DEVELOPING FICTIONAL CHARACTERS

by Joelle Steele

When writing a novel, developing your characters is important. I can't even begin to tell you how many books I've read where the characters were unoriginal and in many cases not credible.

To begin with, a character simply must fit into the story line in all ways, down to the tiniest details. Here a real example of just how far off-base things can be with just one poorly researched detail: The protagonist was a woman in 1996 who was a 6' tall former model. In the story, she goes to a historical society's annual dance wearing her great-grandmother's 1887 ball gown straight out of the attic trunk. I'm 6-feet tall, an expert on being tall. Women in 1887 were much shorter and heavily corseted. After more than 100 years, that gown would be fragile and not ready-to-wear. No research here at all.

Characters need to be unique and real. Avoid stereotypes. I read a lot of mysteries and I am soooo tired of reading about a protagonist – usually a man – who is a police detective (or retired cop), chain-smoker, a recovering alcoholic, divorced, on the skids with his wife and/or child, hangs out with criminals, and is a loose cannon at work where his boss values his intuition and let's him get away with all kinds of stuff that no one would ever get away with at work. Somewhere in there is a woman who loves this loser. Seriously? Is this the best an author can do?

Give your characters some reality. Be creative. Be original. It's okay to create a character with an achilles heel. But give them something else in the way of personality. How about hobbies, interests, family, friends, jobs, education, wardrobes, house/apartment, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, cars, or even a face and body if you're up to it.

Do whatever you can to make your characters anything other than overused clichés.