Characters: quirks & personalities

So. Characters. What makes them so special?

I've noticed a trend lately. The “howcanImakethischaractercool?” trend. Where authors give their characters unique and important traits so that they stand out.

Now, first my disclaimer. There's a balance needed here. Like I said in the last post, no one wants to read about Plain Jane going through the same stuff in every book. We turn to stories, especially fiction, so we can live out something that is unlikely to happen in real life. We like to see characters who become better versions of us.

However, please don't throw around unique traits just to make your character stand out. Normal people in real life are all unique and interesting once you get to know them. It should be the same with characters. If you have to convince us of their uniqueness I will doubt your ability as a writer.

Has anyone read the Bloody Jack series?

I have to admit, the first book was good. Orphan girl (Jacky) pretends to be cabin boy and goes on highseas adventures. She's a good liar. She small and agile. And she gets abandoned on an island. Okay. A little over-done and farfetched, but still. It was a good, well-made story. One of my favorites, in fact.

Then the sequels started coming out, and like the proverbial downhill snowball, number of the character traits and speed with which they're gained boggles the mind.

She can paint beautifully. She can sing. She can play violin. She can dance. EVERY boy character falls in love with her. She can fight. She can race horses. She can lead armies. She can start riots. She can learn languages. The king wants her head. She meets Napoleon. Gets kidnapped by pirates.

It just goes on. She gains enough personality traits that we start wondering if she's even one person or if she has multiple personality disorder.

It's too much. We don't believe in this girl. She's superman. Not like me at all. I can't relate, I can't “go there” with her.

Sometimes there's a different problem. The characters don't have too many quirks. Its just that the “unique things” are kind of obvious.

I used to do Role Playing Games. Okay admit it, most aspiring young writers used to write on forums, back in the days before blogging.

One of the forums I frequented did fanfiction of the Redwall series. (Those books are great, by the way). The world of the book involves mice, hedgehogs, otters, and other woodland creatures instead of people. They go on adventures and there's usually an epic battle at the end.

In the RPGs, each writer would first introduce their character. Every person inevitably included atleast one of these traits:

the tallest, the shortest, the youngest, all black, albino, a creature never before used in Redwall, carries an unusual weapon, has a strange accent, strange markings, scars, or missing ear.

Not one RPG writer could create a “unique” character without these overly used traits.

Creativity, my friends. Where has it gone?