Hello everyone! This is my first guest post, so I hope I don’t mess it up. I thought I would share some character tricks I’ve learned over the years. I’m not an expert by any means, but I do think that characters are the most important part of a book. If the characters aren’t dynamic the story usually isn’t worth the time.
Five Character Tips
- Give your character a defining characteristic.
It doesn’t have to be something crazy or strange, just something that sets them apart. An identifier if you will. Like when Jack Sparrow floats up with smeared black eyeliner and a crooked grin. It doesn’t have to be physical either; it can be a color, a scent, even a mood. An ideal for them to embody, it can help breathe life into them.
This is really hard not to do. Most character-related advice seems to involve typecasting your character. Figuring out if their clever, tough or soft, and it’s one of the worst things you can do. Well, maybe not the worst. I find that it’s better to leave it up to the reader. They will tell you what exactly they think of your character, even if it’s sometimes hard to swallow. So the best you can do is try to guide them covertly to what you want them to think.
For example, J.R Tolkien doesn’t come right out and say that Sam is loyal to a fault. But the way he follows Frodo to an almost certain death does. Doing this works way better than slapping a label on a character that they might not live up to, and as a result, frustrate the reader.
- Make them authentic
Authentic characters are the ones that get the most love. The ones that feel unquestionably real. This is generally because the author pays a lot of attention to details, even the small ones. Because something as small as a word can break that illusion. For example, if a historical character says something too modern. Or a male character seems to act extremely feminine or vice versa. It makes the character unbelievable. You need to make sure the way they act and talk lines up with your vision for them.
- Strive for Believability
I know most fiction likes to test this as much as possible, simply because the possibilities are endless. I do think you need to keep your characters a bit more grounded. Not that you can’t do amazing and unique things with them, but characters are the readers link to the story and it needs to be tangible and something they can relate to. Something human, even if your character is a one-eyed alien, it needs to have a degree of believability and emotion for readers to attach to.
- Make them Human
This probably isn’t the best way to put it, because I mean for it to apply to characters that are inhuman as well. Maybe make them complex would be better. Give them complexities, contradictions, and conflicting traits. Let them be paradoxes. I feel the biggest mistake most writers make, myself included is to limit our characters to a mere handle of traits. Real people are so much more complicated than that. Let them be colorful and experience the complete spectrum of human emotions. Characters should be messy and not easy to define just like people.
I hope this was somewhat helpful and not too confusing.
24 Comments
Thanks for sharing this Lilah! I love the header that you used.
ReplyDeleteThe formatting is a bit off, so it chopped of the start of some of the sentences. and I dumbly only numbered one of the points oops!
Anyway, thanks for having me!
i just fixed the formatting so hopefully it will be easier...sorry about that! Thank you for writing a wonderful post!!!
DeleteThanks Lia! I do that all the time on my own blog, so no worries!
Delete:D
These are really great tips! Thank you Skye!
ReplyDeleteThey are!!
DeleteThank you! <3
DeleteThis is so amazing, Skye <3 Thank you for sharing!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Faith!!! <3
DeleteYISSSS. We're learning from the character creating MASTER right here!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved all of this, Skye! Especially the one about not labeling your character. That is such a great point! It's so true that it makes WAY more of an impact when you just show who your character is and let the readers' label them, rather than slamming this info in the readers' faces. YES. Such great advice!
Thank you for sharing!
I wish! XD
DeleteI'm so glad! It always drives me crazy when authors do that.
It does. Thank you!!!
Ooh, this was super helpful!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad it helped!
Delete*frantically takes notes so I can work on my characters*
ReplyDelete:D You have amazing characters!
DeleteThese are FANTASTIC tips, Skye!! Great post!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, Thanks Lila!!!
DeleteI love these tips Skye, they're fantastic!! And I totally agree -- characters are what grounds a reader in the story, and for that reason they need to be human, complex, yet distinct. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, Melissa! You always have the best tips, so I'm glad you like them.
DeleteYes, their so important.
:D
Oh, yes these are some good tips. Characters are so complex to write, I'm always working on making them better.
ReplyDeleteastorydetective.blogspot.com
Thanks, Rakayle! They are, me too!
DeleteOh, so true! I love the last one especially and how you say it's great to let characters be messy like real humans are. I think that's why I like The Raven Cycle so much. All the characters are complicated and complex. Even if they seem to embody a label, they usually end up embodying multiple and usually contradictory labels. And that's what makes them feel so real.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, I want more messy characters. The Raven Cycle is a perfect example.
DeleteThey are. Exactly, they conflict and contrast like people.
:D
I like these! Especially about not typecasting your characters. I think it's absolutely fine to start out with a general idea of the character's role in the story, but sometimes it can start to just feel formulaic. Here's 'the smart one,' here's 'the comic relief one,' here's 'the "relatable" one,' etc. And they don't have any other vivid personality traits.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I used to have a big problem with that. I agree, exactly you don't want them to be too predictable. Right, you want them to have personality.
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