Choose Your Camp: 3 Tips for Creating Indelible Characters

Camp NaNoWriMo begins in April! In the spirit of friendly camp competition (and inspired by one of our favorite scenes in Scott Westerfeld’s Afterworlds), we asked our friends to Choose Your Camp. Today, Stacey Lee, author of the soon-to-be-released Under a Painted Sky shares why she’s a champion of Camp Character, and how she creates strong characters:

For me, characters are the key to making stories memorable. We measure characters against ourselves. Egocentric creatures that we are, the more something relates to our lives, the more we remember it.

I haven’t the foggiest idea what happens in Jerry Maguire, but I do remember the determined sports agent yelling “Show me the money!”  

I read The Hobbit twice, but still can’t tell you what happens beyond orcs chasing hobbits. However, the good-natured and loyal Bilbo Baggins, and the irritable yet charming Gandalf are indelibly inked on my heart.

Some people like to divide books into two categories: those that are character-driven, and those that are driven by plot. But to be compelling, even a plot-driven story requires well-drawn characters (just as a character-driven story still requires a plot). So let’s talk about how to create a strong character.  Here are my three down and dirty tips:

Steal.

If you don’t already have a character in your head, I highly advise stealing one. There are nearly seven billion people in the world, and surely, one of them can serve as the basis for your character.  

Maggie Stiefvater said, “I steal a human heart for each of my characters.  I might wrap them in a very different set of details than that real-life model, but they all start as someone real.”  

Watch the news, eavesdrop on the people at Trader Joe’s, go to all the parties. Your characters are out there, waiting to be discovered.

Take a personality test.

The internet is full of personality tests. You can sort yourself into Hogwarts houses, or find out which ’80s star is most likely to play you in the Lifetime movie of your life.  

Use the tests to find out about your character. Or use them to find out about yourself, which can sometimes be the same thing. Just don’t send it to all your Facebook friends because that is how productivity stops in the world of writers.

Make them imperfect.

While virtues may be admirable, weaknesses are relatable, and relatable means memorable. Weak spots can be physical (Crane-man’s shriveled leg in A Single Shard, Piggy’s nearsightedness in The Lord of the Flies), or mental (Tom Riddle’s fear of dying in the Harry Potter series, Jo March’s hot temper in Little Women).

I recently read a book debuting later this year called The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes where the main character is missing her hands. Why give your characters these flaws? They’re an opportunity to dig deeper. How has that prosthetic leg affected Augustus? Is it something he’s self-conscious about?  And why the heck is Minnow missing her hands? This is backstory we want to know.

As a last point, I want to mention character arcs, a topic that requires a post of its own. Once you have defined your characters, you must use your plot to help them grow. Not all growth is transformative, and sometimes, a character’s growth is simply to remain steadfast. Now go forth, and create your army!

Stacey Lee is a fourth generation Chinese-American whose people came to California during the heydays of the cowboys. She believes she still has a bit of cowboy dust in her soul. A native of southern California, she graduated from UCLA then got her law degree at UC Davis King Hall. After practicing law in the Silicon Valley for several years, she finally took up the pen because she wanted the perks of being able to nap during the day, and it was easier than moving to Spain. She plays classical piano, wrangles children, and writes YA fiction.

Top photo background by Flickr user frix.cz.