Guest Kathryn Springer: "Making Your Characters Come Alive!"

We all know that creating great characters--the kind a reader will stick with even if the hero or heroine is staring out the window, drinking a cup of coffee--can be a challenge.

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Physical descriptions, dialogue and internal conflict are all important elements when it comes to creating multi-dimensional characters. Our heroes and heroines should be larger-than-life, but we have to be able to relate to them, too. Yes, we’re talking about fiction, but the fiction has to be real. You know exactly what I mean, don’t you? (further proof that we writers are an odd bunch!)

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Your hero can be stubborn and aloof, your heroine fearful or slow to trust. Watching them grow and change is what keeps a reader’s interest throughout the course of the book. And a great way to give your character...well, character...is to give them something we all understand. And something, like it or not, that all of us have.

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Imperfections.

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I like that word better than flaws because it brings to mind my favorite coffee mug--the one with the lopsided handle and crazy kaleidoscope of splotches and speckles that one of my children made in pottery class. I have a connection to that cup because I can picture my daughter’s hands shaping it. I can hear her laughter when she took it out of the kiln and saw the result of her first effort. I can see her.

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That’s what you want to accomplish. You want your readers to see your characters. Not just their physical appearance, but their mannerisms. Their movements. I’ve discovered two things that can bring your characters to life are habits and hang-ups.

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Habits

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What is a habit? Quite simply, it’s an ingrained pattern of behavior. And as writers, we’re all about shaking things up, aren’t we?

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When I talk about a habit, I’m talking about more than having your heroine bite her lip, twist a strand of hair or clear her throat when she’s nervous. If the goal is creating a multi-dimensional character, even  seat-of-the-pants writers like myself must be purposeful. That means it’s important to know your characters’ backstory.

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Link the habit to something in the character’s past.

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In the Davis Landing series, my heroine, Felicity Simmons, was a reporter. She was also a redhead, which seems to be synonymous with a temperamental personality. Felicity was a go-getter, confidant and headstrong to the point where she could have been unlikeable. She needed something to make her seem more sympathetic. More human.

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She needed a habit.

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I decided that Felicity had always been strong-willed. When she was a little girl, her dad gave her a butterscotch candy instead of the familiar admonition to “take a deep breath and count to ten”. She carried that reminder into adulthood and kept a supply of the candy in her pocket. She even knew exactly how long it took one to dissolve (six minutes and thirty-eight seconds!) Enter Chris Hamilton, the officer assigned to protect our fearless reporter from a stalker. During one of their interactions, Felicity can see that Chris is frustrated with her, so she offers him a piece of candy. When they clash in another scene, the hero asks for one. By the end of the story, he has his own private stash!

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Another one of my heroes, an architect, was discouraged from pursuing art because his father wanted him to eventually take over the family business. He drummed his fingers when he was feeling restless or upset, a habit the heroine connected to the fact that he couldn’t express his emotions with a paintbrush.

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You can use habits to reveal deeper emotion. You can also use them as comic relief. For example, your super-analytical aerospace engineer hero and free-spirited heroine are traveling together in a car. He is quiet. Deep in thought ... ignoring her. She realizes he is counting the boxcars on a passing train and suddenly starts to shout out numbers, just to mess him up.

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You want to be careful not to overdo it, though, or your reader may begin to focus on the habit rather than the character. If you’ve ever watched someone bite their nails, from left to right and back again, you understand! Whatever your character’s habit, make sure it’s more endearing than annoying.

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Hang-ups

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A hang-up is to ‘become stuck or snagged so as to be immovable”. And once again, as writers it’s our duty to get our characters unstuck. We want them to grow.

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The reader wants them to grow. Giving your character a hang-up is a good way to keep the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule. Hang-ups are a bit more subtle and will usually manifest themselves in other ways. Think of it like this. When it comes to our heroes and heroines, hang-ups are their emotional security blanket.

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Under pressure, your wealthy, top-of-the-social-ladder heroine turns to comfort food when she’s stressed, but don’t fall into the familiar scene in which she grabs a piece of chocolate or opens the freezer door and pulls out a pint of Rocky Road. Instead, have your hero catch her eating cold ravioli straight from the can--because that’s what she and her little sister snacked on before they were separated in the foster care system.

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We hear the advice to get our characters out of their “comfort zone.” And this is exactly what is happening when something gets in the way of the hang-up.

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And just for the record, nothing challenges our hang-ups like children and pets! If you have either one--or both--you know this is true.

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Why?

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Because they are unpredictable. Your solitary hero’s life will be turned upside down when the heroine and her triplets (and their Old English sheepdog) move in next door.

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Middle school science teacher Evie McBride--the dutiful middle daughter in A Treasure Worth Keeping--has looked after her widowed father for years. She doesn’t like surprises and is always prepared for everything.

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Evie’s purse (think Linus clutching his fuzzy blanket) is more than a stylish container for her stuff—it’s her security. To relinquish her purse is to relinquish control. Evie doesn’t think she wants adventure but the contents of that purse prepare her for it.

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In the beginning, the hero, Sam Cutter, gives Evie a hard time about the gigantic purse she insists on carrying everywhere—until the contents of that purse come in handy when they’re on the run from the bad guys.

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Do you see how much fun this can be?

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Habits and hang-ups shine a light into our characters’ hearts. They connect those slightly imperfect characters to each other. And to the reader.

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That’s our goal, isn’t it?

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Do you notice I ask a lot of questions? Mmm. It seems to be a habit of mine...

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Kathryn Springer

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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing for a copy of Kathryn’s “The Soldier’s Newfound Family,” please mention it in the comments section--then watch our Weekend Edition for the winner!  By the way, this book just made the USA Today Bestseller List, so join us in congratulating Kathryn!!

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ABOUT KATHRYN: Kathryn Springer, author of 19 books, winner of the 2009 Carol Award (short contemporary) and a USA Today bestseller, grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin, where her parents published a weekly newspaper. As a child, she spent many hours plunking out stories on her mother's typewriter and she credits her parents for instilling in her a love of books--which eventually turned into a desire to tell stories of her own. Encouraging women in their faith journey is the reason Kathryn loves to write inspirational fiction. When she isn't at the computer, you'll find her curled up with a good book, spending time with family and friends or walking on the trails near her country home.

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“The Soldier’s Newfound Family” is Book 5 in the new 6-book Harlequin Love Inspired "Texas Twins" series. (Following Seeker Glynna Kaye’s book #4, “Look Alike Lawman!)

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When he returns to Texas from overseas, U.S. Marine Carter Wallace makes good on a promise to tell a fallen soldier's wife that her husband loved her. But widowed Savannah Blackmore, pregnant and alone, shares a different story with Carter—one that tests everything he believes. He brings Savannah back to the Triple C ranch, where family secrets—and siblings he hadn't known about—await him. Now the marine who never needed anyone suddenly needs Savannah. Will opening his heart be the bravest thing he'll ever do?

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Texas Twins: Two sets of twins, torn apart by family secrets, find their way home.