Off the top of my head: Marcy from Colors (which, holy hannah, is up for preorder for PRINT books people!) is addicted to chapstick. Julia gets nervous and plays with her necklace (and I swear, she's going to choke herself on that thing one of these days). Tom from Chemistry is obsessed with keeping his pens organized. Hopefully that gives you an idea. Most characters that I've read have little random things like this. Can you think of any you've liked in some of your favorite books?
One of my all-time favorite essays on this sort of thing is by the hilarious Barbara Poelle--seriously, go read it, I'll wait :) I think I like it the most because my whole house has about a million little hair rubber bands around at all times. (Which explains the picture now, yay!)
So, here's what I'm wondering about: what kinds of these character quirks do you like? Which ones have been done to death? And do you use them in your own writing?
I'm off to dream up something good for this alien huntress...just got to figure out what it's going to be still!
Character quirks can tell you a lot about the personality and psychology of a person, and usually steam from something that the characters don't realize. That's always been one of my favorite parts of character building. :)
ReplyDeleteSuch an incredibly good point!!
DeletePercy Jackson's mother is obsessed with blue foods. Someone once told her blue foods didn't exist, so she's now on a mission to find all the blue foods she can. Love that! Haha!!
ReplyDeletelol, I'm sitting here trying to come up with blue foods now! Such a good quirk :)
DeleteI love quirky characters. They're more real, more relatable. My favorite character that I've written is Willow. Unfortunately she's a character in a book that hasn't been published yet so only my BETA readers have been introduced to her, like Meradeth. :) But Willow likes to wear T-shirts with different sayings on the front. Sometimes they are funny or cute, most of the time they are sarcastic (but still funny). This is her way of getting her emotions out. What I love about that quirk is, I didn't set out to write her with it. I was just writing her one day and she decided she wanted to wear the T-shirts. I love it when I get so into my characters' heads that their quirks and habits just flow out onto paper (or computer screen, whatever).
ReplyDeleteA character I'm writing now has decided she likes to talk in "urban slang" (sometimes). I don't even know half of what she's saying. I have to ask my kids or look it up online. But it's fun because it's something I've never done before and it makes her different than any character I've written.
And, YAY for your reprint of Colors! That's great, fo' shiggidy!!
Great post,
Michelle :)
Author, PODs available June 4th
Milayna (Milayna #1) available March 11, 2014
Milayna’s Angel (Milayna #2), September 2014
The Infected, a PODs novel available November 2014
The Innocent (Milayna #3), April 2015
Oh my gosh, that wasn't planned!?! It fit so incredibly perfectly--I loved it!! Definitely one of my favorite quirks :)
DeleteAnd I'd be totally lost on urban slang, lol!
I LOVE character quirks! They really make a fictional person seem human. And Tom with his pens is one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI know it's probably the ultimate cliche but when I saw Bella's truck in the first TWILIGHT movie, it really brought the book to life for me. There were so many mentions of that truck, and then there it was on screen. I really associated with her character and Charlie's too.
The truck really was a good quirk--really helped her character out a lot! :)
DeleteI always enjoy character quirks. The do help me to connect to characters and make the characters more real. Tom with his pens reminds me of my husband, and Marcy with the chapstick reminds me of one of my BFs. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any that have been done too much in general- but I have read books where I think the author uses the same quirk too much.
Awesome news about Colors! Yeah!
It's a fine balance on how much to use a quirk--sometimes it definitely gets overused!
DeleteI LOVE character quirks. :) Oh I noticed Tom has that -pen-thing quirks. :) So cute!
ReplyDeleteI am so quirky it hurts..LOL so I spread those quirks among my characters. Some I used in Reaper's: One character hates onions so whenever she eats say pizza topped with onions she plucks them out, another of my characters can't sleep unless she has socks on, even in summer...lol. I'm creating a database of quirks and will post it soon, links I found on the web. :)
Love this post. :) And Alien Huntress. :D love it!
Love this!! (And onions on pizza--so not my favorite!!) I'm totally looking forward to your post :)
DeleteI love quirks. They make characters more realistic and I think about my own quirks while I'm reading. We all have habits and favorite things that although we may find common in others, sets us apart from many.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! I love it when I can identify with something though--it makes the book so much more special.
DeleteOh great post! I'm trying to think of a specific quirk from something published and am stuck. But I guess that's the point. We want the quirks to be there to add another layer, but not to stand out so much we go, "Hey look at the quirk this author gave their character!"
ReplyDeleteTotally!!! That's what I always worry about--overdoing it :)
DeleteI love quirky people and characters with strange phobias. I have a friend who is freaked out by cyclists in spandex. ^_^
ReplyDeleteBest. Phobia. Ever. :)
DeleteLast week I was at a retreat with a bunch of great authors (lucky me!) and I was talking with Lynda Mullay Hunt about characters, and she reminded me that her character Carly in ONE FOR THE MURPHYS (an amaaazing MG read) was a "counter," like she would count how many tiles on the wall while waiting for someone etc. all the time. I kind of struggle with my own character's likability, so Carly's was a great example to me because once Lynda mentioned it, I remembered how interesting I'd found it in the book. Plus, she said she's gotten letters from readers who do the same thing so it really resonated with them. Anyway, it was perfect timing for me for that talk and this blog post, so thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat's perfect! (Love it when things like this all work together perfectly, too!)
DeleteQuirks are a great way to make characters more realistic and memorable. Depending on the quirks you picks, they can also deepen characterizations and give psychological info. Great idea, Meradeth! :-)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!! Thanks :)
DeleteWe as readers are hooked by quirky characters.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great idea, Meradeth!
I know I definitely am! :)
DeleteOne of my main characters hates suits and ties, feels very uncomfortable wearing that.
ReplyDeleteFortunately he works in a profession where it's not really a requirement...
That's cool! I regularly look at ties and wonder why guys wear them--they look like torture!
Delete