Staying True to Your Characters

Spolier Alert! If you have not seen the season 6 finale of Castle, skip this post. There are some spoilers. 

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your book is having your character make a decision that is totally uncharacteristic. This is most evident when you're writing a series.
After seven books with Harry Potter as the headliner, we would all say we know Harry pretty well. We've been with him through the good, the bad, and the ugly. If Harry had suddenly decided to abandon the wizarding world,  go back to London, and settle into a perfectly Muggle life, we would all have been pretty upset. If he had surrendered to Voldemort and become a Death Eater, the world would be furious. There probably wouldn't be eight fantastic movies, and J.K. would not, most likely, be a millionaire.

We think we know characters on TV shows pretty well, too, and that's why I was so bothered by the season finale of Castle, "For Better or For Worse". The writers created a situation that I think would never happen. In the episode, Castle and Beckett go to get their marriage license, and find out that Kate is married.
To a guy she dated in college. Who she married at a drive-thru wedding chapel in Vegas "for fun".
"I didn't think it was legal," says Beckett, with a shrug.

Let's get real. This is Kate Beckett. She dated three guys in six years, she solves crimes on a whiteboard, and ruthlessly interrogates people. She wouldn't get married on a whim, and even if she did, she definitely wouldn't write it off as not being legal. She's smart, she's sharp, and there's no way she would do anything like this.

Now Castle, on the other hand, this is totally something he would do.

But the point is this: it is really easy to have your characters do something that they wouldn't normally do to add conflict to the story. And sometimes it is good for a character do something slightly out of character so they don't get too predictable, but you have to know when they are getting too far away from themselves.
You should know your characters well enough to know what they would and wouldn't do.
Some little inconsistent things are fine, but something huge like being married for fifteen years and not knowing it is a pretty big deal. This is not a decision I would have made in my writing. *

The readers of your book should be totally immersed in your world. They shouldn't be thinking about the fact that all of these characters are the products of someone else's imagination. When something happens in a story that makes the reader think, "That character would never do that." it takes the away the reality of the story. It causes us to remember that someone wrote all this, and it's not actually a true story.

There are a few ways to avoid this happening in your writing. One way is just coming up with another option. Make a list of  things that could happen instead of whatever it is that you feel like your character wouldn't do. And don't just write down five other options. Write twenty or thirty. Some of them will be absolutely ridiculous, but one will be just right.
In the case of Castle, the writers could have just switched characters. Obviously, it wouldn't have helped it Esposito suddenly discovered that he was married, but it would have worked if it was Castle. This feels much more believable and the conflict would have worked just about as well.


Have you seen or read anything lately where you felt like a character was making a decision that they wouldn't make? Have you struggled with staying true to your characters?


*So, if you have seen this episode of Castle and the first episode of season 7, you know that Castle disappears. This was a little strained plot-wise, but still I thought the writers handled it very well. So, the whole thing with Kate being married could have something to do with this. I don't know. I doubt it.  Just saying. Any other Castle-watchers feel free to share your thoughts on this. 

3 Ways to Create Memorable Characters

Downton Abbey has made a name for itself, in so many ways.  The drama is hard to look away from and easy to love.  The setting, the costumes, the characters, the plot, everything is virtually flawless.    The show will have you sobbing one minute and yelling at the TV the next. 

 But, what keeps us watching is not the rapid-fire action scenes (because there aren't any) or the unsolved mystery (though there have been one or two murders), it's the characters. 

Downton has an ensemble cast.  And Julian Fellowes crafted all of his characters beautifully (as of the fourth season there have been over 60 of them).  Not even in the first episode, did I ever feel like they were being thrown at me, or have trouble remembering which character was which. 

 Thats because not one single character is forettable.  You either love, or love to hate, every single one.  These people are real, they're flawed, and they're funny.  And not a single one of them is cliché.  

I've noticed a few things that all of the Downton characters have in common.  So here we go, 3 ways to create memorable characters.  

Flaws

Mary is almost always rude, Daisy has never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, Lord Grantham is stubborn, Thomas is just plain nasty, Sybil speaks before she thinks, and Mrs. Patmore-let's get real, Mrs. Patmore is fabulous.  Just like no person is perfect, every character should have obvious flaws.  If you ever meet a person that you think is flawless, then they're obviously very skilled at deceit.  Aha!  They're deceitful.  That is a flaw.  

If it's a little difficult to come up with a different flaw for every single character, check out this article.  It's a really interesting look at character flaws. The website is not a writing website, but still an interesting read. 

Voice

You would never mistake one of the Dowager Countess' lines with Williams', or Mr. Carson.   Every one of your characters should have a distinctive way of speaking.  Make sure you don't confuse this with an accent.  Just because you might decide to make a character from the south doesn't mean you have to use overly obvious abbreviations and "southern" words in every sentence that comes out of their mouth.  Saying that the character has a southern accent once and using a few words that the other characters from up north wouldn't use is enough. 

But what I'm really talking about here is the words that a character uses, and the attitude the character has.  The Countess is sassy, Mr. Carson is abrupt, and Anna is sweet (most of the time).  Make sure this comes out in your character's lines. It's easier than it sounds.  You could make a list of character traits, and then add something about the character's background or personality that might impact their word choice. 

A character that's from England would use different words to describe things than someone who's from Maine.  Overly sarcastic people speak differently than straight-forward people do.  Someone who is well read is not going to use the same words as someone who hates to read. 

Unexpected Decisions

Don't be afraid to have your character do something out of the ordinary for them.  We all do things that surprise ourselves sometimes.  Not everyone is going to be nasty or nice all the time.  Remember the time the Dowager let Mr. Moseley win the flower competition?   Her storyline through the whole episode was just building up how much she wanted to win and how the judges picked her every single time.  Then, when she was standing in front of everyone, looking at her name under first place, she called out Mr. Moseley's name instead.  She surprised herself, and everyone else. 

So have your character do something he wouldn't normally do. This is what keeps us interested in him. If we always predicted everything Mary was going to do, what would be the fun of watching anymore? Of course, we have some idea of what she will do, because we know her pretty well, but every so often she does something that surprises us. 

This goes for your antagonists as well.  Have your bad guy make a nice act. It doesn't have to be anything big, just something that makes us see that he's not a total meanie.  

I hope this gives you some ideas for your characters!  Who's your favorite Downton character?  What is it that you makes you like (or dislike) him?


Also, sidenote, if you live near Nashville, TN you should check out the Southern Festival of Books this weekend.  It starts on Friday and goes through Sunday. Tons of fantastic authors will be there, including Lauren Oliver, Kat Zhang, Tamera Alexander, and Natalie Lloyd. If you're interested, you can find more information here.