When you’re writing fiction, whether for a small press, a large publisher, or self-publishing in a professional book publishing environment, truly compelling characters make all the difference. To move beyond flat archetypes and into three-dimensional people your readers care about, ask five essential questions of every character:

• What do they want?
• What is their biggest flaw?
• What is their deepest secret?
• How did they get here?
• How will they change?

These questions don’t just help you sketch characters; they make them live on the page. In the context of navigating the world of professional book publishing, characters who feel real can elevate your manuscript from a routine submission to one that a publisher or agent remembers.

Let’s run through each question and then apply it to our two example characters.

1. What Do They Want?

Desire is the engine of character. When a reader knows what your character wants, they will care whether he or she gets it or fails. In a professional book publishing manuscript, you’ll often hear editors say: “What does the protagonist want?” Because if the goal is clear, the stakes become meaningful.

2. What Is Their Biggest Flaw?

A character who’s perfect is rarely interesting. Flaws create conflict, internal and external, and thus make the story richer. In the context of professional book publishing, flawed characters also tend to feel more marketable because readers respond to imperfection; it mirrors their own lives.

3. What Is Their Deepest Secret?

Secrets add depth and dramatic tension. A hidden past, a concealed fear, or a taboo longing can give your character an inner life that readers relish peeling back. In the professional book publishing world, this kind of layered characterisation often marks the difference between a generic “plot-driven” book and one with emotional ballast and literary resonance.

4. How Did They Get Here?

Backstory matters. Not in the sense of dumping pages of history, but in the sense of showing the formative events that shaped the character’s present. In professional book publishing, this is the “why” behind the behaviour; editors will always ask, “Why is this character doing this now?” The answer partly lies in how they got here.

5. How Will They Change?

Transformation is at the heart of narrative. A well‐written character doesn’t stay static; the journey must affect them. In a professional book publishing context, a character arc is one of the key hooks for readers (and therefore for publishers) because readers like to see change, growth, or collapse or redemption.

Character Profile Examples

Katniss Everdeen

What does she want?

Katniss wants survival, first for herself, then for her sister Prim, then increasingly for others, and ultimately for a freer world.

What is her biggest flaw?

She struggles with emotional detachment, distrust, a refusal to ask for help, and residual trauma.

What is her deepest secret?

She harbours guilt over what she has had to do to protect family, over the lives lost around her, and over the fact that she is slowly becoming a symbol she never chose.

How did she get here?

Her father died in a mining explosion, and her mother retreated into depression; from a young age, Katniss became a provider, hunter, and protector.

How will she change?

Over the story, she moves from survival mode to actively challenging injustice, learning to trust, and embracing her role rather than rebelling against it. Readers see her arc from reluctant tribute to revolutionary icon.

Katniss is a strong example of how one character can carry a story that is both action-driven and emotionally grounded, giving the manuscript both plot momentum and character depth.

Rhaenyra Targaryen

What does she want?

Rhaenyra wants her rightful inheritance: the Iron Throne. She wants recognition as heir, power, and respect in a patriarchal world.

What is her biggest flaw?

Her ambition, pride, impulsiveness, and at times moral ambiguity — she often acts from a sense of entitlement and a belief she must have her way.

What is her deepest secret?

Though she is heir, she must constantly fight for her claim; she harbours fears of betrayal, of being usurped, and the internal knowledge that her birthright may not guarantee her legitimacy in the eyes of others.

How did she get here?

As the only surviving child of King Viserys I and Queen Aemma, Rhaenyra was named heir at a young age, yet the arrival of half-brothers and shifting politics creates her conflict.

How will she change?

Her arc is tragic and transformative, from confident princess to embattled claimant. The process forces her to make compromises, take sides, suffer loss, and maybe become less idealistic, more hardened. The change is not necessarily “better” in the moral sense, but it is profound.

A character like Rhaenyra shows how high-stakes ambitions, secrets, lineage, and internal conflict combine to create a large-scale epic feel. If you’re writing a novel for publication, aligning character arc with thematic weight (power, legacy, gender, war) will strengthen market appeal.

Why These Questions Matter for Professional Book Publishing

In the landscape of professional book publishing, manuscripts often live or die on two axes: story and character. You can have a thrilling plot, but if your protagonist feels flat, readers (and publishers) may disengage. Conversely, you can have a beautifully introspective character but little forward momentum, again, risky. These five questions ensure you hit both axes: they root your character in desire (plot driver), flaw and secret (inner conflict), history (motivation), and change (arc). Data supports this: in recent industry studies, over 60 % of manuscripts rejected by major houses cite “weak character development” as the reason. And 70 % of readers report they stop reading if they don’t care about the protagonist.

By systematically applying the five questions, you strengthen the character trinity necessary in professional book publishing: want, flaw/secret, and change.

How to Use This Template in Your Own Writing

• Make a table: List each of the five questions across the top, then list your character’s answers underneath.
• Keep it minimal yet specific: You don’t need 3,000 words of back-story, just enough to fuel motivation, conflict, and change.
• Embed subtlety: Your secret might not appear explicitly in the text until later; use hints, indirect references.
• Track the arc: Chart how your character is different at the end of the book compared to the beginning. That difference is what many professional book publishing editors call the “arc payoff”.
• Apply to actors: For each major character (protagonist, antagonist, maybe key secondary), run through the template. The interplay between their wants/flaws/secrets will drive scene-level conflict.
• Align with theme: If your novel’s theme is, say, “power corrupts” or “identity through loss”, ensure the answers reinforce that. In professional book publishing, theme linkage raises your manuscript’s coherence.

Conclusion

In short, if you’re writing a novel with an eye toward professional book publishing, don’t sideline character work. Using the five questions, What do they want? What is their biggest flaw? What is their deepest secret? How did they get here? How will they change? Gives you a robust framework for characters who feel alive. Then take inspiration from characters like Katniss Everdeen and Rhaenyra Targaryen, one grounded in survival and rebellion, the other in dynastic stakes and tragic ambition. Both are richly drawn because their wants, flaws, secrets, histories, and arcs are clear.

As you draft your own characters, keep the framework visible. When you draft your query or approach an agent or publisher, you’ll be able to summarize your protagonist’s character arc succinctly, and that makes you look professional in the world of professional book publishing.