This guest post is by Neal Abbot.
Try to
imagine Harry Potter without his scar, or Captain Ahab without his pegleg. Hard
to picture, isn’t it? But now try to envision a story with a boy who has a
lightning-shaped scar on his forehead for no reason, or a man missing his leg with no explanation.
I
remember my first Creative Writing class in college. The professor insisted every character have some physical quirk. I didn’t understand this and
thought it unnecessary. Explaining my frustration, I said, “This guy over here
has a pegleg, and that guy has an eyepatch. What am I doing? Writing a bunch of
pirate stories?” That’s when he let me in on his little secret. The
quirk must be part of the story or somehow symbolic.
Character Quirks as Part of the Story
Think
of the examples given earlier. You can’t think of Harry or Ahab without their
quirks because they are an indelible part of the story. Give your character an
incredible physical quirk, so you can have other characters talk about
it.
You
know that info dump of backstory you want to put at the beginning, but know
you can’t? Now is when you can leak out some of it. Have your main character ask his
friends why the villain has a particular quirk. Then they can tell how it
happened, and the past gets brought into the story in an interesting manner.
Character Quirks as Symbols
This
is actually my favorite way to use quirks. Have the embodied uniqueness
symbolize something about that character. In my latest novel, Prince, my
antagonist suffers from gout. Like his achy joints, he is stiff and
inflexible. His gout symbolizes his inability to change.
In my
first book, Heirloom, my hero is double-jointed. It indicates his moral ambivalence. He can’t decide what to do when it comes to important decisions. His
brother-in-law sells his soul to the devil, and in time, realizes what a bad
deal his was. Shocking, I know. Immediately after the bargain he is seen
without hair, even though he sported beautiful curly locks up to this point. A
bit later, he and his wife discover the hard way that he has become impotent. (You
may wonder what selling your soul to the devil has to do with baldness and
impotency. Baldness in the Bible is often symbolic of open and public shame. It
is as if something dreadful has been uncovered. Also, the man’s impotence shows
the reader that he is completely powerless over his situation.)
Character Quirks in Combination
Optimally, quirks should be used in both ways in your novel. Simply put, never give a character an incidental quirk that has nothing to do with his personality or the backstory. Quirks can not only help your characters look and act unique, they can also add depth to personality and motivation to psyche.
About the Author: Neal Abbott is the author of three novels, Heirloom, Drover, and Prince. The first two are currently out of print, while Prince is scheduled
for a November 6th release. He is now working on a non-fiction project
regarding The Great Gatsby,
particularly about Nick Carraway as narrator. He posts every Monday and
Thursday on his blog, A Word Fitly Spoken.
Tell me your opinion: Have you given your protagonist any quirks?
Related Posts: Why Character Stereotypes Are a Good Thing
Story by K.M. Weiland
Tags: Characters , Feature , symbolism
Thanks so much for sharing with us today, Neal!
And that you for using my post. I hope your readers find it useful.
Wow, that really does give the character uniqueness and opens a place to add backstory. Brilliant! I love it. :)
I found this useful! One of my protagonists in 3 Through History is a distance runner. This is his escape from the frustrations brought about by his clumsiness with women. On three occasions, he sets off for the horizon in his distance treads in order to run off the sting.
@aqua - that sounds like an interesting use of combining a physical trait with action, and with a point for the story. great!
@simplicity - i am so glad you liked it. thanks for reading and for the great comment.
A mental or personality quirk can work just as well as a physical one. In my WIP, one of my antagonists speaks in a very uneducated way, which is meant to symbolize his isolation from and jealousy of other kids.
nice article neal, thanks! made me think a bit deeper about applying that aspect more consciously, and consistently ;-)
Great post. I like the idea of symbolic quirks. Nice add to the story.
Adan and Denise, thanks for your comments, and thanks for reading.
Greg, I agree. I sometimes double the physical with mental or at least psychological quirks. And thanks for commenting.
Loved reading this post. Very helpful since I'm still doing my characters. The quirk doesn't necessarily have to be a flaw or something negative, right?
This is a post with a difference. During the past 18 months I have studied many writing blogs and this is the first one I've found which covers this particular topic. Thanks so much for adding another layer to my writing. It's subtle but a very useful issue to discuss.
Thank you! In critiquing others writing, I've always struggled with advice in dealing with flat main characters other than back story ideas. This really helps flesh out the reason why back story alone isn't enough.
Thank you! In critiquing others writing, I've always struggled with advice in dealing with flat main characters other than back story ideas. This really helps flesh out the reason why back story alone isn't enough.
Brilliantly put, thank you! I particularly appreciate your recounting of your own "character quirks as symbols". Studying Literature I often have to analyse deliberate choices made by writers. Mostly, I'm rather skeptical. I find myself wondering if the symbolism (specifically in modern works) isn't just generally my own constructions imposed on books.
Exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks for the post,Neal.
That is brilliant. My protagonist has a difficult and highly unknown past, the only indication of her trials are the scars she sports. This lets me tell her past as a series of scar stories. It also shows she has survived a lot.
My protagonist has two quirks the first he has before the story, the second he gains early on in the first novel of the series.