by Rickie Kay LongfellowYou are so excited about your remarkable story that your fingers are flying across the keyboard with the speed of Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. Are your characters also remarkable, or are they a cure for insomnia? It is easy to come up with an interesting background, but it may not be as easy to create distinguishing players. Let’s use an imaginary character to demonstrate. We’ll name him John. Our John is a card-carrying, colossal bore. He asked Alice, a coworker, to dinner one night at a popular restaurant, but while listening to John’s monotone about his allergies, Alice fell asleep between the garden salad and the appetizers. Let’s perk up John so our readers won’t fall asleep. We will begin by giving our John some unique characteristics and flaws. John could love dogs (carries treats in his pocket), love people (hugs everyone), and have extremely good manners (wears a hat and tips it to say hello). Or he could have bad manners (doesn’t say hello – just starts talking), be abrupt and always in a hurry (interrupts people), and wear sloppy clothes (mud on shoes, shirts wrinkled). Or maybe John displays none of those things but has different traits and habits altogether. The part John plays in your story will also influence his characteristics. If John is your antagonist he may carry a gun, and display aggressive posture and dialog to reveal his evil intentions. If John is your protagonist, he may show his leadership and intellect through dialog and positive actions. You get the idea. Now, let’s put John into a story to see if he is memorable. Detective John Brown rushed onto the crime scene splashing a Styrofoam cup of coffee in one hand while gripping a half-eaten hotdog in the other. His wrinkled white shirt was partly tucked into faded khaki pants. With a touch of mustard in the corner of his mouth, he swallowed hard and blurted, “So where is the stiff, Brody?” Officer Brody cringed at his commander’s insensitive reference to the deceased. “Over here, sir,” he replied, his crisp and clean uniform a drastic contrast to his superior’s shabby office attire. What are your impressions of Detective Brown? Does he sound professional, or does he sound somewhat hardened from his job – maybe sardonic? John may be a little uncouth but I’ll bet your readers will notice him each time he pops up on the page. Just remember when you first introduce your character, show your readers a few of his/her characteristics (maybe he has a special knock; maybe her stilettos create recognizable footsteps) and weave in other traits soon after, but at least one trait could be used occasionally throughout the story for your reader to quickly identify. Share your tips with us for making your characters stand out, and let us know if this article helped you. Happy writing!
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