Hey guys! Guess what!? My post is on time. And also, we only have two more posts after this one. *cry* So here we go, making the most of what we have left.
Building Better Characters: You Do What?
One of the things that your character needs to be more accurate is a quirk. Every person has little quirks that you don’t always notice until you’ve been hanging out with them for longer periods of time. These quirks give your character personality. But a quirk isn’t just a random trait that you can pick and assign your character. The quirk has to fit them. Whether it matches their personality, their career, their hobbies, or their motivation for the story the quirk should always fit your character in some way. They have to have a reason for developing that particular quirk. I have a few examples. One is from a book, one is from a manga, one is from my book, and one is from real life.
In Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, at the fourth book there is a time skip. In the fourth book we are introduced to new characters one of which is Wayne. Wayne is known for ‘trading’ people for their things. He takes something and leaves something that the feels is of equal or more value than the thing that he took. The thing he is most commonly trading for is hats. He always says that the type of hat that he wears helps him use the personality and voice of the type of person who would own the hat that he ‘traded’ for. This comes in handy in his line of work as he is part of a group that investigates and tracks down fugitives. He’s the one who can slip into any group of people and gain their trust in seconds just by acting like them. This quirk is something that he is recognized for by all of the people who read the books. This is a good character quirk.
In the manga Mars the main character Rei is a kid who is not exactly on the straight and narrow. He’s on his way though. When he meets Kira he begins to change, becoming a more law-abiding citizen and she begins standing up for herself in the bad situations she had gotten into. *spoilers beyond this point* At one point of the story we learn that Rei had a twin and he felt like he was always living in his twin’s shadow. He tells Kira that no one could ever tell him and his brother apart except for the way that they acted. He showed her a picture of his brother and him and she knew which one was him immediately. When he asked her how she knew she said that he quirked his eyebrow up when he smiled, and his brother did not. This simple quirk was important to the story at later points as Kira recognizes that quirk at different times.
In by book my main character Kira is a mechanic. For most of the first book she builds machines for the rebellion and it’s her AI technology that causes a little bit of the already escalating conflict. Later when she’s forced to work as a mechanic for the enemy her mechanic personality is deepened. Because she’s a mechanic she is constantly getting oil and other things underneath her nails. She is constantly picking them out. Even after she stops being a mechanic she picks the underside of her nails as a nervous habit. At one point of the story She’s rubbed the skin under her nail so raw that they bled which caused her hand to get an infection. This nervous habit was one of my character’s nervous quirks that gave her humanity.
I have a pretty noticeable, human quirk. My hands can’t sit still. If I don’t have a project to do, a pencil to spin or something to click or tap, I begin picking at my fingers. When I’m bored, when I’m nervous and when I’m angry the skin around my nails gets ripped away. My hands are constantly covered in scrapes, blood, or bandages. The bad thing is a do this unconsciously without realizing it. I’ve pretty much deadened the feeling around my fingers. Sometimes I get a paper cut on my hand, but I don’t notice it because there’s no feeling. I think this is caused by my anxiety. I feel like I should always be doing something.
All of these quirks, in real life and in stories, aren’t just random quirks. My character doesn’t pick her nails just because she picks them. There’s a reason for picking her nails. Rei’s quirk isn’t just mentioned because it’s convenient for the writer. It’s mentioned because it helps to identify him from his brother. All of these things are important quirks that help to make the characters more human. So what types of quirks does your character have?
That’s all I’ve got for this week. Hopefully that was easy to understand and you can try to build on your character using this to make them more human. So as always,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!