The character in your story is the heart of your story.
It does not matter if that character is a person or a troll or a manatee. That character is the soul of your story. Setting, theme, plot are important, but the most important aspect is creating a character that the reader can connect with.
That connection can be emotional.
That connection can be intellectual.
But there has to be a connection.
How readers connect to the character isn’t always for the same reason. They might seem like a friend. They might seem like us. They might be who we want to be. They might be who we are afraid to be. And as authors, we have to find ways to make our readers care about the characters we put on the page.
That’s what we talk about this podcast! So listen in and like and subscribe and all those things.
For exclusive paid content, check out my substack, LIVING HAPPY and WRITE BETTER NOW. It’s basically like a blog, but better. There’s a free option too without the bonus content but all the other tips and submission opportunties and exercises are there.
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This little baby (the character arc) is how your character evolves or doesn’t after she/they/he go after their yearnings and goals. It’s how they change during the story.
Do they start off confident and end up scared?
Do they start off scared and end up confident as all get out?
That’s a bit part of the change that happens to them (the character) because of the things (events) that happen in the novel.
If they end up in a better place? That’s a positive change arc.
If they end up in a worse place? That’s a negative change arc.
If they end up in the same place? That’s a static arc.
Usually you have:
A character wanting something.
A character trying to get that something.
Things getting in the damn way as they try to get that something.
A big climax and oh-la-la they have changed.
So, for all that to happen, the character has to have some goals or wants. And they have to have the motivation to get that goal/want.
You have to make your character want something and give them a reason for wanting it. Then your awesome readers read the story to see if they can get it. That’s why you throw in obstacles because you don’t want it to be too easy, right?
Obstacles can be events (hurricanes), other people (bosses, spouses, fathers, kids, vampires), or the character’s own self.
The thing is that these obstacles have to eventually make the character grow in one way (positive) or another (negative).
Then at the climax—poof!—the character is different. They are no longer who they were on page one and they’ve become something cooler or less cooler, their world is better or it’s degraded into a dystopian hellscape.
NEW BOOK OUT!
It’s super fun. An adult paranormal/mystery/romance/horror blend. Think Charlaine Harris but without all the vampires. Instead there are shifters and dragon grandmothers and evil police chiefs and potential necromancers and the occasional zombie and a sexy skunk.
Be ready to resurrect your love of the paranormal in the first novel in the Alisa Thea series—the books that give new meaning to quirky paranormal.
Alisa Thea is barely scraping by as a landscaper in small-town Bar Harbor. She can’t touch people with her bare skin without seeing their deaths and passing out, which limits her job and friendship opportunities. It also doesn’t give much of a possibility for a love life, nor does her overbearing stepfather, the town’s sheriff. Then along comes an opportunity at a local campground where she thinks her need for a home and job are finally solved . . .
But the campground and its quirky residents have secrets of their own: the upper level is full of paranormals. And when some horrifying murders hit the campground—along with a potential boyfriend from her past who may be involved—Alisa starts to wonder if living in a campground of paranormals will end up in her own death.
Join New York Times and internationally best[selling author Carrie Jones in the first book of the Alisa Thea Series as it combines the excitement of a thriller with the first-hand immediacy and quirky heroines that Jones is known for.
It’s fun. It’s weird. It’s kind of like Charlaine Harris, but a little bit more achy and weird.
Almost Dead Series – Meet Alissa Thea, a sexy skunk, a haunted campground and a lot of quirky
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Recently, Shaun and I realized that we were a little much for our community. Some of our friends assured us that this was okay. That Maine was full of characters.
“You’re dynamic,” they said.
This made Shaun happy because the word has sort of a superhero aspect to it. DYNAMIC MAN has a pretty cool ring to it.
But since I’m a writer and editor and writing coach, I thought, “Whoa… So I’m evolving? Cool.”
This, of course, confused poor Shaun also known as Dynamic Man, so I had to explain it a bit too him. And then I figured I might as well make a blog post about it because I’ve probably talked a bit too much about Hot Customs Guy and butt shapes lately.
What’s a dynamic character?
It’s a character that changes in the course of your story.
They grow. They evolve or devolve. They learn something about their world and that learning impacts who they are.
Sadly, being quirky doesn’t equal dynamic. To be dynamic your character has to change somehow.
The change in the character can be HUGE or it can be SMALL, but for a character to exist there has to be some change.
Important thing to remember: Not all characters are dynamic even if they are your lead character, but (especially in kidlit) dynamic characters are pretty much the thing.
A place where you tend not to see a dynamic character is in multiple installments of a series. Think James Patterson novels following one guy or woman. Think Sherlock Holmes’s character.
But almost always the main character will change in a story because of the things that happen in your story. Sometimes that change shifts their world view or gives them new positive characteristics, but sometimes that change is just a strengthening of the awesome that’s already there.
And sometimes that change is someone heading to the dark side like poor Anakin or that guy in Breaking Bad whose name I can never remember. Walter? Walden?
But for a character to be dynamic, there needs to be change. I’ll be talking about static characters this week, too! So hang on.
NEW BOOK OUT!
It’s super fun. An adult paranormal/mystery/romance/horror blend. Think Charlaine Harris but without all the vampires. Instead there are shifters and dragon grandmothers and evil police chiefs and potential necromancers and the occasional zombie and a sexy skunk.
Be ready to resurrect your love of the paranormal in the first novel in the Alisa Thea series—the books that give new meaning to quirky paranormal.
Alisa Thea is barely scraping by as a landscaper in small-town Bar Harbor. She can’t touch people with her bare skin without seeing their deaths and passing out, which limits her job and friendship opportunities. It also doesn’t give much of a possibility for a love life, nor does her overbearing stepfather, the town’s sheriff. Then along comes an opportunity at a local campground where she thinks her need for a home and job are finally solved . . .
But the campground and its quirky residents have secrets of their own: the upper level is full of paranormals. And when some horrifying murders hit the campground—along with a potential boyfriend from her past who may be involved—Alisa starts to wonder if living in a campground of paranormals will end up in her own death.
Join New York Times and internationally best[selling author Carrie Jones in the first book of the Alisa Thea Series as it combines the excitement of a thriller with the first-hand immediacy and quirky heroines that Jones is known for.
It’s fun. It’s weird. It’s kind of like Charlaine Harris, but a little bit more achy and weird.
Almost Dead Series – Meet Alissa Thea, a sexy skunk, a haunted campground and a lot of quirky
Share this if you want and also because it would be super nice of you!
Hi! I know this is Carrie’s blog and you all look forward so much to hearing from her, but today I have commandeered it and I may do that once in a while because she is such an incredible woman and I don’t want her to be so overworked that her magnificence dulls.
Look! It’s Shaun!
By the way, this is Carrie’s husband. Actually, it should be Carrie’s Husband because that is the actual title I have come to be known by to a good portion of our friends. My birthname is Shaun though, if you didn’t already know, and I am okay with being Carrie’s Husband, because she is that crazy awesome!
But I digress. I am not an author by any means and Carrie asked me to talk about something to do with writing, maybe a prompt. Ugh, my brain hurts already! So, I took a few minutes to mull over what I would have a hard time doing if I was trying to write a book (I have tried and many accolades to you writer folks.) and I came up with so many ideas it is embarrassing. But I got stuck on one and that is, character traits and/or development. Heck, maybe these are two totally different subjects to you, but as I said, writing is not my bailiwick.
I thought, “I have no idea how to give words on a page human traits and make them feel real to people. How would I do that?”
Well, I decided that I would sit down and just think and reminisce about the people in my life who influenced me as a young person and who helped make me who I am today.
My mother and father divorced when I was two years old and I never saw him again until I was nine years old when he came back into my life bearing my two-year-old half-sister. He and my mother eventually got married again, my mother adopted my half-sister. They had another child, my younger brother, and eventually got divorced again when I was in my early twenties.
I never really liked my father nor did I mesh with his viewpoints on life, although as we both matured, we grew into a polite relationship of acceptance. In reality I just gave up on arguing with him and trying to make him see anybody’s point of view other than his own. Within this paragraph, there are hundreds of story possibilities, but I am only telling you this so that I can say that I was raised and influenced mainly by my mother and my grandfather. There were times when my mother and I lived on our own, with roommates (friends of my mother’s), and also with my grandparents.
Thinking about my mother, father and grandfather brings back so many memories, both good and bad, and to replicate their personality traits would be relatively easy because even as my memories seem to fade, memories of them are still strong and vibrant.
So, to make that supremely realistic character I am going to ask you to not think about those people in your life that are so easily remembered, but go beyond them and dig deeper. Think about someone whom you may have forgotten, someone who may not have been in your life long perhaps, but still left an impression, good or bad. We do need both kinds of characters after all.
Just writing this is causing me to remember people that I have forgotten. People who I didn’t otherwise know, but for a brief, chance meeting, but who still left an indelible mark upon me. Such an experience, possibly long forgotten by you, can help you create a character of difference or help you get out of a rut where you feel your characters are not deep enough or possibly seem to similar.
I don’t know if anything that I have written will be useable advice to you, but I can say that I have been thinking about this off and on for about four hours now and I have had a great time. Regardless of whether or not I have helped, I would recommend taking this thought journey! I am not one into yoga or meditation but just sitting quietly and pondering this I have basically run the full gamut of emotions and rejuvenated many memories that had faded from the forefront. Truth be known, my eyes are watery ,but that is just part of the process and sometimes I can be an emotional wimp. If there were no emotions involved, it doesn’t seem like a worthwhile experience whether you are trying to create a better character or you are just reminiscing.
Carrie and I have spoken about character building, in many ways, on our podcast Dogs Are Smarter Than People and I would invite you to listen if you haven’t yet made that journey. There’s a link below.
Thank you taking the time to read my ramblings and may you have a happy and safe 2021!
It’s the last of our posts about making characters (or at least the last one of r a bit). Check out the tags to see the others.
Orson Scott Card (citation down below) has a list of ‘devices’ that he says makes readers love characters. I’m going to run them down here, because I’m running out of time in my week!
First off: Physical Attractiveness.
The hot factor.: If other characters are attracted to them, we will be too, he says.
Sometimes this can make your readers hate the character so be careful. She/he shouldn’t be annoyingly attractive. That’s dull.
You think I’m dull? No, Harry, never you. You eat have oat milk in your fridge, bananas in your freezer, speak English, Cantonese, and Spanish and are an amazing dancer? How could that be dull?
Altruistic Awesomeness.
– We root for the victim. We also can eventually show how the victim is no longer a victim in our awesome story arch.
– We root for the savior. We want Petunia to rescue the dog/cat/alien/hamster/boy.
– We root for the sacrificer. It’s hard not to love someone who suffers to make the world better.
I totally have the altruistic awesomeness down pat.
The Doers
We root for the character who wants something, who goes after a dream. The bigger the want/dream the more we tend to root
The Bravehearts
We like the character who is brave, who takes risks to do what needs to be done (if those risks are morally cool).
Those Who Have ‘Tude
How a character feels about herself or others impacts how we feel about the character.
The Rest
We also tend to like characters who are clever, who volunteer, who are dependable.
And we also like characters with a little quirk – that imperfection or tic that makes them an individual.
Think about Ron in Harry Potter. He’s loyal as all heck. He takes risks to do what’s right (steals parents’ car, goes in off-limit places).
He is brave but he freaks about spiders.
He is smart in certain ways (outwits the magic chess board), but he is flawed too. He’s a bit jealous. He’s a bit insecure. He’s a bit lazy when it comes to studying.
Yet we love him. His flaws and quirks and reactions and choices make him adorable and one of the most loved characters in one of the most popular children’s books ever.
Yes, it is I, Ron Weasley
Card also gives a quick run-down on what we don’t like in characters:
Hurting another character on purpose, especially if the character likes causing pain
Killing someone for selfish reasons
Being self serving
Breaking promises
Super big words/formal speech in dialogue (We usually give this to the bad guys. I actually give it to a good guy, cause I’m a rule breaker like that)
Being totally psycho in a bad way
Attitude – whining too much, complaining too much, lack of humor, etc….
Resource
Card, Orson Scott. CHARACTERS AND VIEWPOINTS. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books
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So, we’re still talking about characters here and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say:
It’s important for people to like your main character.
Obviously, this isn’t always true. There are exceptions, but just in general, okay? You all can debate about it in the comments if you like. It might be fun.
A big key to the reader liking your character is:
YOU LIKING YOUR CHARACTER.
It’s hard to write 75,000 words or even a picture book if you despise your main character. It’ll come through to the reader.
Another big key to character likability is: THE FIRST IMPRESSION.
That’s the big moment when the reader first meets the character.
So think about your reader and whether or not they are going to like a character that they first see picking their nose (some will/some won’t) or rescuing a bird (some will/some won’t) or jumping off a swing or telling off a teacher or moping in their room or playing in a sandbox.
This first impression is shallow.
It isn’t deep and it’s not enough to sustain the reader throughout the book, but it’s the first link the reader has to understanding the character. It’s important. It’s just as important as a lead sentence. I swear it.
And it’s also important to remember that if that first impression is unpleasant (say you are writing a romance novel geared towards straight women and the male romantic figure is expelling gas out his rectum while studying ear wax when we first meet him (Note: This is gross not quirky.), it is really hard sometimes to overcome that first impression. You, as the writer, have to work super hard.
Even if he looks like me? Yes, Fabio, even if he looks like you. Maybe even more so.
Finally, readers usually want to feel sympathetic to the main character. They want to relate to him or her or it. But they also want to be curious about that main character. The main character shouldn’t be EXACTLY like the reader, is what I’m saying.
For the rest of these posts on character, check out the tags CHARACTERS, MAKING CHARACTERS or WRITING CHARACTERS. For other writing tips, just check out WRITING TIPS.
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MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
Hi! If you’re just joining us we’re talking about character this week. To find the posts about character, just look at the tags WRITING CHARACTERS or MAKING CHARACTERS.
So, in the comments of a blog I used to guest star in, a writer, Helen, mentioned that she once took a writing class and “the teacher said every character had to have a good trait, a bad trait, and a quirk of some kind. I’ve often wondered if that was good advice.”
I think that’s pretty simplistic, actually, no offense to that teacher. But it’s not bad advice. And it works as a fantastic base.
What Does Every Character Need?
A good trait
A bad trait
A quirk
A motivation (Yep. I added that in. Everybody wants. Everybody needs. Especially characters.)
Lots of times when teaching people to write, we try to reduce things down to a magic formula that is as simple as possible, because that’s kind of what people want: We want it easy.
And it can work. I mean microwave popcorn works. But is it as good as real popcorn, popped over a campfire? Um. No.
Writing is like that too. We can try to create characters (quirky or not) by going like this.
Good trait: Brave Bad trait: Leaps without looking Quirk: Collects phobias
Want/Motivation: To be loved
But that doesn’t really make a character real or whole or detailed or anything like that.
Also, people tend not to have just one good trait, bad trait, or quirk. These things shift and change.
People and characters are not static things that can be defined so easily.
Just try to define my character that easily. I dare you!
I mean, I ADORED Harry Potter when I first read him, but sometimes he’s a bit of a pain-in-the bum when he gets all mopey and secretive and annoyed at Ron. Right?
Similarly, I love my daughter of awesome who is normally a sweetheart, but sometimes she’s a bit of a pain-in-the-bum when she gets all humans-must-not-chew-food-anywhere-near-me.
Choices Define Our Characters
When I talk at schools all around the country (pre COVID), I tell the students that character is determined by the choices someone makes in real life and in books.
Major characters have choices. Quirky characters have choices.
When the kids decide to follow the Cat in the Hat that forms part of their characters. When Harry feels empathy for the snake that’s jailed in the zoo that forms part of his character.
What else forms a character?
How they talk How they feel How they want What they want What they feel What they say What they do How they act Why they act How they fidget Why they fidget THE CHOICES THEY MAKE!!!!! (This is the big one, honestly. That’s why I keep stressing it.)
The stronger those things are oftentimes the more real or the more quirky the character is.
Think about in Winn Dixie. That little girls wants so hard and how she talked and felt were so vivid that they not only make her character soar, they also make the book soar.
As authors for kids or even adults, we need to know the why and how of our characters (or we have to just trust the why and how depending on what kind of writer we are) and we have to work. It isn’t always simple and that’s good. Really good.
Okay. More tomorrow! I have revisions to do.
Xo Carrie
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The Dude Goodfeather Series – YA mystery by NYT bestseller Carrie Jones
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Lots of times when people review my books they call my characters…. Get ready for it… QUIRKY.
This bird looks a little quirky here and I wish he were one of my characters, but he isn’t. He may be soon though.
Now, when I think of quirky, I think of my uncle Kilton.
If you are a man, Uncle Kilton will grab your bicep and check out your guns the moment he meets you. If you are a woman?
If you’re a woman … he guesses your weight. Now that’s quirky. It is also annoying, actually, but it’s definitely quirky.
If he can’t tell your gender? He’ll do both.
The quirkiness doesn’t stop there.
Uncle Kilton once ate a worm in his corn on the cob and said, “Mmm…. Protein.”
He chews pieces of grass and wears green maintenance worker pants with a white undershirt and flannel shirts. People call him Kilty.
He likes to rescue cats. He has about eighteen old pick-up trucks. He’s also built a telescope and is a millionaire. He has never gone on a vacation in his life.
So, compared to him I tend to not think my characters are ‘quirky.’ But it also gets me thinking about what makes our characters – characters. What makes them unique or quirky or flat or lovable? What makes them real?
The ultimate in quirk.
This week we’re going to try to find out. We’re going to look at major character. Those are the characters the story revolves around like the CAT in CAT IN THE HAT or HARRY POTTER and RON and HERMIONE. In our books there are also minor characters and placeholders but I’m going to blow them off for now, which makes me feel both powerful and mean. Sorry minor characters!
All these posts will be tagged MAKING CHARACTERS if you’re reading them after 2020.
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MAYBE TAKE A COURSE, CHILL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUY ART OR A BOOK, OR LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST?
It’s not the herb; it’s the archetype in writing and maybe in life, although they don’t seem all that common in the real world. Super common in the tarot and astrology and numerology emails Carrie gets.
So, what’s a sage? It’s a smarty pants. But it’s also a bit more.
“Unlike other archetypes, the Sage archetype’s education doesn’t cease after graduation. They’re constantly applying themselves and enriching themselves throughout their entire lives.
“What drives the Sage archetype is their goal of knowing the truth behind everything. For that reason, majority of the conversations that they have revolve around their questions. This can be disadvantageous for them as they’ll take any form of misinformation as a form of deception. With that being said, they take lies very personally and feel emotionally affected when they discover that what they learned or believed in turns out to be wrong.”
“A wise figure with knowledge for those who inquire. The mother figure or mentor is often based on this archetype.”
Masterclass
They are smart, curious; they learn their whole life, use their intuition and are sort of addicted to information.
Weakness: These people think they know more than the rest of us and they often do and that makes them stubborn in their ideas and a little condescending sometimes.
Their challenges? According to the individualogist again,
“The Sage archetype needs to confront their fear and hatred for ignorance. It’s important for this archetype to realize that not everyone is able to learn at the pace and with the passion that they possess…. The Sage archetype needs to exercise humility and alter their perceptions of people in general.”
They are bit slow to act.
The Masterclass site gives examples as: “Athena (The Odyssey), Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars), Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs), The Oracle (The Matrix).”
Do you have a Hannibal in your life?
WRITING TIP OF THE POD:
Use the familiarity of archetypes or subvert them to draw your reader into your story.
DOG TIP FOR LIFE:
Don’t be a condescending bastard.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
A lot of writers use archetypes in their stories. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we’re doing it, actually.
There’s something really compelling about the heroes that don’t quite fit in especially the mavericks. The Huck Finns and Han Solos of the world and/or universe.
For whatever reason, the mavericks have turned away from civilization. Maybe it’s to find out what happened to their missing mom. Maybe it’s because their own elite family oppressed them and their quirks. Maybe it’s because they are doing a Thoreau and they wanted to see what it was like to be Spartan and nonconformist in a society that stresses conformity above all else.
Literary critic, Northrop Frye wrote about mavericks as heroes in novels in the U.S. and said,
“Placed outside the structure of civilization and therefore represents the force of physical nature, amoral or ruthless, yet with a sense of power, and often leadership, that society has impoverished itself by rejecting.”
Northrop Frye
To conform or to not conform has often been the question. Apologies to Shakespeare. And it’s been a question both in American society and in its books, right?
How the main character fits into mainstream society is often the subject of some really good and compelling books like Gone With the Wind or To Kill a Mockingbird. They reject conforming. They strike out on their own.
The maverick is a character archtype.
Here’s the definition of an archetype from studiobinder.com
“An archetype is a consistent and typical version of a particular thing. It can be human, an object, or a particular set of behaviors, but the point is that it fits into a time-tested mold that embodies a pure form.”
studiobinder.com
Anyways, though that site is about scriptwriting, I think it has a lot of great information about writing characters.
It asks:
“Why do character archetypes exist?
“Human beings tend to find their place within a group dynamic based around their strongest personality traits.
“You may have a group of friends with similar interests…
“But often one will be the “social butterfly” while another will be the “homebody.”
“Your friends will begin to identify each other by these consistent traits.
“You’ve now defined yourself by a character archetype.”
studiobinder.com again.
The maverick archetype is obviously one of many, but what of their key motivations is the act of self-preservation. They break the rules to get their goals. Brave. Competent. Sometimes a bit snippy. Their temper is a bit fiery.
That pull between convention and autonomy has the possibility of making a story truly stick out as something extraordinarily special. Don’t be afraid to lean into it.
I (Carrie) am not a fan of Gone With The Wind because I couldn’t stand Scarlett and the racial tones that happen throughout, but the characters are iconic and are a good reference point for us writers when we think about maverick characters.
Are you a maverick? Do you write them? What’s your archetype? We’ll be looking at different ones the next few months. It’s fun.
Writing Tip of the Pod:
Don’t make all your characters mavericks, but don’t avoid them either. Have you mixed up the archetypes in your story?
Dog Tip For Life:
It’s okay to cultivate your own inner maverick.
Dog Tweets of Love: Gabby and Sparty. Sparty is food focused. We’re sure you can’t tell.
WHERE TO FIND OUR PODCAST, DOGS ARE SMARTER THAN PEOPLE.
This week’s episode link if you can’t see it above.
SHOUT OUT
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.
Dog Inspiration
Every weekday, our dogs have inspirational or motivating tweets on Carrie’s Twitter. Go check it out and be her Twitter friend.
COME WRITE WITH Carrie!
I coach, have a class, and edit things for you. It’s super fun. I promise.
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