Character creation and dialogue are my absolute favorite things about writing.  I was a freeform role player for a number of years and that was how I fell in love with creating characters. I’ve had a lot of practice, and I’ve found that pulling decently crafted characters out of my head is not too difficult (I seem to have a soft spot for evil children characters though-not sure why).

Dialogue.  It’s the easiest and most enjoyable thing for me to write, I guess maybe that comes from being so outspoken in person, and I have a love for studying people I don’t know, how they naturally speak, tone, their facial expressions, body language,  etc. That crazy crack head in the Laundromat intrigues me and instead of shooing him away, I like to listen to him talk to himself.

Yes, I’m sort of a dialogue junkie…and maybe a little bit of a freak?

Anyway, if character creation and/or dialogue are your weaker points, maybe I can help. Of course, I’m certainly no expert, but I’d like to pass on some things I’ve learned and methods that I use.

Characters – What Not to Do:

• Crazy names suck. Almost nothing ruins a book more for me than running across a character with a cutesy made-up name like ‘Jasmaleen’ or ‘Aighymee’ or one of those dreaded fantasy world names like ‘Nemaireri-Cyn’. Even in fantasy books, I prefer simpler names. To me, an over-the-top character name instantly distracts from the story, which is the most important part of your book, right? Don’t pull a ‘Renesmee’….for the love of God.
• Personality stereotypes – avoid them.  If while writing about your character you suddenly feel like something about her is too familiar, sometimes that’s a red flag, so don’t ignore it. You probably already know all about how it’s a bad idea to make your blond character dumb, your main character pathetic because she’s parentless, or your Southern character a country bumpkin. But what about the more subtle things? Watch out for making the blond preppy, the main character sexy, but with that one flaw you have to give him because no one’s perfect (like the dreaded scar on his cheek), or the Southern character that instinctively knows how to ride a horse or bait a hook.
• Action clichés – avoid them, too.  If while writing a scene and something about it screams OVERUSED! OVERDONE! It probably is. For instance, your character quickly picks up a book to pretend he’s reading when he hears footsteps approach. Or, to make it worse, the owner of the footsteps comes in and notices that the pretend reader has the book upside-down. These kinds of clichés pull me out of the story and make the character less real. I remember I’m only reading a story and I don’t like to be reminded of that.

Characters – What to Do:

• Randomness Works – Every character needs something about him that is random. Usually these traits are subtle, but they give your character, character. The young boy that always draws on his shoes, or the teenage girl that can’t control the shaking of her foot while sitting in class. Check yourself out and make note of some random things you do and use one! I can’t sleep with my feet covered and I’m addicted to popcorn. Random little quirks help make us individuals and often they give a character more character better than those prominent traits we give them, like how Ethan loves knives and carries one with him everywhere, or Phoebe is a Goth that always wears black.
• Character Traits – Sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint how you want a certain character to be, or to act. You haven’t thought about that much, but you don’t want to be stuck trying to figure it out when you’d rather just be writing. Here’s an idea that I used for a couple of my past characters: look at this page, choose just one character trait, and go with it. Having an actual list of traits to sift through helped me find and choose one quicker and easier, but also I realized there are many traits that I may have forgotten about, or may have never thought of. A single word can open the floodgates for you.

So, in general, you don’t want a cliché or emotionless and boring character (unless you create one that is supposed to be emotionless and boring, but when it’s intended, it usually works) so take a look at your characters and see if there’s anything about them listed above that could be changed to make them better. In my opinion, characters are what make any story. Description and setting are also important, obviously, but a lifeless character can easily spoil a good scene.

Dialogue is also what makes a character interesting and in my next blog for Part II, I’ll cover it. I hope this helps. Thanks for reading!

Check out my most recent writing-related blogs:
Phase Writers, Born Writers & Evil Agents
Over 100k Words? Cutting is Gratifying

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