7 Tips for Casting a Spell on your Characters

1. Give your main characters their own style. Think in terms of clothing, jewelry, and accessories. One of my female fantasy protagonists wears boots “the color of maple leaves in the fall.” One of my villains carries a pearl-handled gun and accidentally shoots a hole through a mink coat that used to belong to the actress, Veronica Lake.

2. Quirks are a great way of distinguishing a character. Remember Robert from “Everybody Loves Raymond?” He had this crazy quirk of touching his food to his chin before eating it! Unforgettable. The quirk should affect the way your character interacts with others, even in minor ways.

3. Actions speak louder than words. Make your character do something early on that will keep your readers engaged. One of my young adult protagonists has a lot of moxie; after she gets kidnapped and ransomed for a stolen painting, she figures out a way to steal it back! She’s the type of character that makes the reader wonder what she is capable of doing next.

4. Dialogue can be an interesting part of any character. Unique patterns of speech or an accent can make them more memorable. Remember Professor Quirrel? Stammering as he spoke made him stand out immediately. The caution here is to be careful with accents, you don’t want it to get in the way of readability.

5. Get control of those emotions! Every character feels something, your job is to show more of your character’s personality through portraying their emotions. Does your character have road rage? Provide a way for your character to show emotion. Put them on a narrow two-lane road with a slow-moving circus caravan in front of them. Does your character whistle when they’re nervous? Make them very nervous at their own wedding or while they are being chased by a wild boar! Emotions are socialized in every society, so make sure that whatever emotion your character displays, matches the culture in which they live.

6. Everybody wants something. Your main character wants something too and it’s important to them. The problem is that what they want is going to come into conflict with what they have to do. For example, if your protagonist is studying for final exams and the college president goes missing, your protagonist will no doubt have to save her. The conflict of desire to pass finals and the need to save the college president becomes an interesting and personal dilemma for your readers too.

7. Details, details, details. Characters with an already established background feel more three-dimensional. Even if the details are in some back story that will never be published, you will know how they will react in various situations. This background information will help keep your character consistent and more believable. The more characters you have in a story, the more important details become, even minor details. But those small details make a character more vivid and memorable. Some people use Character Profile Worksheets to help them keep track of the details about each character in the story.