by Liz Johnson, @lizjohnsonbooks
We all want characters that come alive and jump off the page. But creating them requires layers. In past blog posts, I’ve covered dialogue and goal setting. Now let’s talk about quirks, mannerisms, and little flaws. These are all things that you can use to make your characters more relatable.
Maybe your character says specific phrases over and over? Or when asked how he’s doing, does he always respond the same way? Does he have a catchphrase or a favorite word? Verbal cues are an important part of setting your characters apart, but like all quirks, be careful not to overdo. It’s easy to fall into the trap of repeating the same phrases over and over.
Beyond spoken words, there are all sorts of quirks and mannerisms that give your character more personality—that help readers relate to them even more.
Does your hero bite his fingernails or does he rub sweaty palms down his pants when he’s nervous? Does your heroine curl her finger into her hair every time she thinks about her handsome new neighbor? Does he have a ritual or habit like waiting for the trash truck to roll down his street then immediately running out to pick up his trash cans?
I love Barbara Streisand’s The Mirror Has Two Faces. And one of my favorite things about that movie is the way that the main character Rose orders her meal at a restaurant. She’s very specific. No tomatoes. Half of the croutons. But she doesn’t like the dressing that comes with the salad. She wants the vinaigrette. On the side. And then, when it arrives, just to her specifications, she spends thirty seconds loading up her fork for what she calls “the perfect bite.”
We see her do this just once or twice, but we remember. At the end of the movie, her husband laments that the woman he married—the one who adored the perfect bite—is now eating carrots. He remembers, too. And all of a sudden the quirk that we love, is the same one that another character loves. And we feel like we’re part of the story.
Little flaws are on par with quirks and mannerisms. And by little flaws, I don’t mean the internal struggle of the hero or the bad choices he’s made on the way to his goal. I mean the imperfections that make us human. We can’t relate to perfect. We want to. We all want to be Cinderella or Prince Charming. But we’re not, and our characters aren’t either.
Some flaws are more noticeable than others like the character with two left feet who can’t make it across the room without tripping. Or the one who always forgets people’s names.
Flaws are important, but be careful how you apply them. From personal experience, I’ll tell you that my editor did not like that the rough and tumble hero of my first book was afraid of bugs. I thought it gave him a unique flaw—especially since he and the heroine spend several chapters deep in the forest. Apparently, romance heroes aren’t supposed to scream when a spider shows up.
One of my favorite characters is in Karen Witemeyer’s To Win Her Heart. Set in Texas in the 1880s, the hero Levi Grant is a blacksmith with a lisp. So self-conscious of his lisp, Levi refuses to use words that have the “s” sound in them, which leads to all sorts of misunderstandings when he refuses to call the heroine Miss Spencer. Instead of putting his lisp on display, Levi uses his rather large vocabulary—developed from years of reading—to find alternative word choices, letting his flaw show off more of his character.
We pay attention to small quirks in real life too. My grandpa always had these chalky, pink mints in the glove box of his pickup. They weren’t really very good, but I remember them because it was a special treat to get one from him. And just the other day, my sister mentioned them. It seems it’s something that we both associate with our mom’s dad. He was a great man, a veteran of WWII, a life-long Iowa farmer, a card player, and a Sunday school teacher. And what do we remember twenty years after he passed away? Pink mints.
We remember the little things. And your readers will too.
But beware stereotypes are easy traps to fall into. If you find your characters stuck in stereotypes, consider turning the stereotype on its head.
If you have a wealthy businessman, what kind of car would you assume he would drive? Lexus or Audi or BMW. Flip it on its head and he’s suddenly driving a classic Mustang—not pristine, just a hand me down from his dad. What’s the story behind that?
I used to love watching the TV show Bones. David Boreanaz played FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, who did not want to be defined by the typical black power suit that he was required to wear. He couldn’t get away with breaking all the rules, so he wore brightly-colored socks.
When was the last time you thought about what kind of socks a character wears? It’s small potatoes, right? Or maybe it’s a way to reveal the heart of a character—in this case, a rebel in disguise.
Eccentricities make characters memorable and add personality to the bones. But be aware that quirks aren’t a substitute for deep personalities. Quirks and mannerisms should always flow out of the character’s backstory. Just tacking a quirk onto a character for no reason can distract from the real story.
What are some memorable quirks from your favorite characters? What quirks can you add to the characters you’re writing?
Ninety years ago, Millie Sullivan’s great-grandmother was a guest at banker Howard Dawkins’ palatial estate on the shore of St. Simons Island, Georgia. Now, Millie plays a 1920s-era guest during tours of the same manor. But when her grandmother suggests that there is a lost diary containing the location of a hidden treasure on the estate, along with the true identity of Millie’s great-grandfather, Millie sets out to find the truth of her heritage–and the fortune that might be hers.
When security guard Ben Thornton discovers her snooping in the estate’s private library, he threatens to have her fired. But her story seems almost too ludicrous to be fiction, and her offer to split the treasure is too tempting to pass up . . .
By day Liz Johnson is a marketing manager. She makes time to write late at night—that’s when she thinks best anyway. Liz is the author of more than a dozen novels, a New York Times bestselling novella, and a handful of short stories. She’s a Christy Award finalist and a two-time ACFW Carol Award finalist. She makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona, where she enjoys exploring local music, theater, and doting on her nieces and nephews. She writes stories of true love filled with heart, humor, and happily ever afters.