Creating Memorable Characters

I remember reading The Belgariad series for the first time. I still love the characters: Silk, a charmer in love with the only woman he couldn’t have. Ce’Nedra, a feisty young girl who has to grow up and be a supportive woman. Polgara, calm and unflappable. Belgarion, an old man with hidden depths.

I couldn’t wait for each series that Eddings produced, but I soon noticed something. All of his other characters were pale imitations of those first ones. It was as if he couldn’t shake them and instead of trying to make other memorable people, he kept rehashing the old ones.

And it no longer worked.

When you are writing, the characters you create take up a huge amount of time in your head. You live with them and talk to them, trying to understand their motivations while scribing their fate. Sometimes it’s hard to let them go.

Unless you are creating a world where these characters reside forever and all your books are set in the same place and time, one day you have to leave them behind and work on something new. So, how do you stop the ghosts of the past turning up in your future work?

1.        Write their backstory.

You need to spend time with these new people. Get to know their stories. It will inform their motivations and reactions as you write.

2.        Give them a flawed characteristic.

Each person is different, so by creating new characteristics, you automatically start differentiating them from all your other creations. Are they short-tempered? Jealous? Too trusting? Perhaps they are actively avoiding certain things because of past trauma. I had a lot of fun (that sounds dreadful!) putting my MC in The Charred Blade, Finn, through PTSD in the third book. It meant he froze when confronted with danger, which also had consequences for those around him.

3.        Make them quirky.

They might love dressing in a certain way, have pink hair, only eat white food, or get excited about learning Chinese. These idiosyncrasies make them memorable to the reader. This is especially important if you are going to be introducing a large cast of characters. Without these markers, the characters will get lost, and so will your readers.

4.        Don’t be afraid to step outside societal norms.

We have a wonderful neurodivergent world with lots of people to celebrate and represent in our stories. You don’t have to give a label to your character, but by describing traits and actions, your readers will remember them and come to their own conclusions.My amateur sleuth, Wilfred, is on the autistic spectrum. I never say that he is, but the traits are there. He is socially awkward, yet longs for connection. He doesn’t like physical contact. Logic and reason are his support system. He has a keen sense of right and wrong.Meanwhile, Maisie, my other amateur detective, is bubbly and vivacious. She puts people at ease and encourages them to talk. Inside, however, she also feels inadequate and a fraud, and covers her desperation with hoarding. She is also a kleptomaniac.

5.        Think about their appearance.

Short people have very different experiences than tall ones. Vary your sizes and shapes. If, like me, you live in other worlds, change their definition of beauty, or give them distinct features. For instance, the elves in my Norse series have whorls on their faces that are unique to each person.

6.        Celebrate racial differences.

We are all a product of our upbringing, with different traditions, politics, expectations, foods, and cultures. What kind of society does your character hail from? What are their values? How are people expected to behave? What traits are frowned upon? How do they mourn? You only have to look around our world to see the vast differences between nations, tribes, and even families.

7.        Give them a unique voice.

I’m not saying that everyone has to have a weird accent or have a stutter, although these are good ideas. Instead, vary the way people speak. Do they speak without thinking and invariably cause offense or embarrassment? Are they deliberate with their words? Do they only speak when they feel it’s necessary? Are they flippant or rude? Do they like making jokes? Do they call people pet, or sweetheart? If you do this right, you don’t need many dialogue tags because your reader will know who is talking by the things they say.

Here is an example from my cosy murder mystery series. Brenda Blight is a gossipy nosy neighbour. She was married but widowed early. (Some would say her husband had a lucky escape!) She lives in a semi-detached house which she has decorated pink, makes bland tea, and is very taken by Wilfred, whom she flirts with outrageously. Brenda has a small dog who is yappy and bites people, but she mothers it like the baby she never had. She also confuses her words. For instance, “in flagrante delicto” becomes “in fragrant delights”. She also calls Wilfred Pepper “Mister Pickles”.

I was originally going to make her the victim in my second novel, but I loved writing her so much, she now has a permanent place in my stories.

So have fun. Let your imagination run riot, and your readers will remember your characters long after they turn the last page.