Establishing Strong Characters (part one):

            Every person has unique DNA, a unique fingerprint, a unique voice, and a unique personality.  Even “identical” twins have unique faces.  Remembering this is the first key in writing strong characters, even before you get into their background.  No matter how “minor” your character may be, your guy is not “one of those guys.”  Your girl is not “that type of girl.”  Just as every person you meet in life is important, every character you create is also important.

            Your characters are yours, and yours alone.  No one has ever met them, and you are formally introducing them to the world.  At the risk of repeating myself, I will say it another way:

“Your characters have lives of their own.”

            As in life, your character doesn’t get a second chance to make a first impression.  Therefore, it is ideal for you to introduce your character with a signature.  A signature, like every other attribute of your character, is unique.  From a literary perspective, I am talking about an action, a gesture, a saying…  Something that your character does that’s different.  In “Lives,” for example, Freddy McDaniel starts off talking about his old car with his Dad.  In that scene, he talks about his older brother, Kyle and it is obvious from the attention his Dad pays Kyle that he favors Kyle more.  Later on, when they have dinner, Freddy says, “Mom scooped ice cream onto my apple pie without my asking.  I ate it anyway.”  It reveals the dynamic between Freddy and the rest of his family that becomes very important later on.  His Mom is so pre-occupied with Kyle, that she just goes through the motions with Freddy.  She doesn’t hate him or abuse him, but her actions reveal a lack of attention to Freddy’s wants and needs.

This line also reveals a few things about Freddy as well.  He is passive.  He does what he’s told.  He eats what he’s given…  and he accepts his fate as it’s written.  To spell that out, however, would tell the reader too much, just like it would tell your friend too much if you described EVERY emotion you had to them.  No matter how close our friends are, we censor our thoughts and your characters should censor theirs as well. 

The characterization is best revealed through action, rather than explanation or dialogue. 

A reader should know what a character is thinking without having it spelled out for them.  When that happens, you know your characters are strong.

Now that we’ve talked about the end result, let’s talk about how we get there.