by Ruth Harris
Good guy/gal or bad guy/gal, the super spy, the nutcase, the grunt who saves his battalion, the alcoholic teacher who can’t save herself but rescues her class from a typhoon, the jihadist with a heart of gold, the whore with a heart of coal, the psychotic, psychopathic, and just plain psychic are the writer’s best friend.
The unforgettable character: he or she (or maybe even it) will energize your book, grab your reader, and jet-propel your plot.Where do you start looking and where do you find the initial spark of inspiration? The answer is: all around you.
The passive-aggressive employer, the tyrannical secretary, the not-exactly-honest businessman, the bully who tormented you in mid-school, the mean girl who spread nasty rumors about your best friend.
Let your imagination go wild
Creating the “perfect” villain can be a form of delicious payback.
Creating the larger-than-life hero or the dreamboat romantic lead can put all your secret fantasies to work.But what if you don’t know anyone who belongs in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders) ? What if no one you know appears on a do-not-fly list? What if the brainiac whose algo saves the world wasn’t in your seventh grade math class? What if you don’t live next door to the guy who killed his wife and fed her body through a wood chopper? What if the woman who poisoned her husband with crocodile-bile-laced coffee isn’t in your exercise class?
Google and the internet provide endless sources of inspiration. Personality disorders, murders plain and fancy, angels and devils are lined up waiting to be chosen. They are on forums, they tweet, they share, they comment, they spew their crazed selves on FB. So do Medal of Honor winners, rescuers of abandoned pets, the devoted medics at Doctors Without Borders and the fearless journalists at Journalists Without Borders.
Books, television and the movies are filled with unforgettable characters, and are an unending source of inspiration as we watch or turn the pages with bated breath, waiting to see what amazing feat or dastardly deed they will do next.
- In Breaking Bad, a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to a life of crime to secure his family’s financial future before he dies.
- Jane Tennison, the DI in television’s Prime Suspect is a “woman of a certain age.” Her love life is on the gritty side, she drinks too much, the men she works with give her a hard time, but she is brilliant and always solves the crime.
- Tony Soprano, a beleaguered New Jersey crime boss, must deal with two families, his own—and the criminal “family” he heads.
- Carrie Mathison, the bi-polar CIA agent in Homeland, is on and off her meds and has sex with the suspected terrorist she is supposed to track down.
- Tom Riley, a sociopath of uncertain sexuality in Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Riley, lies, deceives, and murders without conscience.
- Mrs. Danvers, the creepy housekeeper with no first name in Rebecca, is dedicated to her dead employer, the first Mrs. Maxim de Winter. She is intimidating, manipulative and willing to drive the second Mrs. DeWinter to suicide.
- Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, an ex-military policeman, is a hero with no fixed address and almost no possessions except a foldable toothbrush and expired passport.
- M, as played by Judy Dench, is the head of MI6 and James Bond’s boss. She is blunt, fearless, and does not flinch from ordering 007 to kill when necessary.
- Rasputin, a failed monk and mystic, was a favorite of the last Czar of Russia and, swept up in the Russian revolution, met a brutal end.
- Glenn Close, the murderous seductress in Fatal Attraction is psychopathically determined to get what she wants—another woman’s husband.
- Hannibal Lecter, the twisted psychiatrist in the Silence Of The Lambswas known as Hannibal the Cannibal, a tribute to his culinary propensities.
Don’t overlook the animal kingdom in your search for inspiration for the memorable character.
- The shark who terrorizes a resort community in Jaws.
- A friendly dolphin named Flipper.
- King Kong, a huge gorilla, and Godzilla, a sci-fi monster.
- Alfred Hitchcock turned to the avian world for his thriller, Birds, which, in turn, is based on a Daphne duMaurier short story.
- Canine characters, mostly good but not always, abound from loyalLassie to rabid Cujo.
- Cats, grumpy and otherwise, star in classics, children’s literature, and cozy mysteries.
- Extinct animals are brought back to life via DNA in dinosaur-driven Jurassic Park.
Comics also contribute their share of outsize heroes and villains.
- Brainy and brawny Wonder Woman has her Lasso of Truth and her magic weapons.
- Mild-mannered Clark Kent aka Superman who, uh, you know.
- Assassin and bounty-hunter Elektra.
- Bad guys Dr. Doom and Joker.
- Martial artist and computer genius, Batgirl fights the bad guys—and wins.
The memorable character will do the shocking, the unexpected and, as a consequence, will give your story an immediate jolt of energy.
They live in the “wrong” neighborhood or, like Jack Reacher, have no permanent address at all. They break rules, heads and maybe knees. They drink too much, squander their money and reputations, have sex at the “wrong” time with the “wrong” partners.
Their willingness to flout convention, break the mold, and break laws gives you the ability to create wow! plot twists and never-saw-it-coming endings.
A Caveat
But remember: no matter how lurid your character or his outrageous his or her behavior, you must also make your characters believable. Villains can’t be all bad and heroes need to have their flaws. Filling out a character questionnaire will help anchor your character.Writing a character profile will also help.
Novelist, screenwriter, and game designer, Chuck Wendig spells out 25 essentials for creating a great character. (WARNING: Chuck’s post contains profanity and is humorous in tone.)
Got a great hero? Then you need an equally great villain.
Lindsey Barrett, short story writer and novelist, writing teacher, conference speaker, and member of the National Book Critics Circle, shares tips on crafting memorable characters.
The joy of creating the memorable character is that it’s fun. Lots of fun. Go wild. Go insane. Break every rule and every law, written and unwritten.
Go ahead. It’s safe here in writers’ world.
by Ruth Harris (@RuthHarrisBooks) January 25, 2015
What about you, Scriveners? Where do you find your most memorable characters? Do you wreak revenge in your books on toxic bosses, abusive exes and that guy who cut you of on the 101 on-ramp? (I have to admit to killing off some fictionalized toxic people in my life.) What about your heroes? Do they come from real life? Who are your favorite fictional heroes/villains? Have you ever written about a heroic animal?
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I always do a character profile, but a character questionnaire would be really helpful.
While mine don't have many quirks, they do end up with a lot of flaws.
And of course, movies give me inspiration for characters. Verbal the cripple in The Usual Suspects was great – never saw the twist coming.
Hi Alex—Flaws do a lot of the work to carry a story! Couldn't agreement more about the movies. The heroes—and the villains—grab our attention and keep it. Note that just this weekend American Sniper with a larger-than-life MC is blowing away movie gross records. Lesson learned!
Great article Ruth- I especially enjoyed your foray into comic book heroes and villains, of course. They're close to the heroic fantasy I love. I have the advantage of extensive "notes" on most of my main characters, and certainly that's helpful when you try to envision a scene, carry your readers through it.
Hi Wm. L.! 🙂 Thanks! I wanted to point out that the search for great characters shouldn't end with human characters. A writer shouldn't stop with the usual suspects but should expand the search in ever-outward ripples for just the right twist or defining detail.
Excellent post, plus there are all those wacky & half-wacky people we've met in life — often a magnifying glass focused on a remarkable trait can help define a character. Thanks for all the fine advice.
Hi CS, Thanks and thanks for the reminder of the whacks and half-whack around us. They *are* inspiring—if not maddening. 😉
Blogger ate my comment again …
I've never found character profiles that helpful. To me, they're just a disconnected set of questions that don't do much of anything. Whatever I know about the characters comes out in the story. I don't base them on anyone I know — don't need to. I just toss them into the story, and they happen. I try very hard not to think about a "flaw" or a character arc because that will wreck the story.
Hi Linda, Bad, bad Blogger! I definitely hear what you're saying. My characters come to me and do their thing. Lots of times I just need to get out of the way! No profile or questionnaire needed although I know lots of writers swear by them.
Linda–People tell me if you sign in to Google first, before you make your comment, it's less likely to disappear. I know that happens to me with WordPress. If I'm not signed in, WordPress eats my comment while signing me in. So it goes through the second time around, but I've had to rewrite it.
I'm always logged into Google. Still eats my comment anyway.
Dreams often come to my rescue. I had a dream of a Texas Ranger in 1890's Egypt being told: "You are no longer in Texas, Cowboy." And my character, Sam McCord was born. Reflective questions sometimes help me, too. I once asked: "What if an agnostic faced off against Lucifer but his mindset wouldn't allow him to admit it?" And so FRENCH QUARTER NOCTURNE was born.
Of course, then I had to backtrack and create the character needed: a form of literary reverse-engineering, right? A great post as always, Ruth!
Roland, Hi & thanks! Interesting dreams of yours for sure! Your mention of Lucifer reminds me of the devil & Saddam as an hilariously mismatched gay couple in South Park, a brilliant twist by Matt Stone & Trey Parker.
Another great post, Ruth! I'll point my class to it this week. And yes, I love creating villains. Particularly, sympathetic villains. Many are darned attractive, but still so bad for us.
Hi Melodie! Thanks for the welcome flattery! 🙂 In my reply to Julie just above I refer to a recent sympathetic perv. He suffers from his compulsion and consequently is a memorable character.
I use animals in a character creating exercise and ask students to choose an animal, any animal, and find out about its social habits and traits. (I put a limit to the research otherwise precious writing time could be wasted.)
For instance, all you need to know about a polar bear is that it’s a good parent with great physical strength and a filthy temper while a zebra is gregarious, unpredictable and hard to tame.
Then I suggest that they turn their animal into a human being and write a character study, which includes physical description and an event that reveals their personality.
Thye will have to decide just how much of the animal to feed into the character study – the end result should be a believable, memorable character. I can see the polar bear as a gangster, a controlling mother or a neighbour from hell. He or she doesn’t have to eat walrus as well or have white hair. Zebra could be a crazy disco dancer, the best friend at school or a talented artist without a stripe in sight.
Interesting relationships could form – how about a male zebra and female polar bear? There would be enough conflict and sparks flying without making one of them eat the other.
bridgetwhelan.com—Thanks for a brilliant suggestion! Much appreciated.
Great timely post! Thank you. I'm working on edits based on agent feedback and it's very character driven. Hurrah for this post. The 25 Things a Great Character needs is a wonderful funny informative link. Thank you! Off to read the other.
~ Tam Francis ~
http://www.girlinthejitterbugdress.com
Hi Tam—Thanks for the flattering words. Glad the post was helpful.
Villains think of themselves as the "good" and they think their actions are justified.
Heroes aren't saints.
Thanks for interesting article, Ruth.
Leanne—Very well stated! Thank you. 🙂
I thought sure I'd beat Alex to the punch. Oh, well, gotta get up earlier in the AM in future. Terrific post, Ruth. Love the capsule descriptions of famous book characters. What great models there for writing short descriptions of our characters with all the defining details. Kind of like a character logline. BTW, Your description of Tom Ripley reminded me that Highsmith's "Two Faces of January" is just out on DVD. Talk about interesting characters. She really brought out the darkness in them and the film is great fun. Bookmarking for sure! Paul
Hi Paul, Set your alarm! 😉 Thanks for the kind words and for the reminder about the Highsmith DVD. She was brilliant with dark, compelling characters.
I note that TCM is showing Downhill Racer later this week. Robert Redford plays a young, adrift skiing champion. I haven't seen it in ages and look forward to another look at a different kind of compelling character.
Paul, My memory, too. Gene Hackman played his coach! Haven't seen it in ages so curious as to how I'll react. I always associate DR with The Candidate. Another film in which RR played an unsympathetic character.
Thanks, for the reminder, Ruth. Think he was pretty unsympathetic in Downhill if I'm remembering the film correctly. I'll definitely tape it.
Really enjoyed this blog post – great tips for creating compelling characters. Love the sources for inspiration and the reminder to make your characters believable. Thanks, Ruth!
Hi Julie and thank you! Nothing quite as creepy or compelling as an appealing villain. The young, attractive, sympathetic perv in The Missing is a great example.
A male zebra and a female polar bear? That's truly a wild suggestion! I was thinking, Ruth, what good pointers you were giving us – and really, considering that all those goodies are coming from you, let me say that I'm not surprised, I so enjoyed your Decades novels, full of great characters!
But I think that if some aspiring writer turns to TV or any of the "classics" (like Superman), there is a risk of developing cliché characters. In short, one needs to move away from "Breaking Bad" and the like, and that's not always easy…So back to the bear and the zebra: here, at least, it's not likely to be cliché!
Hi Claude! Thanks for your very kind words! A zebra and polar bear combo lean toward the black and white. Not good for fiction where we should be all about nuance. 😉
Seriously, My intention is to indicate where writers can look for examples or inspiration. Not copycatting. Not cliché. Never, never cliché!
Hi Ruth,
Great post, but I don’t agree that a villain can’t be all bad. I think this very fact makes the story more compelling. Evil does exist. Think of Amy in Gone Girl. The fact that she was so twisted and evil make the story riveting.
Hi Rita, Thanks for the kind words. I don't agree that Amy is all bad. At first, we see her as the attractive, appealing woman the hero falls in love with and who was the inspiration for her parents' fictional creation. It's the slow revelation of her psychosis that make Gone Girl so compelling. As is the realization that what looks good, isn't. Not necessarily. Something we all discover as we grow and learn.
It was an enjoyable ride of a post, Ruth! All those 'characters', human and almost human 🙂
I've got a question about one of the Opportunity Alerts: Tinder Press offer. The Passive Voice also posted this info, and the comments were overwhelmingly negative. Some commenters assumed that self-published authors were not eligible, which is not the case; but still the general idea was – it's suspicious, stay clear of this deal.
I don't have anything ready to submit to Tinder Press, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on. It's not easy. 🙂
It would be great to hear what you, Anne, and other writers who post in this thread think about this Tinder initiative.
Thank you very much for your help.
Sasha–The people on The Passive Voice are 100% against any kind of traditional publishing. Especially the Big Five. They'd tell you if Random Penguin offered you 8 figures for a first novel, you should turn it down in favor of writing a novel a week for the rest of your life. They have a political agenda not everybody shares. 🙂 And they hate anything literary. There is some good information there, but you need to take it all with a grain of salt.
Sasha–8 figures and a chateau in France would not get some of those people to allow anybody to accept a trad pub contract. Unless it got offered to them. 🙂 The Passive Guy is brilliant and has great advice, but he attracts some lock-step anti-publisher fanatics who can't see past their own need for control. I always read the posts, but generally avoid the comments.
8 figures for a first novel vs. writing a novel a week for the rest of your life…tough choice… 🙂
I enjoy reading The Passive Voice, but the comments do puzzle me sometimes.
Thanks, Anne.
Sasha, Thanks!
Have not used a heroic animal but I have exploited a smart-assed Saddlebred who is addicted to peach sweet tea. Thanks Anne for sizzling up the bloggosphere.
Joanne–The sizzle this week is all Ruth's! An animal with addiction issues is good, too. 🙂
Hi Joanne—Thanks for your comment. Listen to Anne. She knows what she's talking about. Addicted animals? WTG! But now what? Do they go to rehab? Do they trash their stalls? Do they become pushers and get other animals hooked? Do politicians pass laws making peach sweet tea illegal? Lots to consider. 🙂
Great list of unique characters and what makes us love them. One of my favorite animated characters is Megamind. I watch that movie over and over again.
Susan—Thanks for taking the time to comment and for the addition of another fab character!
Great post and one I'll have to return to as a reminder. Trying to write a character profile fore a detective with a Goth image – used photo of Abi from NCIS as inspiration. Also look into personality types, and working out a character's astrology adds to package. And those last comments are making me think about pets with attitude.
Roland—Thanks for the lovely compliment *and* for the excellent suggestions. 🙂 Pets with attitude is a fun idea, isn't it?
I love researching character profiles. I do use the DSM for my villains and some of my more colorful characteers. And names; I research name meanings and insure some of that leaks into my characters. It is fun to write intriguing characters, but can be hard work to get it all right.
dolorah—Sounds like you have an excellent approach and, yes, it is hard work. Writing is. Hard work, that is. 🙂
Worst of all: when you enlisted your possible characters, I knew most of them, ha ha. For me, there are two great sources for characters: my travels throughout the world (due to business) and people at my office. They are just such an eclectic mix of individuals that each provides something, a trait, a tic, a gesture, an accent, to my writing. Also I found that my friends (without their knowledge) have influenced my characters greatly!
Hi Bernardo—"Worst" or Best? I'd say"best" because that eclectic mix and their quirks are just the inspirations we need! 😉
Good point! I just love analyzing people. There's a lot of richness in every individual that surrounds us.
Ooooh, what a fun post! I tell ya, the book I'm working on now has two points of view…the protagonist, and the villain. At first I was so nervous about writing from a villain's pov, but wow, it's been a cool experience. Writing the "good side" of the villain–what makes him do what he does–was an excellent learning experience.
Hi Julie, Thanks for the kind words. After all, if we can't have fun, then where are? Certainly writing the upside of the villain is an excellent definition of "fun." Glad you're enjoying your walk on the dark side. 😉
I'm just at the character building stage for a new book so this was great timing. I'll be hanging on to the post for a while. Thanks.
Great post. I bopped over to Chuck Wendig's piece via your link–so funny and so true. Glad you offered the link. I must admit I once put the worst thing anyone ever said to me in a character's mouth. It felt good.
I nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award (as you so cleverly discovered!): http://peninherhand.com/one-lovely-blog-award/ Congratulations and thank you for all your informative articles!
LD—Hi and thanks. Hope the post helps as you build your characters!
Your great examples impress with often extreme behaviour or decision-making. Another source of milder but no less memorable characters comes from the plays by Alan Ayckbourn. These impress because they are like people we've met, which enhances the humour.
I think the self-obsessed women of different ages in Me-Time Tales remind readers of women they know. I hope so.
I've tried to make even child characters memorable. Hopefully with success.
(e.g. in A Relative Invasion)
Rosalind—Thanks for the kind words. You're right: memorable does not have to mean extreme or Over The Top. Relatable can do the job very well.