This post is focused on a very important, if not the most important, aspect of your writers, your characters. Readers become invested in characters. They learn to love and/or hate characters. They sympathize and/or empathize with their flaws, quirks and events that shape them. Character development is both essential and difficult.
In this post, I hope to pull together some useful tips that I have tried to follow in my own writing or have learned from those that are respected and successful in the craft.
- Be consistent with what you call your characters – If you’re character’s name is John Doe, stick with calling him John or Mr. Doe or Johnny. But don’t alternate or you will confuse your readers. I actually broke this rule in my first book, Frankly Speaking, and in it’s subsequent related books, I have a character named Clifford Jones, III. He is an attorney, hacker, financial adviser and surf shop owner. His friends call him “Jonesy”, but he doesn’t let just anyone call him that. This means that, in dialogue where he is first meeting a character, they call him “Mr. Jones” until they earn enough of his trust, if ever, to call him “Jonesy”. It’s a minor bending of this principle and I’m good with it.
- Give your characters names with subtle meaning – If everyone in your book is named Mr. Smith or Mr. Doe, the reader may take this as a sign of bland writing. Of course, the other extreme is giving your characters ridiculous names. If your hero is named Stud Steelmucscle or something like that, your readers may not take you seriously. Of course, both of these rules have been broken. In the right context, that is perfectly fine. In my detective series, I gave my main character the name, Frank Rozzani. Rozzani is a name that is close to my own last name and fits in my ethnicity which allowed me to explore familiar territory in my storytelling. The name ‘Frank ‘ has become a double-edged sword as I have used it in the titles of the first five books: Frankly Speaking, Let Me Be Frank, Frank Incensed, Frankly, My Dear and Frank Immersed. Hopefully, I have not painted myself in a corner. I have at least 5-8 more ‘Frank’ titles in reserve. I just have to be story not to write the story to fit the title.
“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.”
― Joss Whedon
- Who the characters are – Some books go charging into action without establishing who the character is or why they’re taking the actions being described. This is a perfectly fine way to immerse your reader into a story, but don’t string them along for a long time without giving them little tidbits of information. You will lose them if your character seems reckless without cause.
- Stereotypes or stock characters – The terrorist of a certain ethnicity, the evil genius, the crusty old retired policeman; do they sound familiar? They should. They are often overused in what we read. Readers might think your story copying something they’ve read previously. That’s not to say that you can’t use some aspects of these characters, just don’t load your story with them.
- Too many characters – Some authors can pull this off. Read The Stand by Stephen King or The Lord of the Rings trilogy and you will have more characters than you can shake a stick at. These are exceptions. Too many characters means that you may not be developing them fully. You can try combining multiple characters or eliminating one or two. Not even Tom Bombadil made the movies.
- Extraneous characters – I know I’ve been guilty of introducing a character and then never using them again for the rest of the book. My editor will rip them out and remind me that they are not necessary. I sometimes have people ask me to write them into a book. In one instance I wrote someone into the book as the person in charge of conducting body cavity searches. I don’t get that request much any more.
This post told you about some of the problems of characterization. How do we fix them? I’m deferring this to another post because I want to hear your ideas on this topic. I certainly don’t know everything or even much of anything. Let’s share our experiences.
wowwww great tips even though I am not into writings but I love your tips .. thank you!
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Good, sound, basic, but oft forgotten, advice from Don 😀
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Thanks for sharing this, Chris.
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My pleasure, Don 😀
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It certainly does become irritating when the life history is given of a porter who carries the bags of the hero once. However, that does not necessarily mean dispensing with the porter.
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True. He or she could be important later on.
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Sage advice.
Has to be reblogged.
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Thanks. Glad you found it useful.
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Invaluable. I’m checking my principal characters (or are they checking me?????) during this re-write of mine
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Thanks. Happy hunting.
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Reblogged this on heroicallybadwriter and commented:
Here are some important basics.
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Thanks for sharing this.
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Brilliant tips, thanks for sharing! They are definitely going on my inspiration wall.
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Reblogged this on Writing for the Whole Darn Universe.
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Thanks for sharing this
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You’re welcome, Don! 🙂
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Good post, Don. We’d be wise to follow your advice. 🙂 — Suzanne
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Thanks
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Reblogged this on Nesie's Place and commented:
Excellent tips on characterization we usually forget (or don’t even think about).
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Thanks for sharing this
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You’re welcome! Appreciate good info simplified!
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I loved your tips, Don. Characters are definitely what compel me as both a writer and reader. I do like books with multiple characters but as you said, the author must have the skill to pull that off.
I’m saving this link to share on next Friday’s Curated Content on Story Empire. Excellent post!
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I was going to share the link on SE, too. Funny.
I fall on the side of character-driven fiction, so this post resonates with me. If you’ve got a taxi driver, a waitress, and a shop clerk, many editors will tell you to beef up the driver and eliminate the other two. That can give you a rich secondary character, but then again, it may not always work. If you can’t combine them, and they only show up once to advance the plot, it’s often better if they aren’t named. Call them the driver, the waitress, the clerk. That way readers recognize them as unimportant plot devices and don’t try to bond with them or remember them.
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That’s an excellent point, Staci. Sometimes you need those characters and leaving them named is indication they’re probably only around for one scene.
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Great points. Thanks for sharing..
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Thank you Mae. There is more to come on this topic.
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Great news!
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Pingback: Characterization Tips – The Sequel | Author Don Massenzio
Reblogged this on Anna Dobritt — Author.
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Thanks for sharing this, Anna.
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Pingback: Curated Content For Writers – September 1 | Story Empire
Reblogged this on Writer's Treasure Chest and commented:
Author Don Massenzio provides us with tips on characterization. Thank you very much Don. These are very helpful!
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Thanks for sharing this.
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You’re welcome – it was my pleasure!
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Pingback: Characterization Tips – Part II | Author Don Massenzio
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