FRANKENSTEIN

How many versions of tall, dark and handsome can there be?

How many can you write and not write him like Mr. X from that book, and Joe Cool in this book, and the small town sheriff in that one?

IMAGES 
First off, I’m very visual in my head. Having a firm idea of what characters look like, dress like, sound like is essential. Of course, during the creation of character charts it is sooo tempting to include images of actors, because the hunky heartthrob flavor of the month was such a smooth talking bad ass in that one movie and your new leading man is going to be just like him. There is nothing at all wrong with using an actor/character as inspiration, but I do something a little different.

You see, just like this week's theme, if I have seen Mr. Hottie's movie, I am very likely to start writing my book's Mr. Hottie just like him. And, for me, that always ends up being a bad choice. Because when I need my character to do x, y, or z, he doesn't want to because Mr. Hottie wouldn't have done it that way and suddenly something feels off and lacks that sense of the genuine.

So, knowing this, I use magazines and modeling sites instead. This way, I get to assemble an assorted cast just as easily, without them brining any baggage with them.

Give it a try, and see what you do with your handsome blank slate.
DIFFERENTIATING IN A SERIES
In the Persephone books, I have two male leads, Johnny and Menessos. They have to be individuals, not polar opposites, but the best of different things. So sure, they're very different creatures (werewolf vs vampire), their have different in hair color (black vs pale brown and curly), facial hair (clean shaven vs light beard--really how many vampires can pull that off?), height (6’2 vs 5’11) and other physical things (tattoos and lean muscular build vs. unmarked skin and more average/fit physique).
But it takes more than descriptors to give them life on the page, to make them unique.
Therefore, Johnny’s speech patterns are short and direct. “Yup.” Whereas Menessos has a huge lexicon of brainy, multisyllabic words and when he talks there is often much more said than his words reveal—if you know what to listen for. “Of course, dear Persephone, as always, your quick mind has come to the correct answer.” Yes, he’s wordy. He’s a vampire. He has all the time in the world to say things.
REAL PEOPLE (as opposed to actors playing characters)
The male leads mentioned above are not based on people I know.
The supporting cast of the series, though, has many who are. It gets trickier when filling in the world around our main characters. With six books in the series and over a hundred walk-ons/miscellaneous people, how do I keep them from getting stale or being cookie-cutter stereotypes?
Here is where real life gets to inspires me. I admit it: Nana is a conglomeration of my mom, my aunts, and all my mom’s friends. (And I want to do a trilogy on her younger days…) Those women, especially my mom, have experienced real hardships, real life for decades more than me. Of course I draw on what I know of them to make an older woman breathe on the page and show her grit. I've seen it in them.
What about people you don't know? Yes. I saw an oddball on some reality show I was forced to watch. (I must've lost a bet or something.) Instead of being bored by the utterly predictable amped up false drama going on, I start watching for mannerisms, tics and how the person walks, talks, and dresses. Then the imagination comes in. What do I imagine their sensibilities to be? What if this other thing had happened to change the course of their life and instead of going shoeless in a swamp this person wore a 3 piece suit every day…
NOW I’m on to something interesting. And yes, that is pretty much how the character of Jacques Lippencott Plympton was born. Inspired by an eccentric and grungy backwoods loner, my creation was a highly regarded werewolf negotiator who was quick-witted, sneaky, aware of deep layers of spies and intrigue in the upper eschelon of werewolves, and he happened to have a blind eye—a voodoun priestess tried to kill the wolf in him by pouring molten silver on his eye. (Oh, how I want to do a spin off on him!!!!)

IN CLOSING
You see, all around you are real, living breathing people with quirks and idiosyncrasies that make them interesting…and annoying…and wonderful. If you’re stuck at the airport, get your nose out of that damn device and look. You went shopping with your sister and she’s trying on everything in the store? Notice other people. You’re sitting on the sideline during a kid’s sport game? See them, their parents. Listen.
You adore this new actor and have to write about him-go ahead, but make something about his character you give him so unlike the one in his latest Hollywood hit. Give him your ex boyfriend's worst personality quirk--because you know how it will irritate your heroine. Give him your dad's favorite sport because it is also your heroine's. Give him your brother's love of pizza because your heroine owns a pizza shop. And give him the softest whisper and that little boy vulnerability you dream Mr. Hottie has because that will keep you writing about him.

You are a writer. See and hear what is around you. People are infinitely different. There is no reason any two characters should be too similar.

So get out there and make your Frankenstein with pieces of this one and that one until he's perfect.

We Do Not Recycle...Characters and Traits

Maybe it's a rookie writer problem, but I've caught myself far too many times attempting to recycle a nervous tic with different characters...sometimes within the same book. Doh!  Brow rubbing? Lip biting? Hand on hip? Thumb tapping?

I have to keep a spreadsheet to track who has what tell. 

I'm not proud of my limited interpretations of body language, so tracking that stuff is as necessary as keeping track of who has what physical traits.  These days, when characters within the same book share a tic, there's a reason for it. ~muuwahaha~

What about character voices? How do I keep all my assorted protagonists from sounding the same, particularly within the same genre? I do what Jeffe suggested, I build full lives for them (with back-stories only I know)  and I make them as vastly different from one another as I can. Those differences are reflected in their manner of speech. 

As for secondary characters...I don't know that I've been as conscious about making them unique from secondary characters in other books.  Mostly because all other characters in a book are a reflection of the environment and protagonist. I'm hoping if I've made those two foundations unique, the rest become unique organically.

I might get called on having "ditto" casts. 

~fretting face~

Fortunately, Excel has a multi-tab option that I do know how to use. Hopefully, I won't have to resort to...Access Databases. ~faints~

What about you, dear readers, have you read an author's works and noticed they cling to a certain type of characters,  mannerisms, or bad habits?  Which traits do you find to be overly common?

Keeping It Real - How to Write Vivid Characters

Surprise! GOING UNDER has been translated into Italian and is now SEXY GAMES over there. Don't you just love the cover? I want those shoes. Shouldn't I get to have them, as part of my contract?

This week at the Bordello, we're wrestling with a topic every writer fears - Character Cloning: How To Avoid Reusing the Voices, Mannerisms, and Bad Habits of Characters. At least, I hope every writer worries about this because falling into ruts like this can lead to a major decline in quality of the work. As a character-driven writer, I especially focus on making each character as unique as possible.

However, I'm not entirely sure how I do it.

I'm a very organic writer in many ways, and regarding characters most of all. My (perhaps overly simplistic) answer to how to avoid Character Cloning is to write characters as real people. But how do you do that?

Let me tell you a little story. I once took a directing class (as you do) and, for the final project, we staged one-act plays for real audiences over two nights. It was fascinating to listen in on conversations about the play I directed - because I was simply an invisible part of the crowd, people did not censor at all. What I learned was that at any point in the play where I had not been crystal clear on what was going on, what my two characters were thinking and feeling, the audience had been unclear. The actors simply relayed my ideas. The whole play became a kind of physical manifestation of my thoughts - both clear and muddy.

It's a kind of magic that I don't really understand. I just know it's true. And it works for characterization in books, too.

Jeffe's Tips for Keeping It Real

1. Know Their Offstage Lives - Characters should have lives that have been going on before they walk onto the page and after the walk off again. Even the most minor characters. You don't necessarily need to write this out, but you do need to know it. Some writers find it helpful to write all that out, but for me that's displacement activity and energy I could be using to write the actual book. Your mileage may vary. However you get to it, having this understanding in your head will come through on the page. You don't have to spell it all out on the page (in fact, please don't!) - I promise it will come through. Like Magic.
2.  Know What They're Not Saying - We all have internal monologues, the thoughts that run through our heads that we don't vocalize. What your characters DON'T say is perhaps more important than what they do say. And no, you don't have to give this insight into their thoughts either. Like with their offstage lives, there's no need to detail this on the page (again, please don't!) - just trust that the magic makes it happen.
3.  Know Them In All Their Beautiful Complexity - So, this goes against A LOT of writing advice and Common Wisdom. The GMC method (Goal-Motivation-Conflict) can be a useful way of condensing the plot. When we're asked to create loglines for queries or back-cover copy, we have to do this. What do they want and what keeps them from getting it. But remember that this is about plot, about picking out the visible actions of the characters, the salient high points. If you think about a real person - yourself, for example - it's nearly impossible to condense to a single goal, motivation and conflict. If I asked you what you want out of life, it would be a long list. (Or a very short, umbrella one, like "to be happy.") Likewise with whatever is getting in your way. With the exception of people who've done tons of self-examination, few of us know what issues are keeping us from having everything we want. Thus, while you might find it useful to reduce your characters to a single, straight-line GMC, keep in mind the hugeness of who they are beside that. For the third time (do I really have to say it?), don't put it all on the page. But do know it. 

Trust in the magic.