As writers, most of us focus a lot on our characters. We want them to be the best they can be (or the worst they can be when creating villains). Yet, how can we make our characters reflect more “character”? We need to give them habits or styles/ preferences, body language and movements, and accents and catch phrases that are unique to them and tell us more about their natures.
The first category that most of us can easily employ is habits or styles/ preferences. Our character might have a daily ritual of a black coffee and a croissant for breakfast. They might often wear a fedora, a baseball cap, or a do-rag. They might find the smell of pumpkin spice delightful (or they might despite it). Maybe they love black licorice while everyone around them turns up their noses at it. Thus, we’ve completed the entry level to characterization.
The second category is only a step up as we envision our characters as if watching them on a projector screen playing out in our minds. Our characters might show nervousness through twisting their hair, biting their nails, or even biting their lips. They might even drag on a cigarette. Also, pacing can show nervousness or anxiety (or even impatience). Our character might sit silently with crossed arms in the corner, as they try to close themselves off from the pain of the world. Or, we might have a character sporting an expressive, sunshiny smile who walks with a bounce in their step, thus highlighting their optimistic nature. We see our characters in our minds and jot down their descriptions and behavior; they almost “write” themselves.
Then, there is the third category that might be the hardest because it might require deeper research and more analysis, meaning we might need to develop accents and catch phrases for our characters. Now, it is true that we could go overboard as we might not want every character to have a different accent; this might tire and confuse the reader. That is why many stories have a straight-forward accent only with a few catch phrases sprinkled in for particular characters. However, incorporating some local accents, depending upon the character and the region that is being written about, might add the right kind of flavor to the character and the story. This can be done through research as well as personal experience, if one possesses that knowledge. However, we should always make the speech clear enough for the reader to follow. Also, we should be consistent on parts we decide to put into a local accent like keeping the same spelling throughout.
We can check the accent by reading it aloud to ourselves. Is what we hear truly being reflected on the page? It can be a combination of some accent to create the atmosphere and some catch phrases of a certain character or even local, colorful words of the region. For example, I’m currently working on some Appalachian characters, and I have been going over some local phrases and even idioms of the region. I want to work the phrases in naturally and only use them if they are needed. We should never force conversation but let it grow organically. We should also not shy away from making our characters truly our own unique characters by developing our own vision or interpretation.
So, whenever we are developing our characters, we should concentrate more on bringing out the full “character” in our characters through all the tools we have at our disposal like habits, body language, and accents as well as catch phrases. Our characters will thank us for bringing them completely to life.
