by Joelle Steele

When writing a novel, character development is about the most important things any writer has to do next to the plot. I can’t even begin to tell you how many books I’ve read where the characters were unoriginal and in many cases not even the least bit credible.

To begin with, a character simply must fit into the story line in all ways, down to the tiniest details. That’s why I like to develop the character first, and then place them into a plot. Here’s a real example from a novel I read that shows just how far off-base things can be with just one poorly researched detail. The protagonist was a woman in 1996 who was a 6′ tall former model. In the story, she goes to a historical society’s annual dance wearing her great-grandmother’s 1887 ball gown straight out of the attic trunk.

I am an expert on being tall. I am just a half-inch under 6′ – but let’s not quibble about it. Let’s just say I’m 6′ tall and be done with it. Women in my family are tall – I’m not even the tallest. But I know for sure that my own great-grandmothers on both sides of my family were nowhere near 6′ tall. They were much, much shorter women and they would have been heavily corseted. This character finds the ball gown, tries it on, and decides to wear it the same night. The gown is not going to be anywhere near her size or length, and even with the best of storage, it’s probably going to rip to pieces if she even tried to wear it. No research here at all. And this book contained a host of other poorly researched things, such as the locations of real places in a well-known town where she lived (and I grew up there and was living there when I read the novel).

Characters need to be unique and real. Look beyond just your family and friends for inspiration. Avoid stereotypes. I read a lot of mysteries and I am soooo tired of reading about a protagonist – usually a man – who is a police detective (or retired cop), chain-smoker, a recovering alcoholic, divorced, on the skids with his wife and/or child, hangs out with criminals, and is a loose cannon at work where his boss values his intuition and let’s him get away with all kinds of stuff that no one would ever get away with at work. Somewhere in there is a woman who loves this loser. Seriously? Is this the best you can do?

Give your characters some reality. It’s okay to create a character with an achilles heel. But give them something else in the way of personality. How about hobbies, interests, family, friends, jobs, education, wardrobes, house/apartment, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, cars, or even a face and body if you’re up to it. Do whatever you can to make your character anything other than an overused cliché.