While scouring the internet for advice and tips on developing characters for my novel, I came across a piece of writing that talked about using the people around us as inspiration. It said that we each have little quirks and personality traits that are unique to us and if we want our characters to be realistic then they too would have their own quirks and traits.
It got me thinking about my own personality. I’ve talked before about how it can be hard to see our own achievements and recognise the positive aspects of our lives simply because we take them for granted. I feel like this is the same kind of deal, that the little habits that are unique to us are so commonplace that we barely notice them. It’s partly why it can be so difficult to talk about yourself and identify your strengths for example. In the same way, it can be difficult to assess our own unique habits because we’re so used to doing them that we barely notice them. But we all definitely have them so how do we figure them out?
One way to do it would be to ask the people closest to us. Our friends and family, the people who know us best recognise and accept the things that set us apart on a daily basis. You do the same thing for them, even if you don’t notice it. If you do ask them and they tell you, remember to look at it in a positive way. The opinions of others are shaped by their own perspective too so don’t take it to heart, it’s a fun exercise and you should remember that you always have a choice. You choose how to perceive the world and can choose to challenge your own behaviour too. Changing your mind is a cool thing to do. It shows growth.
Another thing you can try is to simply think for yourself about the things you enjoy doing and the way you go about your daily life. It isn’t always obvious and can take some time, but keep it in mind and you’ll start to notice things. Remember, it’s not the acts themselves that will always be original, rather the combination of them all together with everything else that makes up you.
I don’t believe the list is exhaustive because people are so different, but if you want some examples, here’s a few things that I’ve noticed about myself since paying a little more attention: I always take pictures of the sky when it looks pretty, I drink milk from the carton, I sleep with my arms above my head, at home I sit sideways on the sofa but sometimes I prefer to sit on the floor, I have a thing for buying stationery, too much noise makes me grumpy (not music blasting from my own headphones though, I’m selective sometimes), I have an addictive personality in an ‘all or nothing’ kind of sense – it can be hard to find balance, I sometimes procrastinate to the point where it’s problematic, I doodle pictures of snails or of cows being abducted by aliens when I’m bored, I rarely go to bed before midnight, I am excellent at small talk but struggle on larger social scales, bubble wrap amuses me, my sister buys me a roll every Christmas and every Halloween I dress up as some variation of a pirate or as a zombie (mostly zombie).
They don’t have to be positive things, or negative things – they’re just features of your life, they just are what they are. Embracing the things that make you different isn’t always easy but it is worthwhile. Finding these features in ourselves and in others makes us more relatable in a way, we often focus so much on being perfect or on track with education or work that these things are easily overlooked.
In turn, when we create characters – because that was the original point of this (aren’t tangents awesome?) – it’s these little quirks that make our characters relatable and realistic. I highly doubt that you’ll need to show all of them in your work but you might find that they influence your work in the right way and breath life into the characters on the page.
Now that you know a little about my quirks, why not share some of your own below – or maybe those of a character you’ve written or read about. They’re in there somewhere and I’d love to hear about them!
Lea writes things. 