NaNoWriMo Survival Tip #3 : Keep Your Characters Interesting

Following our NaNoWriMo tip from last week about staying inspired, this week we turn our attention to your characters. Just like maintaining your own creative stamina to get through the month of November, your characters also need to stay in shape. If your characters seem lacking in some areas, you may need to strengthen your emotional ties to them. Today, we’re sharing some best practices to ensure your characters are engaging.

Self-Insert: More Than Just a Fan Fiction Stereotype

You may have heard of self-insert fan fiction. This is a type of writing in which (usually) amateur authors will take an already-published book and rework it so that they themselves become the main character. Our first tip follows a similar fashion—only you will do so with your own book’s setting and cast. Here, you want to put as much of yourself as you feel comfortable into the character of focus. This can be including your own quirks, personality traits, manners of speech, and nervous habits. If you find yourself picking at your cuticles or chewing your chapped lips when anxious, it’s strongly encouraged to put these traits into your character. Or, if you mumble to yourself when searching for a lost object, bob your head to a certain song, or always close your eyes when savoring a good meal, feel free to incorporate these as well. Another way of inserting yourself into your character is by including personal identifiers or inside jokes during interactions with other characters. With permission, you can write about an inside joke you and a friend have. Or if you happen to notice a particularly unique trait from someone you know, try to have your character adopt this. No matter how you choose to utilize this suggestion, the benefits are all the same. By allowing yourself to relate more to the character, you get an emotional release; thus, your audience will see more of these humanistic traits in your character and will relate to them as well—in turn, relating to you as the author.

Perfectly Imperfect

We’ve all heard about the Mary Sue’s and Gary Stu’s. It can be tiring and even redundant to constantly hear about why we should avoid writing these too-perfect characters. In short, it’s because they’re boring. Flat. One-dimensional. It’s been seen and done before where you have a character who complains about how boring they look, act, or sound. This is especially common in the fantasy genre—the main character from the human world compares themselves to those who are magical, and whine about it endlessly, until it’s revealed that they in fact have had some hidden power the whole time. To introduce some allure to your characters, make sure to include their flaws. Yes, even the unjustifiable ones. Go beyond just murder—there have been countless characters who kill monsters, other people, animals, what have you; it’s gotten to a point where it’s just “whatever, they killed someone, let’s move on.” Some examples of mistakes and behaviors that cannot be swept under the rug include: cheating on a partner, betraying a close bond, abandoning helpless or vulnerable characters (particularly if they’re young or infantile), or lying to others with no identifiable reason at all. The key with these flaws is that they cannot be the main focus of the plot. It’s better if your character does these things in passing, or if it’s mentioned in a dialogue series. This way, these unforgivable acts become part of who the character is and not just a plot device. Readers live for drama—so why not create a character with as much drama as middle school theater club?

Hobbies and Interests

Think about who you are. What kinds of things do you enjoy doing? What you do when you have time off work, something you have a deep interest in that has no monetary gain. The little things you like, such as your favorite time of year or your go-to comfort food. Now, apply these to your work. Try giving your character little tasks to do in the filler chapters that bring them joy. This gives readers background on what defines them, and can give us insight into who they used to be, too. This builds a bond between your audience and your story. By demonstrating that your characters like to knit, or read, or surf, can help individuals identify with the characters, and in turn, your readers will begin to feel as if they themselves are part of the story.

Torture Your Characters

After laying the groundwork of building a likable character, we’re going to want to hurt them. Put your characters through absolute anguish and hell. Not literally—unless that fits your genre. What you want to do here is build up reader empathy. Whether it’s literally torturing them, causing their loved ones harm, or destroying something near and dear to the character, your main goal should be generating emotional strife. When you pull at the heartstrings of the character, you are doing the same to the readers. Think of the feelings you get when a dog or cat is abandoned in an apocalyptic story, or when the main character loses an object that they carried with them their whole life. These kinds of things cause the readers to adopt the emotions of the character, which will make your audience want to make the pain stop.

Now that you’ve got some more NaNoWriMo tricks up your sleeve, you can bring interesting characters to the NaNoWriMo finish line. For more writing tips, we strongly suggest taking a look at our post about one of the biggest mistakes an author should avoid here. You can also check out our other services, such as manuscript evaluations and book publishing, or simply contact us!