Many writers are very good at creating characters and some even have a natural talent for creating living, breathing, three-dimensional people without working up a sweat, while other writers have to apply all manner of life support just get their characters to breathe on their own. Most of us are somewhere in between the two extremes. While not all stories are character-driven, characters are an integral part of any story and the more real you can make your characters, the more memorable your story will be. 

Adding dimension to your characters

It’s all in the details.  Even in the sprawling acreage of a novel, you simply cannot slow the story down in order to fill in everything there is to know about a character. Rather it’s the details that you reveal about a character that tells the reader who he or she is. For example, rather than spending several paragraphs describing your character’s miserly ways, make him a lousy tipper, who uses coupons when dining out, and takes advantage of the endless bread basket or soda glass. A standard technique to show a character’s good side is called ‘save the cat,’ which is basically a scene where the gruff or sarcastic character saves a cat in a tree, or helps a little old lady from being mugged, or always brings a sandwich to the local homeless guy who sits in front of the convenience store.

Keeping dialogue real. Any author worth their weight is obligated to eavesdrop on others’ conversations, and spend inordinate amounts of time listening to people. Coffee shops, grocery stores, box stores, concerts, movie theaters, buses – anywhere that people gather is a target-rich environment for eavesdropping authors. Pay attention to regional accents and phrasing. Southerners speak differently than northerners. Sad people speak more slowly and insecure people may stutter. And while punctuation and proper grammar are important in prose, people are rarely grammatically correct when they speak. Bottom line is, no two people speak exactly alike, so neither should your characters. 

Modeling characters after real people. While it’s probably not smart to use your mom or your cousin Alma as a character in your story, you could borrow a characteristic or two from them – a turn of phrase, or a quirky habit. In my case, when my character is on the crusty side, I think of my dad. I don’t fashion the character after him, but I think of his habits, favorite phrases (‘and some people  have to work for a living’), and what his responses would be to certain circumstances. It’s a really easy way to put myself in the world where that type of character lives.

Physical descriptions. Many writers like to give a full physical description of a character, others give little to no physical description. Personally, I like to sprinkle the character’s physical description through the dialogue, the viewpoint of other characters and in attributions. For example, “He trembled so violently that I thought his giant ears would begin flapping and take wing at any moment.” Whatever you do, avoid the main character looking at their reflection and describing themselves.

Helpful resources

No matter what your process is in characterizations, there are some wonderful references you can look to for technique and tips. Among those, I’d recommend The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. Though the book was written decades ago, it holds some pure genius on characterization.