Stefanie London
It takes a skilled author to balance all the needs of creating a great book. You’ve got to combine story, plot, conflicts, characters, romance, craft, style, voice and more to get readers engrossed in your tale. And each person approaches it differently. So here’s Stefanie London to tell us how she focuses on characters!
Leap-Off-The-Page Characters
Stefanie’s first book!
When I decided to write my first book (which became my debut novel, Only The Brave Try Ballet) I didn’t think specifically about the characters (or the plot…or the conflicts. Yep, reformed pantser here!) Rather, I allowed the hero and heroine to develop along with my slowly climbing word count.
Now when I write I give a lot more thought to my characters before I dive into the story. You no doubt have read about the basic requirements for creating a character: names, physical appearance, GMCs (goals motivations and conflicts), and backstory. These are all VERY important elements. But you need more in order to round your characters out and make them real to the reader.
Here’s my list of requirements (in addition to the above) for ‘leap off the page’ characters:
Habits and Behaviours
Everybody has behaviours or actions that are unique to them. My husband quotes movies as though it’s a second language and I always make my tea in a fancy teacup (I won’t drink it out of a mug). Sometimes the quirk might be something trivial or sometimes it might be more serious. My third book (due out early 2015) features a heroine who suffers with panic attacks and she practises yoga and breathing exercises to combat this.
True Fear
Understanding what your characters fear will allow you to better figure out how they need to develop in order to reach their happy ever after. In Breaking the Bro Code my hero is afraid of public speaking, but his ‘true fear’ runs deeper than that. Ultimately he fears rejection – whether from an audience or from the heroine – because he was abused as a child. Vulnerability goes along way with getting the reader to fall in love with your characters. Even the most alpha of heroes is afraid of something.
Just out!
Passion
Passion will lead your characters down new and frightening paths, it will force them to change their behaviour and to grow. Again in Breaking the Bro Code the heroine, Elise, is passionate about her struggling dance studio. It the passion to keep her business alive that pushes her to accept a deal from the hero, even though she knows it’s bad idea to work with him. Without that passion her decision to enter into this arrangement would have felt flimsy and contrived.
Voice
If all your characters sound the same when they talk and think, they won’t ring true to your readers. Their voice also needs to reflect who they are as people, their personalities and their life experience. For example, in Only The Brave Try Ballet the heroine thinks the following:
“She was determined to be the consummate professional, even if it was harder to pull off than the pas de deux from Don Quixote Act Three.”
Only a ballerina (or someone very familiar with ballet) would compare a person to a pas de duex.
Flaws
A perfect character is a boring and unrealistic character. The adage that ‘nobody is perfect’ needs to apply to your characters. When designing my characters I like to give them four key personality traits and I ensure that one of those traits isn’t so positive. For example, if you have a character who is hard working, loyal and intelligent I would balance that by making them stubborn or suspicious of others. The negative trait gives you something to work with while you’re helping your characters grow on their journey to happy ever after.
I hope you find this post useful next time you’re working on your characters. I’d love to hear about your characters, have you used any of the above things to make your characters leap off the page? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks, Stefanie, for this insight!
You can read more on her thoughts on writing and life on Stefanie’s website, follow her on Twitter as @Stefanie_London, check out her Facebook page, or find her on Pinterest among other places!
14 replies on “How to Create Leap-Off-The-Page Characters – Stefanie London”
Great list for creating awesome characters, Stefanie!
*bookmarks post for future reference* Flawed is beautiful, baby! 🙂
Glad you found it helpful, Traci! Totally agree, flawed characters are the best 🙂
Good morning, Stefanie!
I love the tips you give here. I have the opposite consideration of flawed for my characters. Their flaws are really obvious sometimes, so I try to make sure that you can see the good in them as well. One thing I did in my SYTYCW entry was allow you to see my hero’s perspective first. I wanted people to see he was a good guy before they learned about his past. It allowed me to establish him one way, then introduce this other side.
Another thing that I like to know for my inspirational characters is how they were converted to Christianity. It may not ever be addressed in the story, but it helps a ton to form their personality.
I think there are a lot of things that I like to know about my character that may never end up in the book – I agree it helps to form their personality but the reader doesn’t always need to know every little detail. Thanks for sharing your process!
There’s a lot of great points here, Stefanie. It gives me a lot to think about while I work on my next book. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you got something from it, Heather! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Great post – filing this for future use! 🙂
I’m glad you found it useful, Kristen! 🙂
Great advice Stefanie and thanks 🙂
Thanks for the comment, Jan. I’m glad you found it helpful!
Invaluable post, full of illuminating insights on creating believable and sympathetic characters! I’ll be giving the four key traits approach a go from now on! Thanks so much, Stefanie, from a slowly reforming pantser ;)x
I’m glad you got value out of it, Melissa. Do keep a little of your ‘pantsing’ nature, it’s great to have the best of both worlds 🙂
I enjoyed this article
Thanks for posting it! I really appreciate and enjoy learning how authors developed as professionals. I am also a panster. It’s great reading your advice on growing! Best Wishes!
Thanks Mary, I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
Comments ( 7 )
I spent the entire shutdown working. Had no time to wind down. I didn’t see my son much when school shutdown. My one co worker was told to stay home for 3 weeks so I picked up her hours. This year has been really crappy.
Ugh, Janell. Here’s hoping the rest of your summer is better.
Thanks for the info, Carol! Everyone is different in how they deal with the shutdown! I stay at home all the time since I don’t work so I haven’t been too effected but my shopping and errands sure have been effected!
Valri, I’ve been doing most of my shopping online. My local Target is still low on some items – mostly cleaning supplies. Grocery store is pretty much back to normal. Most of the dining in our town is outdoor. I can’t imagine have school-age kids!
Wow–getting your creative process on track must have been daunting–especially with “extra-large dog” glad to have you home. You don’t like coffee–I love coffee and have enjoyed my fortifying 2 cups in the morning even more than usual! How as COVID affected your story lines and characterizations? Best Wishes for all releases!
Interesting question, Virginia. You’ll have to tell me if the tone of my “COVID” books changed any! LOL
Life has changed so much! My dad passed Feb 2. The assisted living facility my folks were at went into hardcore lockdown the beginning of March. Mom couldn’t leave her apartment for 4 months! She was on the third floor, Will be 89 in two months & doesn’t use the phone. My husband and I remodeled the lower level completely and moved her in with us July 1. What a life change and difficult transition for the 3 of us! But we’re working thru it!