Although I live in a good-sized metro area (Charlotte, North Carolina), my suburb of Matthews is fairly small. It’s small enough that, when I go out running errands, I have a couple of errand-running mom friends and acquaintances wave at me as I drive.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I decided to switch out our cars. I do most of the driving and his car makes fewer funny noises than mine does.
After making this switch, I’ve noticed that I’m getting a lot fewer waves. And I don’t think that everyone I know is mad at me. :)
But to them, part of who I am is a Honda minivan. I’m not a Honda Pilot to them. Their gaze just skips right over the car.
As I was out driving the other day and being ignored by my friends, I started thinking about habits and identifiers that can help establish characters in our readers’ minds.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m reading a book, I have a hard time immediately placing a character. The author, obviously, thinks that this character is someone that they’ve already established and they haven’t provided anything additional to jog my memory.
Because I find it frustrating as a reader, I try to make sure to somehow tag my supporting characters if they haven’t been onstage for a while.
One way to do this is obviously to say something like: Jane’s hairdresser, Sheri, opened the door.
Or: Sheri walked in. “Long day at the beauty parlor, y’all. Three customers didn’t show up!”
The first way is a total ‘tell,’ but fairly unobtrusive for the reader. The second way is a little more ‘show’ but still gets the job done and establishes the character for the reader.
Another way is to give the character a trait of some sort to identify them. This would need to obviously be a detail memorable enough so that a casual reader could tie the trait and the character together to remember them. This could either be a physical trait (an engaging dimple; cold, hollowed-out eyes, messy hair) or a habit or action (shifting from foot to foot, avoiding eye contact, looking at their reflection in every mirror, etc.)
The purpose of this identifier is really just so the reader isn’t wondering who the heck they are. But you could make it serve double-duty and have the identifier point to something that gives a little insight to the character: Jane thought again how odd it was that a manicurist would have nails bitten down to the quick. Actually, I think some of the actions I used in the example above can give some insight into characters, too.
Obviously, these identifiers can be overdone. If the secondary character is on stage fairly frequently, it would get annoying to have them reintroduced each time. The trait could get annoying, too, if done too frequently.
We also need to be mindful of clichés when making these identifiers for periphery characters. It’s easy to tag a supporting character with quick and easy tags that are stereotypical (awkward nerd, lady of the manor, dumb jock, etc.) I think that sometimes that a stereotype is a quick way to have our reader “get” a character…if the character isn’t very important to the story. If the secondary character is more important, then it’s probably worth it to flesh him out more and give him more dimension.
How do you help your readers keep supporting characters straight?
I pretty much “talk” to the characters. Find out what they like/dislike, how they respond to the world around them, and just give them the overall interview. One of my characters just can never call his brother by the name his brother prefers, whereas most other people use the preferred name.
Elizabeth – You’re so right about the need to make characters unique, and it really doesn’t take a lot of verbiage to do that. I’ve been thinking about that a lot in my WIP because three of my characters are male college professors who are working together on a research project. I had to think of some way that the reader could keep them straight. One thing I do is pay attention to names – characters’ names can help distinguish them. I also gave my characters very different physical appearances and different backgrounds and that helped a lot.
Elizabeth,
Great tips. This reminds me of how when you know someone’s habits,you can often say what he or she will say before they enter the room; the person is that predictable.
Good topic today. (In our neighborhood everybody waves at everybody, whether they know you or not.)
I try to give a very brief physical trait when I introduce a new character, as long as it’s reasonable to expect the POV character to notice it. And I think the depth of POV you’re writing also makes a difference. If it’s shallow POV, the author can slide in some extra narrative. In deep, if the POV character isn’t thinking about it, it can’t go on the page. (Pet peeve – writing in deep POV and having the character “brush her long, auburn curls from her face.” How many real people think of their hair length and color when the push it out of their face?)
I’ve used speech patterns to help readers know who’s on the page.
As for gestures — one author said she had her hero smooth his moustache as an identifying characteristic. Her editor said — cut back: it’s a tic!
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
I think I rely more on personality traits than anything else, with a few visuals thrown in.
I’ve had fun with a character in my second manuscript – he’s an insecure, nervous fella, and I’ve come up with all sorts of ways to get this across and identify the character.
I wave at cars that look like those of my friends all the time, only to have them get close and have some stranger stare at me funny… I blame my eyesight. I’m near-sighted, and so count on the LARGE CLUES.
These are great things to keep in mind. In my Cozy, I have a secondary who always calls my MC by the wrong nickname, but you’ve given some good suggestions for behavioral ticks.
Jeffrey–That’s a great way to distinguish him, and says a lot about the character in the process…he’s probably stubborn and does his own thing.
Diane–I like traits, too. I’m never wild about a lot of description, so I use fewer visual references.
Margot–Good ideas. And the fact that these characters have different backgrounds means, of course, that they will approach problems in different ways..and that can help identify them to readers.
Teresa–Exactly! And we want readers to know our characters well enough at least for them not to wonder who the heck has just entered the scene.
Alex–Sounds like he’s a well-developed character!
Terry–Speech patterns is a great way to identify characters, and physical traits are, too. Too funny about the hero’s tic! I can see an editor slashing that.
Hart–Ha! I do that too…wave at the wrong person. Oh well…I guess I just seem especially friendly. As far as your cozy, I love stuff like that–a character calling another character by the wrong name would *definitely* stand out to a reader.
I have a thing about using stereotypes at all, though I get why it would be an easy way to ID a character for your reader. I’d never thought of that as a possibility.
I love how you often begin your articles with an anecdote. They’re really funny and inspiring and really set the scene.
As for identifiers, hmm, I should probably have a think about them. I think I have them for most of the secondaries buuut it helps to have them on my conscious mind rather than buried deep in the subconscious.
I think I do colors a lot. For example I have an idiot-brother who’s not an idiot. His stutter identifies him most of the time, but he also has a signature blue vest, the buttons of which that are always strained.
My hope is that the blue and the belly stick enough that even when he’s incognito the reader won’t feel betrayed when he’s revealed.
Lisa–I always wanted to just automatically reject the stereotype, but I’ve found that sometimes stereotypes can be useful for a quick tag, a fleeting impression for a reader of a fairly unimportant character.
Shannon–Thanks so much! :)
Amy Jane (Untangling Tales)–I think they’ll stick, for sure. I like that you have a character who isn’t what he seems. :)
Sometimes it is hard, but different approaches work for different scenes.
I have one secondary character that is unique in his constant movements, another who has a sexual attitude about everything.
I try to put a “feel” for the character in the initial description so I can use that marker in tags and dialogue later on.
…..dhole