Create a Character the Readers Won't Forget

Which of us doesn't want to create a character who will live on in a reader's imagination long after they have turned the final page of the novel?

The trouble is, even if you follow all of the advice up to this point in the Creating Characters section, there is still the danger that you could create a character who is - well, a little on the boring side.

Just because you have taken the trouble to get to know your fictional characters by writing mini-biographies for them, it doesn't mean that they will shine brightly on the page.

They will be believable, yes, but not necessarily memorable.

Just because you have created characters the readers are sure to care about, it doesn't mean that they will continue to care about them - or even remember them - after they have finished the novel.

Just because you have made the major characters fully rounded by furnishing them with a complexity of traits and motives, it won't stop them from being three-dimensionally dull!

What I am talking about here is providing all of your characters - both the Major and Minor Characters - with a kind of "X Factor," or an indefinable quality which makes them shine like stars from their very first appearance until long after the reader has turned the novel's final page.

I happen to have the perfect recipe to create a character the readers won't forget.

First, you must make the characters memorable, and I will tell you precisely how to do this in a moment.
Second, you need to prevent the character's memorability from making them unbelievable - and I will show you precisely how to do that, too.

1. Create a Character Who Is Memorable

When you create a character for your novel, don't be afraid to let them start out as a stereotype.

Let's say that your central character is a supermarket checkout girl called Mary.

You haven't started the writing yet, but you have done lots of planning and you now know Mary as well as you know yourself.

So far, so good.

It is now time to make Mary come alive on the page, and you must not be afraid to use broad brush strokes when you introduce her and paint her as a two-dimensional stereotype.

You see, when you create a character in your imagination, you create a fully-rounded human being - and the natural temptation is to try to get across all of the different aspects to their personality in the very first chapter.

You must resist it...

Not only will it mean that there is too much going on in the chapter.
But the characterization will be "busy" and unfocused.

Back to Mary. You know in the first chapter that you are not going to attempt to paint a true portrait of her, but merely describe one aspect of her personality.

Whatever aspect you choose, this will be her initial stereotype. So the question is, which of her dominant traits will you choose to focus on...

Her looks?
Her physique?
Her laugh?
Her lack of dress sense?
Her rudeness to customers?
Her loyalty to her work mates?

Now here is the key to this: choose just one or two traits, then exaggerate it/them tenfold...

Suppose you choose to concentrate on her physique, which is on the large size. Well, don't just make her large - make her 6'6", half as wide, and stronger than most men.

And suppose you choose to focus on her rudeness to customers in the opening chapter, too. Don't just have her mumble under her breath at them - have her be spectacularly offensive (at least to the customers who ask for it!)

"Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum."
- Graycie Harmon

Why choose only one or two traits to exaggerate? Because if you make a character larger than life in every single respect, they simply won't come across as believable - not even a believable stereotype.

With Mary, then, you are going to take her formidable physique and her rudeness to customers and play them for all they are worth in the opening chapter...

Show her answering back to an obnoxious, complaining customer - not in a mild way but with all guns blazing.
When the customer complains some more, Mary extends herself to her full height and death-stares him, daring him to say something else.
The customer leaves without another word and Mary shouts "Next!" to the next person in the line.

If you write the scene vividly enough - and be careful to make the customer the figure of hate, not Mary - the readers aren't going to forget her in a hurry. Why? Because you have created a great stereotype: a big checkout girl with attitude.

If you had muddied the picture by trying to portray her gentle side, too, and her great sense of humor, the readers would have been left with a far less vivid snapshot to imprint on their minds.

But that is only half the story of how to create a character the readers won't forget. You might have made them memorable, but the next step is to make them believable.

2. Create a Character Who Is Believable

There is nothing wrong with stereotypes in novels - so long as the characters being stereotyped are minor characters.

If Mary's role in the novel was limited to two or three brief appearances, for example, no further characterization would be required - she would simply be the big, scary checkout girl.

She wouldn't be any less memorable being left as a stereotype - readers, in fact, would probably find themselves looking forward to her next appearance. But she would be a two-dimensional Flat Character, and therefore hopeless for the purposes of a major character.

Major characters need to be complex, rounded human beings - that's why they are called Round Characters.

The way you would achieve this with Mary, from the second chapter onwards, would be to introduce all those aspects of her personality which work against the initial stereotype you created. For example...