Making your characters distinctive

Take a few minutes every day to “people watch”. Notice mannerisms that are exclusive to individuals. Allow yourself to be judgmental (privately). Do any of their unique mannerisms cause you to feel sympathetic or hostile? Do you feel drawn or repelled by the way a person laughs? Does a peculiar tic make you uncomfortable?

If you are close enough to hear them speak, notice if they use certain expressions/phrases repeatedly. Maybe there is something in their speech that makes you think well-to-do or impoverished, or perhaps they have a tell tale accent that gives away their origins.

When you are building your characters make sure to include a habit, expression, gait, or physical impairment that belongs to them alone. Or you can use these phrases, accents, or body expressions to link characters. Maybe the family that just moved up north from the deep south will all talk with a southern drawl or use expressions like “Well, if that don’t put pepper in the gumbo!”

Do you remember the TV show “The Nanny” with Fran Drescher? Her high pitched nasal voice epitomized her – when the show’s producers wanted to emphasize someone who might be related to her, they gave them the same laugh. That nasal voice and unique laugh became a trademark, anyone who heard it thought of Nanny Fine.

Think of people you know or characters from TV shows – you will often associate certain “trademarks” with each. If you do that with your characters, you will add to their personalities and make them more recognizable to your readers. Remain consistent.

Unless you are looking for a comedic effect, it is probably best not to overuse that special mark – throw in the occasional y’all for a southern drawl, a foreign expression (like c’est la vie) to brand your character with an ethnic background, or that nearly indiscernible limp that reminds us of a tragic accident.

Your characters are real people, or at least you want your readers to see them that way. Remember that no person is all bad or all good, even the hardened secret agent will have a level where they will feel pain, and even a criminal may cry at the loss of a parent. If your villain is all evil with no emotions, no needs, and no human senses, he/she will be flat and unbelievable.

Any of your major characters, hero, heroine, antagonist, best friends and any character that appears frequently needs to have motivation for everything they do. Building a history for each, even if you are the only one that knows the information, will help to make your characters truly multi-dimensional, “real”, and consistent throughout the tale.

You should know about your character’s socio-economic background, education, family relationships, career and ideally at ;east one very bad and one very good “memory”. You will find that the character’s history will guide his reactions, fears, drives, and likes in any situation that you, as the writer, can throw into your story.


Writing Exercise: Write a letter to your “worst” teacher and tell him/her all about your life and your successes. Let him know how far you’ve come “despite” him.

Writing Prompt: Close your eyes for two-to-three minutes, imagine the room and objects around you. Open your eyes ad without looking around write down as many items, with as much description as possible, as you can remember.