Playing With Invisible People

I love a girl named Lisa. I think about her favorite food and the goofy things she does when no one is looking. I worry about how cold she is in the abandoned building where she is currently staked out, across the street from the lover who just dumped her. I feel sad for her sister, who is caring for their dad while he dies of emphysema. The thing is, I love someone who has never existed.

I know how odd that sounds. But a writer becomes involved in the story of her characters, and works to create real, breathing creatures from pen marks on a page or lighted letters on a computer screen. Today I’m going to talk about how we play with these invisible people to make them seem as if they are actually someone you could run into at the corner coffee shop or in the furniture store.

Passing Out Character Flaws
When I talked about building a fascinating plot, I stated that you should think about what your hero wants more than anything else, and what they are willing to do to get it. That’s just the beginning. Next, you must build attributes that make the person loveable or at least likeable. Main characters are generally likeable, while villains often have few good attributes – though there are exceptions to both rules. However, to make someone realistic, they must always have flaws and virtues, or they run the risk of being boring and ridiculous; just think of all the romance novels where the women are tiny, soft, heart-stoppingly beautiful, and morally upright, while the men have rock-hard chests and flowing locks, and are supernaturally endowed. As a partygoer says in Fitzgerald’s novel “Tender is the Night”, “I prefer people whose lives have more corrugated surfaces.”

Give Your Characters A Back Story
If your heroine had a terrible scare as a child being pursued by a creepy man in a park, you know how she feels today having to cross the park at night…and hearing a sound from the woods. The father in the novel “Ordinary People” who drives his family so hard is much more touching when you learn that he grew up as an orphan, and craves family togetherness. Make sure you provide details that help your readers understand why they are the person they are today.

Little Details Make A Big Difference
One reason I love Charles Dickens’ novels is that his characters are so wonderfully quirky – and Dickens reminds us of those quirks throughout his stories. For example, in “David Copperfield”, the unforgettable Uriah Heep has slimy hands and an ingratiating smile; Miss Dartle insinuates nasty things through vague half-sentences and has an old scar across her mouth that blushes every time she goes into a rage; the Micawbers take us on a rollercoaster of emotions and grand speeches as their fortunes go up and down.

Don’t have any ideas about details that can make your people come alive? Look at the people around you. We’re all odd in some way. One of my embarrassing quirks is that I involuntarily smile when I hear terrible news – though I don’t find the information funny at all. Last weekend I saw a teenager who plays drums begin drumming his fingers against his thighs once he got nervous. Most memorably, in a business meeting one day I saw a dignified man lick a finger, and then proceeded to poke the wet finger into each of his nostrils. People are bizarre – you just have to watch them long enough in order to be surprised at what you see. Watch the people at your kid’s sports games; check out how people act in the cafeteria; remember the funny things you see people doing at the mall. Then add these quirks to your characters.

Don't just describe habits, though. Make sure people can see your people by providing clear, memorable descriptions. Avoid boring illustrations such as "She combed her long, blonde hair." What is blonde? My salon provides roughly two dozen shades of blonde, not including all the permutations of highlights and lowlights that are possible. Dirty blonde? Lemony highlights? Yellow with glints of red in the setting sun? How about the color called "bad box of hair dye turning her from auburn to orange?"

What’s In a Name?
Naming your character is no small thing. Sometimes you want your character to have a name that fits them – like Chili Palmer in Elmore Leonard’s story, “Get Shorty”, or Steve Austin in the TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man”. Other times, it may be more appropriate to have a character’s name not fit them, such as a biker named Tiny, or a minister named Butch. Be careful that you don’t name different characters with letters or spelling that is similar, since this will just confuse your readers.

Many people have complained about Russian novels where the characters are called different names depending on their relationship to each other. Unless you are writing about the complex interplay of relationships and how that affects the characters’ responses to each other, don’t give your characters a variety of names. If you do, I guarantee you will have them flipping around your book in confusion, trying to sort people out, and possibly becoming frustrated enough to put down your story.

Walkin’, Talkin’ Fiction
Many writers will tell you that once they have created believable characters and compelling plots, the story takes over and the characters have a life of their own. Not only do I believe this is true, but I also believe this is evidence of well-designed characters. Once you have breathed life into them through the ideas mentioned above, they will walk and talk on their own. The more your readers believe in your heroes, the more they will cheer for them until the last page is read.