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.
