Occasionally (or perhaps not quite so occasionally!) I get told off for wanting to know who a reader's favourite character is. I always have a favourite character when I'm reading, whatever the story, ranging from The Three Musketeers - definitely Athos, by the way! - to The Wheel of Time - and that has to be Mat.
Strangely, I do not have a favourite character when I'm writing. But perhaps that is the point of this blog post. Every character I write represents an aspect of myself, and I could not be any one of them without acknowledging the other. So here are my four stages of how to build characters so that they are believable and engaging:
- Look in the Mirror
Have an idea - and make a note - of what your characters look like. If you write fantasy the appearance of people is almost always of special significance to the role they will play. Don't apologise for this. Make sure that you know the approximate height, the ethnicity, hair colour, build and eye colour of your characters. You do not need to write this every time a character appears, in fact sometimes it is better to avoid it all together, but it saves you the embarrassment of having your reader come back at you and query why, when Robert Robson had grey eyes in chapter three he now has brown eyes in chapter twenty. - There is No Such Thing as Normal
I am from a large family, but there are no two of us who walk the same. If you have someone walking down the street your reader will be less engaged than if you have someone sauntering, stumbling or swaggering. Movements are almost always as unique to a character as they are to a real person. Example: "She got on the bus and paid for a ticket" or "She quickly stepped onto the bus, searching for the correct change before she collected her ticket and moved down the aisle". Don't overuse adverbs but don't ignore them entirely. They have their place in character development as surely as nouns and adjectives. - Nature Versus Nurture
You are not solely what you have inherited from your parents, so the same must apply to your characters. Knowing a backstory for each of your characters deepens your understanding of them. In turn, this helps your reader form a stronger connection with them. Whatever our background, it leaves a huge footprint on our future. Characters carry the same scars and the same values during and beyond their childhood as people in the real world. Someone who grew up in New Delhi is going to have a different outlook to someone who grew up in Norfolk. Perhaps your character is well travelled, having an impact on their appearance as well as their acceptance and appreciation of other cultures. And, of course, they will talk differently. - Everyone Has a Quirk
I have known people who are obsessed with symmetry; who count everything; who need to find patterns in floorboards; who arrange everything alphabetically... The list goes on. When characters embrace chaos, as many do during their journey through the pages of the book, they need to have had an order in the first place to make their actions chaotic. But beware! A clever writer slots these things in under the radar and does not force them on the reader. Make sure that your character, and not your writing, highlights these issues to the reader - remember it should be your character's quirk, not your own.
And suddenly your characters are 3D, believable and easy to relate to.
[Drawing pictures is optional!]
