sets them apart?

And sure — all of these are important. But they don’t give you (or the reader) a real, true sense of who your character is. These surface-level traits don’t make your character feel alive. They just make the Sims version of your character.

To build characters who feel real, you need to ask deeper, harder questions. The basics matter, but so do these:

• What is the character’s motivation?

• What’s the one thing that would push them over the edge?

• How would they react if their entire purpose was suddenly stripped away?

• Who is this character without your input?

These questions do more than just create likable characters — they create ones your readers can truly connect with. Characters who feel like people, not just placeholders.

Think of it this way: in Twilight, Bella’s character was so vaguely defined that every fanfiction spins a totally different version of her. Same bones, but completely different people.

But a well-defined character? You can change the setting, the plot, even the world around them — and they’ll still feel like them. The foundation stays solid, even when the wallpaper changes.

So don’t just build the “Sims” version of your character. Build someone who could walk off the page.

Mistake 3: Plot Personality

There are two things in writing that are certain: death — and the fact that characters and plot define each other.

I started my first book by opening a Google Doc, naming all the characters, and pulling up a long list of Google-searched personalities.

Example: I gave my main character, Ava Bailey, the trait of honesty. She then went on to lie to her parents (repeatedly), run away, get kidnapped as a result, and basically become the least honest person in the entire book — besides the antagonist.

The point is: I set out to make her honest, but the plot had other ideas.

On the other hand, every character does need a basic personality to help you know how they’ll react in certain situations.

Gale, being the proud and arrogant guy he is, wouldn’t have volunteered for one of his siblings if they were reaped. But Katniss was already shown to be a motherly figure to Prim — her volunteering made sense and reinforced what we already knew about her.

This shows why the questions I mentioned in the previous section matter so much. You need the basic outline of your character to shape the plot around them. Then you can fill in the puzzle pieces — showing how they’re affected by the plot, and how they change.

That’s it for now — three mistakes you’ll want to avoid if you want to create characters readers actually care about.

Next up: I’ll be diving into how to actually build your characters from the ground up — with a template you can tweak and make your own. And yes, we’ll cover the pitfalls of character profiles too (because we’ve all made them way too long and still missed the important stuff).

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