The five parts of characterization

 What does your character look like?  Does she have black hair and blue eyes?  Is he short with wispy hair and a mole on his left cheek?  Is it twelve feet tall with blue spikes and purple spots?  Anything unusual you can add will make your character more memorable.  Think of your favorite characters or other popular characters. For example: Pippi Longstocking’s bright red pigtails that stick straight out to the side, or Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar.

 How does your character act?  Is she a ghost haunting her hometown? Does he fight demons and monsters?  Maybe he is always shy and quiet unless someone is picking on his little sister.  Or perhaps she’s loud and bubbly and never sits still unless she’s sleeping – and even then she often talks in her sleep.

 What does your character think about?  Does she brood all day about not being allowed to fly to the moon?  Does he wish he was a superhero so he could save his city from evil?  Tom the Builder in Pillars of the Earth often thought about how to feed his family at the beginning of the novel.  In The Glass Castle Jeannette worries about her parents living on the street.  In Bernice Bobs Her Hair Bernice worries that she won’t fit in and that people will make fun of her because she is different.

 How does your character speak?  Does he have a lisp?  Does she have a gravely, smoker’s voice?  What types of things does your character say? Maybe he speaks with a British accent and calls everyone “mate.” Or perhaps she says, “You know?” after ever sentence she says.  Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, for example, has a very distinctive, casual way of speaking.

 How does your character interact with other characters?  Does he always steal the younger kids’ lunch money?  Are she and her twin sister finishing each other’s sentences one minute and stealing each other’s boyfriend the next minute?  You should consider your character’s best friend and your character’s worst enemy. For example, knowing the Harry Potter’s best friend is Ron Weasley – a normal, harmless wizard-to-be, and his worst enemy is Voldemort – the most evil and feared wizard of all, tells a lot about Harry Potter’s character.

 The more unique the character’s qualities, the more memorable the character.  Notes used, with permission, from suite101.com