So you wanna make a character, eh? A character that actually seems like a real person, as opposed to a lump? (or whatever bad, unrealistic characters seem like) Well that’s great.
No really, that is great. Characters should be 3D, they should have layers, thoughts, feelings, motivations; basically they’re people, only fictional. You probably know a lot about character development already (if not, look it up) but here’s one more way to make your character seem real: quirks. Real people are weird, quirky; they have little habits that they find themselves doing, whether conscious or not, and good 3D characters do too. How to go about giving your characters some quirks? Well the first step is to think about the people all around you. Yourself, your friends, family, peers, that random guy who took your order at McDonalds the other day, everyone has little things that they do. Granted, you don’t want to base your character all on one person (well you might, but most people want an original character), especially not yourself, but if you take little parts of different people and add in some of your own stuff, you have a character! What follows is a list of random character quirks that should hopefully inspire you to start fleshing out your own character. You can take things directly from the list, use it as a jumping point to come up with your own, or just completely ignore it. I don’t care. Some of the quirks here (and the ones that you’ll come up with) might not even make it into your story. You probably don’t need to mention that your character’s favorite shirt is a red flowered blouse from Target, or that they always sleep in the fetal position, but things like that are good to decide, so that the character starts to feel real to you. Now time for me to shut up and get on with the list. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
50 Random Character Quirk Ideas
Your character...
1. Loves a certain food, possibly to the point of an obsession or fetish. (example: my character Aisling, and especially her genderbent form Ashton, LOVES grapes and grape popsicles.)
2. Taps his/her foot when bored or nervous.
3. Has a Rubiks cube or some other toy that he/she will often fidget with.
4. Likes to mess with or deconstruct words and the English language. (example: Robin from Young Justice likes to take the prefixes off of words)
5. Always seems to have untied shoelaces.
6. Likes to go around barefoot whenever he/she can.
7. Always wears shorts, no matter the weather.
8. Likes to randomly burst out singing or narrate his/her actions in song. (example: Disney princesses. I have actually met people in real life that do this, but not all the time and certainly not as loud or accompanied by a dance number and singing woodland creatures.)
9. Randomly wanders or paces when bored, even at odd times (the middle of the night, in class, etc.)
10. Is good at braiding hair.
11. Has a very bouncy/springy walk.
12. Or a very dejected/shuffley walk, and tends to drag his/her feet.
13. Likes to sit on the arms of couches and chairs instead of the actual seat.
14. Has a favorite comeback or catchphrase that he/she always resorts to (“that’s what she said”, “or not”, etc.)
15. Refuses to curse, period. He/she may also get upset when others do.
16. Is a total grammar Nazi, in writing and/or speaking.
17. Hates slang and corrects people who use it. Or you could go the other way around, and he/she always uses slang and informal language, even for formal occasions.
18. Tends to space out while staring at someone.
19. Can do weird things with a part of his/her body (double-jointed).
20. Sees a dirty or sexual reference in practically everything.
21. Accidentally makes innuendoes without realizing it.
22. Has a bad habit of winking without realizing it (example: Danisnotonfire made a video about this)
23. Is a hugger (or just generally a touchy-feely person).
24. Hates a certain color. (example: many characters seem to hate the color yellow, and my sister can’t stand pink.)
25. Can’t stand being hugged or touched. This may lead to the character’s friends teasing him/her or trying to hug him/her anyway.
26. Is extremely ticklish.
27. Collects mundane or unusual items (business cards, toothpicks, mutated candy, etc.)
28. Can’t bear to throw anything away.
29. Refuses to hurt any animal, even insects.
30. Always wears cheap sunglasses, even indoors.
31. Finds everything funny, and will laugh at every joke, even if the other characters (and the reader) don’t find it particularly humorous.
32. Always has to be snacking on something. (example: Wally from Young Justice. Of course, that’s due to his superspeed giving him an insanely high metabolism, but whatever.)
33. Is extremely gullible and falls for even the most obvious sarcasm.
34. Bites his/her nails when nervous.
35. Always has gum with him/her.
36. Likes to hide out in weird places (closets, under the bed or table, in a tree, etc.)
37. Can’t pour anything without spilling.
38. Can quote almost any movie or TV show.
39. Has a stutter, lisp, or other minor speech impediment. It’s a good idea to not write this out in dialogue, especially if it’s a lisp or unusual accent, as it’s hard for readers to decipher what’s being said if everything is spelled funny.
40. Has an unusually deep or high-pitched voice.
41. Owns more pairs of shoes than other characters think is humanly possible. Or vice versa: he/she only owns one pair that he/she always wears, no matter the occasion.
42. Always has to borrow pens/pencils/paper, and doesn’t always give them back.
43. Always bumps into/knocks over things.
44. Knows a lot of useless trivia.
45. Is an extremely slow/fast walker. Or, he/she can never walk in a straight line and always manages to cut everyone off.
46. Always shreds things in his/her pocket or on his/her lap (napkins, scraps of paper, etc.)
47. Always wears colorful, unique, or mismatched socks.
48. Likes to use bad puns.
49. Hits on/flirts with every member of the opposite gender (or same gender...or both) even if he/she already is in a relationship. (example: Wally from Young Justice)
50. Always gets quotes and sayings mixed up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those are just a few of the quirks that your characters can have. Feel free to use these or make up your own!
Stay whelmed,
Rae~
No really, that is great. Characters should be 3D, they should have layers, thoughts, feelings, motivations; basically they’re people, only fictional. You probably know a lot about character development already (if not, look it up) but here’s one more way to make your character seem real: quirks. Real people are weird, quirky; they have little habits that they find themselves doing, whether conscious or not, and good 3D characters do too. How to go about giving your characters some quirks? Well the first step is to think about the people all around you. Yourself, your friends, family, peers, that random guy who took your order at McDonalds the other day, everyone has little things that they do. Granted, you don’t want to base your character all on one person (well you might, but most people want an original character), especially not yourself, but if you take little parts of different people and add in some of your own stuff, you have a character! What follows is a list of random character quirks that should hopefully inspire you to start fleshing out your own character. You can take things directly from the list, use it as a jumping point to come up with your own, or just completely ignore it. I don’t care. Some of the quirks here (and the ones that you’ll come up with) might not even make it into your story. You probably don’t need to mention that your character’s favorite shirt is a red flowered blouse from Target, or that they always sleep in the fetal position, but things like that are good to decide, so that the character starts to feel real to you. Now time for me to shut up and get on with the list. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
50 Random Character Quirk Ideas
Your character...
1. Loves a certain food, possibly to the point of an obsession or fetish. (example: my character Aisling, and especially her genderbent form Ashton, LOVES grapes and grape popsicles.)
2. Taps his/her foot when bored or nervous.
3. Has a Rubiks cube or some other toy that he/she will often fidget with.
4. Likes to mess with or deconstruct words and the English language. (example: Robin from Young Justice likes to take the prefixes off of words)
5. Always seems to have untied shoelaces.
6. Likes to go around barefoot whenever he/she can.
7. Always wears shorts, no matter the weather.
8. Likes to randomly burst out singing or narrate his/her actions in song. (example: Disney princesses. I have actually met people in real life that do this, but not all the time and certainly not as loud or accompanied by a dance number and singing woodland creatures.)
9. Randomly wanders or paces when bored, even at odd times (the middle of the night, in class, etc.)
10. Is good at braiding hair.
11. Has a very bouncy/springy walk.
12. Or a very dejected/shuffley walk, and tends to drag his/her feet.
13. Likes to sit on the arms of couches and chairs instead of the actual seat.
14. Has a favorite comeback or catchphrase that he/she always resorts to (“that’s what she said”, “or not”, etc.)
15. Refuses to curse, period. He/she may also get upset when others do.
16. Is a total grammar Nazi, in writing and/or speaking.
17. Hates slang and corrects people who use it. Or you could go the other way around, and he/she always uses slang and informal language, even for formal occasions.
18. Tends to space out while staring at someone.
19. Can do weird things with a part of his/her body (double-jointed).
20. Sees a dirty or sexual reference in practically everything.
21. Accidentally makes innuendoes without realizing it.
22. Has a bad habit of winking without realizing it (example: Danisnotonfire made a video about this)
23. Is a hugger (or just generally a touchy-feely person).
24. Hates a certain color. (example: many characters seem to hate the color yellow, and my sister can’t stand pink.)
25. Can’t stand being hugged or touched. This may lead to the character’s friends teasing him/her or trying to hug him/her anyway.
26. Is extremely ticklish.
27. Collects mundane or unusual items (business cards, toothpicks, mutated candy, etc.)
28. Can’t bear to throw anything away.
29. Refuses to hurt any animal, even insects.
30. Always wears cheap sunglasses, even indoors.
31. Finds everything funny, and will laugh at every joke, even if the other characters (and the reader) don’t find it particularly humorous.
32. Always has to be snacking on something. (example: Wally from Young Justice. Of course, that’s due to his superspeed giving him an insanely high metabolism, but whatever.)
33. Is extremely gullible and falls for even the most obvious sarcasm.
34. Bites his/her nails when nervous.
35. Always has gum with him/her.
36. Likes to hide out in weird places (closets, under the bed or table, in a tree, etc.)
37. Can’t pour anything without spilling.
38. Can quote almost any movie or TV show.
39. Has a stutter, lisp, or other minor speech impediment. It’s a good idea to not write this out in dialogue, especially if it’s a lisp or unusual accent, as it’s hard for readers to decipher what’s being said if everything is spelled funny.
40. Has an unusually deep or high-pitched voice.
41. Owns more pairs of shoes than other characters think is humanly possible. Or vice versa: he/she only owns one pair that he/she always wears, no matter the occasion.
42. Always has to borrow pens/pencils/paper, and doesn’t always give them back.
43. Always bumps into/knocks over things.
44. Knows a lot of useless trivia.
45. Is an extremely slow/fast walker. Or, he/she can never walk in a straight line and always manages to cut everyone off.
46. Always shreds things in his/her pocket or on his/her lap (napkins, scraps of paper, etc.)
47. Always wears colorful, unique, or mismatched socks.
48. Likes to use bad puns.
49. Hits on/flirts with every member of the opposite gender (or same gender...or both) even if he/she already is in a relationship. (example: Wally from Young Justice)
50. Always gets quotes and sayings mixed up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those are just a few of the quirks that your characters can have. Feel free to use these or make up your own!
Stay whelmed,
Rae~
