Part of making our characters real is giving them physical responses to their emotional feelings. A heroine might bite her lip if she is nervous or thinking deeply about something. A hero might scrub his hands through his hair in frustration or clench his fists in anger. Each of these responses makes a character who they are and hopefully contributes to their memorability.

The problem comes when you are on your second or third (or …) book and you realize that there are only so many physical reactions people have to certain emotional feelings. Your character, doesn’t blow a raspberry, for instance, when they are afraid - they gasp, cower, tremble, etc.

So the question is: How to make each character unique and still keep their reactions believable?

1. The first thing to remember is that all people, different though they may be, will sometimes have similar reactions to similar situations. So don’t limit yourself just because Sally jumped sky high when Fred jumped out from behind the door - if Sally retaliates and does the same thing, Fred is likely to jump too.

2. Give each characters a trait that is a habit for them. We all have little habits that develop over time - twisting our hair when we are bored, sucking our teeth when we are thinking, etc. Find one or two of these to ‘tag’ your character with and, while there will be other reactions they need to have throughout the book, focus on emphasizing those responses for that character.

3. Sometimes we get stuck with only a few responses coming to mind for certain emotions. If that happens to you, take a break from writing for awhile and head to the mall. Find a spot in the center of activity and just watch people. Take note of their movements and responses - what are they reacting to? Bring a note-book with you and you will be surprised at the number of new ways you come up with of showing internal emotions with external actions.

I’m sure there are any number of ways of handling this as I’m still learning too. What are some things you do to keep your characters from having the same reactions to their internal emotions?

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Tags: character development, emotions & reactions, unique characters in fiction