I don’t know about you, but when I meet someone new I always take mental notes on their mannerisms and what they say. First impressions are everything.
When a reader meets a character for the first time, how do you want them to feel about the character?
Should the reader love your character? Maybe they’re supposed to hate the character. Or maybe the character comes off sweet at first, but the reader slowly learns to dislike the character and vice versa.
There are many traits you can use to describe the personality and mannerisms of your characters.
–General traits (ambitious, dull, funny, witty, vain, etc.)
–Good/bad habits (social butterfly/anti-social, etc.)
–Hobbies (dancing, writing, loves playing games, etc.)
What kind of emotion does your character typically show? Is he or she cheery in the most dire situations or maybe they’re sad all the time.
What about their knowledge? Do they love learning? Have multiple degrees in various subjects? Do they love palm-reading or anything that has to do with animals?
Do they have any obsessions or quirks? Maybe they collect rocks or have random impulses.
How would any of those show in the first meeting of a new character?
How would your other characters react to meeting this person?
Of course, you can write away and see how the characters turn out on their own, but I always like to think it’s good to have at least three traits of every character figured out–two good, one bad.
These traits may change over time, but that just means your character is becoming more into their own.
Ha if I ever meet you, I will be sure to display weird quirks and throw you off xD
I actually have now become intentional about watching people and their little nuances and quirks, especially if I’m looking for a new character for a story I’m writing. I don’t want one-dimensional or similar characters.
I’m currently reading End Game: The Calling by James Frey and it focuses on twelve characters and each one is so unique, you know exactly who you’re reading about. The one character has a stutter and blinks often and the writer has added this quirk even into the writing. Brilliant.
That must be awesome to read! That’s how I want to be able to write. I want it to be brilliant, lol.
Lol I’ve read some of your Sunday fiction stories and you are definitely talented Rache. I’m looking forward to reading your George Florence story one of these days!
Thank you! That means a lot. π
It’d be interesting to note first impressions online versus first impressions in real life.
Oh yeah. That’s a good idea!
We need to meet one day. π
Yes! That would be awesome.
I’m going to work towards the goal of meeting you in real life.
We have to meet some day. I feel like we’ve been best friends our whole lives, lol. I think you and I would have so much fun together!
Yes, exactly! We could talk for days. You’re like the sister I never had.
Yeah we get pretty off topic on these comments… Lol. But we have fun!
Ahaha that happens a lot.
And we juggle multiple conversations. One on my post and one on yours. Like what we’re doing right now, lol.
We make it work. Wait, aren’t they both your posts? I didn’t comment yesterday because I turned off my phone. Sorry!
I just checked. Yep, they both are my posts, lol. Well, we usually do one of each.
Yeah but we’ve gotten so off topic from what your posts are originally about. Oh, how does this happen?
We have too much fun and apparently too much in common, lol.
I agree. We could talk about anything.
Yes we can. I love our conversations. π
I line them too.
You what? Lol
Love. So sorry. I didn’t catch that at all.
Oh, that’s what I thought. π
Oops. My eyesight is horrible. And my thumbs just aren’t nimble enough to navigate the small keyboard on my phone. π
Typos are funny though, lol.
I can’t believe my phone auto corrected to line. I must have typed ‘libe’ or something along those lines. π
I have the auto correct off. It bothers me.
Sometimes it saves me. Other times this happens.
Reblogged this on Random Acts of Writing and commented:
To good not to share with you all!
Thank you for the reblog!
For sure!
Putting traits to your characters is a great starting point! I’ll have to put this on my outline. Thanks Rach!
I think it’s a great introduction to your characters. π