When creating characters for your short story or novel, remember that contrast will add interest and clarity to your story. Similar situations, backgrounds and personalities make boring reading.
Characters with Different Backgrounds
If you have several people coming together in a situation, give them different backgrounds. You can vary your characters by education, economic status or culture, as well as attitude. Debbie Macomber does this well in her women’s fiction set in a knitting store, The Shop on Blossom Street and its sequels. Or check out Maeve Binchy’s Silver Wedding or Evening Class.
Characters with Similar Backgrounds
Some stories don’t lend themselves to a set of characters from different walks of life. A story set in rural Georgia, the arts culture of New York, or a Texas ranch is likely to have characters with similar backgrounds.
You can vary them, however, by personality or by their outlook on life. One might be outgoing, one brooding and introspective, and one who follows the group but complains all the time. One character might be a problem-solver, one is a nosy gossip, and one seemingly placid but actually plotting to get her way.
You can also vary your characters by their personal situations: newly married, career at crossroads, distanced from spouse or child, stifled creatively, etc.
Characters have Different Strengths
Give your characters different strengths and weaknesses, and let them finally solve the problem together. Perhaps one talks too much, or snoops too much, and gets herself or the group into trouble. Another is the organizer-type and plans a solution, while the skills of a third are what make it possible to complete the plan.
Characters have Different Quirks
Create “tags” for each character to help readers keep them separate. The tags must grow out of the character, not be add-ons, and will make your characters more real in the process.
Simple tags include snapping gum, smoking cigarettes and twirling hair. Other tags might include repeated phrases (“Dahling,” “I’ll be blowed,” or “Dammit to hell,” for example) or repeated actions (obsessively washing hands, cooking when upset, playing guitar, sleepwalking, etc.).
Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees has characters with great individuality. Even without names, you know who is playing the cello, who is writing on a slip of paper and going out to the stone wall.
Characters Need Different Names
Nothing is more confusing to a reader than a book with Jean, Jennifer and Joan. And woe betide the writer who names her characters Dan and Don, or Joan and Joanne without a good reason!
If a family starts all the children’s names with D, that’s fine. But unless there’s a valid reason, integral to the story or the character, separate your characters' names by enough letters or sounds that the reader has no problems.
For practice developing your character's voice, try these writing exercises.
