Make Your Characters Vivid

© 2008 Get It Together Productions

What keeps most readers turning the page? Not an intricate plot or big type. Readers relate to the characters. In order to create these crucial elements of your story, it is important to take a long look at your characters. Be certain you know them well and portray them the very best you can. 

Make character sketches for every major character you have. When you do that, here are things to consider.

1. What type of personality? Is your character exuberant or shy? Maybe someplace in between. Remember, most real people aren't strictly one way or another. It's the blend and sometimes mercurial traits that make them interesting. Perhaps someone doesn't like dogs in the house, but enjoys visiting the zoo. What does that tell you? Here's someone who likes things well defined and orderly. Use these types of juxtapositions to enhance your characters.
2. How will the events affect this personality and vice versa? Consider the challenges and events that your characters will come up against in your story. How will this shy (assertive), orderly (messy) person deal with what you throw at them? Decide if the event makes a change in the personality.
   If several characters are confronted with the same challenge, write the scene from each character's perspective. These sketches will be notes for you, and when you put the scene in your manuscript, it will be believable and easier to write.
3. Examine all details to make this person real. Keep in mind each character's age, nickname, upbringing, siblings, date of birth, performance in school, number and type of friends, favorite colors and foods, preferences for movies, books, shoes, athletic or not, and so on. By writing this down, you can keep the facts consistent throughout the story. Readers don't appreciate a character (even a minor one) being nineteen on page seven and on page seventy (only story month later) the same character is eighteen. Also be certain the characters act their age. If someone is fifteen and still likes to play hopscotch, let the reader know why.

Once you start writing your story, a character will sometimes "insist" on behaving a certain way, or a sub-character will want to "take over" a scene. This is a clue to rethink those characters and their importance in a story.

If you're writing nonfiction, much of this character-study work has been done for you. But you still need to decide the points that will enhance the story as you're going to tell it. It is quite easy for the research material to overwhelm your story. Be certain you don't lose your characters behind facts and figures. The statistics have to have relevance to the characters or the story won't be interesting.

Readers appreciate believable and well-thought out characters. The extra time spent in with this important element will boost your hold on editors (your story's FIRST reader) and book buyers.

Find more articles at the GITP website.

Character Variety

An interesting article popped up in the GITP inbox. Written by Noah Lukeman, (author and literary agent) he gives a detailed examination of what type of characters compel readers. In his article "The Importance of the Journey" he writes:

"...The task of the writer is to create characters...on the verge of change, characters that will, in some way, be unrecognizable by the end of the work...."

The detail given to support and implement his premise is very compelling, but it shouldn't be taken as an absolute. It depends on what you're writing.

Historical fiction and romances benefit from the character's journey. In mysteries, however, where a series will have an ongoing detective character, it would be tedious to have each new title fraught with the main character having some major angst and changing by the end of the book.

To me, the "going through a change" type story a bit like a morality play. It seems rather nice for the naïve and is especially good in fiction for young readers. I've written YA books, and know that teaching some imperative is vital. But it seems quite easy to predict what will happen if the character is set up to 1) suffer some ignominious circumstance; 2) recognize the pitfalls; 3) make a change for the better. Ho hum. (Lukeman does represent screen plays, however, and to me it seems that writing for film most times fits into the "naïve" category.)

I'm drawn to stories that present "slice of life" situations, where characters don't always solve their dilemma as a denouement of the story. A book I truly enjoyed was The Secret of Hurricanes, by Theresa Williams, where we meet a troubled, but interesting person and follow her through situations of pain as well as glory. In the end we see what she has become, although it's not a given that SHE sees what she's become.

Jan Blensdorf's My name is Sei Shōnagon has a similar development. We have learned what made this character who she is today. I'm happy with that. Perhaps this might be what differentiates "popular" fiction from "literary" fiction. Both of the titles I referenced are probably considered the latter.

This all just shows that "what's sauce for the goose, ain't sauce for the gander." My opinions versus Lukeman's are why there are myriad fiction books produced each year.

Three cheers for variety!

Character Impact With Names

One of my favorite entertainments is watching soccer. Through my trusty satellite dish I follow the English Premier League (EPL), Italian Serie A, watch a few Mexican league games, and this time of year I'm a faithful follower of the North American, Major League Soccer (MLS).

At the beginning of the season, I was watching/listening to an MLS Houston Dynamo game. At the beginning of the game, I wasn't in the room with the TV and kept hearing the commentator talking about Tally Ho. I realized he was referring to the goalkeeper. Tally Ho? When I viewed the game, I learned the player's name is Tally Hall. I still got a chuckle from my mis-hearing, and once when I watched a Dynamo game on a Mexican channel, their commentators seemed to find the name Tally Hall (ho) amusing, too. (Mr. Hall is an excellent keeper with an impressive shutout record)

I started thinking of when I might give a character a name like this--one that the reader might misread, or get a sound image that could be amusing or disruptive. I think if I described a fairly unimposing character near the beginning of a piece but knew he would be important later on (say, page 98 and on), giving him a name with impact could be helpful. Readers would be more likely to remember a name such as Tally Hall than they would Ron Smith.

A few weeks ago I was again watching a Dynamo game, still aware of my reaction to the goalkeeper's name. They were playing the Chicago Fire, and that team made a substitution. Hunter, was the name on the new player's jersey. Then information came up about the young man…His first name is Hunter. Hunter Jumper?

Okay. Tally [Ho] Hall and Hunter Jumper in the same game.

I snickered and laughed about Hunter Jumper (the name, not the player). It's akin to Kandy Caine, Slim Pickens, or River Banks. Almost too humorous without having a purpose--in fiction especially. Of the books I've read where this play with names occurs, I usually start thinking the authors have rather inflated senses of self as they assume their wit is topnotch and universal. I also found myself distracted from the story.

Would I ever tag any of my characters like this? Maybe. A minor character with this type of impact name could be used to show personality traits of the story's more central characters: the protagonist could be polite and nonjudgmental; another character could react by being subtle and snide, asking, "Do you raise foxhounds?"; or the gregarious, no-tact person would say "I can't believe your parents did that to you!"

Too much of this, unless I were writing satire or attempting humor (neither of which I do), could appear I was making fun of my characters--or I that take myself too seriously. I'd definitely try not to be too clever.

Which brings to mind another soccer player...this one from the EPL Manchester United team...with a neat name, Tom Cleverly.