Monday, December 6, 2021

Creating Characters--Give them a quirk

 


I'm the little girl in the center. You know...the CUTE ONE!!???
There are unsubstantiated rumors that I was a quirky little thing!
Also, I believe my mother is very pregnant with the fourth of her eight kids.
What can I say....it was the baby boom!

One of the things I like to do when creating characters is give them quirks that compliment their personality or career choice, or whatever their underlying deal is.

I remember in Sharpshooter in Petticoats, Mandy McClellen Lindscott, a wickedly fast, accurate shot with her rifle, had a callus on her trigger finger.

When she was worried, or angry or even just thinking, she’d rub that callus with her thumb. That was her quirk. And it said a lot about her. How she thought of herself. The weight she carried because of her rifle skills. Negative and positive things. She counted on that trigger finger. She also had a lot of fear about how cool she got in a crisis. Cold honestly. She carried the fear inside her that she had what it took to be a killer.


So right now, I’m creating a group of sisters who are brilliant and, on top of that brilliance, they are highly educated and trained to take over a big business, a lumber industry but also the other facets of the dynasty their father had built.

One of the sisters is a chemical engineer, before that was really a term. Chemicals were created and the word and job of engineer exists (in addition to train engineers) But the two hadn’t really been cut off into a specialized field called chemical engineer.

So my heroine loves chemistry and, because her father’s dream was to build train tracks up a mountainside.

Someone’s going to have to build those tracks (that’s book #3).

Someone’s going to have to invent excellent brakes, super strong freight cars able to carry massive weight.

Someone is going to have to blast holes in mountains to build the tunnels they need.

My heroine gets the job of blowing stuff up. The Element of Love coming February 2022.

The twist in this book is the sisters, so smart, but wealthy all their lives, have to run away from home because danger has come to the Stiles Mansion up in the vast, remote forest.

Book #2 of the Lumber Baron's Daughter

And they have to HIDE. So they hide out as servants…and guess what? They have no skills. Sure they can modify, improve and get a patent for heavy duty undercarriage elements for a train car. But can they patch a hole in the knee of someone’s pants?

And how in the world does a bloody hunk of unidentified meat turn into a meal?

They are doing their best to fake it but they don’t dare tell the truth because if word of their whereabouts reaches the ear of their enemy, they are in dreadful danger.

So my smart heroine is faking NOT being smart. A the woman who has always had servants is trying to fake being a servant. She is bad at it. And she’d learning a few lessons about a ‘woman’s work’ having true value. And how, though she was always polite and thankful, she may have not given enough respect to the servants who fed and clothed her while she did ‘important’ work.

I’m having a lot of fun trying to make her humble and servant-like, and having her feisty, brilliant mind sneaking out all the time.

So...quirks. Give your characters quirks to make them three dimensional.

Do you have characters that are quirky? Tell me about them.

Today, for the Christmas season, I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one lucky commenter.

If you want, you can use it to pre-order The Element of Love...but no one's gonna check if you use it for wild living!!!

Merry Christmas

The Element of Love by Mary Connealy

With their sharp engineering minds, Laura Stiles and her two sisters have been able to deal with their mother's unfortunate choice in husband, until they discover his plans to marry each of them off to his lecherous friends. Now they must run away--far and fast--to find better matches to legally claim their portion of their father's lumber dynasty and seize control from their stepfather.

When Laura befriends a mission group heading to serve the poor in California during their escape, she quickly volunteers herself and her sisters to join their efforts. Despite the settlement being in miserable condition, the sisters are excited by the opportunity to put their skills to good use. Laura also sees potential in Caleb, the local minister, to help with gaining her inheritance. But when secrets buried in Caleb's past and in the land around them come to light, it'll take all the smarts the sisters have to keep trouble at bay.

 

35 comments:

  1. Mary, I love strong, smart female characters, and these sisters fit the bill! I can't wait to read the series!

    Blessings and Merry Christmas!

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    1. Hi Edwina! Merry Christmas! I love writing strong women! Feisty!

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  2. This sounds good. I can't wait to read it.

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  3. Oh, I cannot wait to read this. Love your characters!

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    1. I sometimes struggle to find quirks for them, though.

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  4. I love this premise for a series. Even (cough, cough) thirty years ago when I graduated with an engineering degree there were only a handful of us females in those classes, so a historical with women doing this kind of work sounds fascinating! I love characters with interesting quirks and yours always do!

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    1. There was no college that took women into engineering programs. But their parents hired professors on sabbatical from prestigious colleges. Let them spend a season in luxury while the brilliant gentlemen educated three girls very eager to learn.

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  5. Like everyone else, I'm looking forward to reading this series!

    And thank you for this great post. I give my characters quirks when I create them, but then those individual traits often get lost in the story-telling. This is a great reminder to layer those characteristics in when I'm revising!

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    1. It's a good reminder to me, too, Jan. I think I get so caught up in telling the story that those little things that flesh out a character is sometimes lost.

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  6. Great post, Mary. I will have to think about giving my characters quirks. This new series looks good. Please put me in the drawing for the Amazon card!

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    1. Hi Sandy. You're in the drawing. Merry Christmas!

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  7. These sound like fun books. I look forward to reading them. I have no idea what quirks to give my characters. Something to think about.

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    1. Hi Michelle. I feel like I've been struggling to make my current heroine really three dimensional, so this is on my mind!

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  8. Ahhh! These books are going to be amazing. What a great premise!!! I’m thinking I need to do a better job about giving quirks to my characters. This goes way beyond twirling hair or biting nails. lol

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    1. Thank you, Sherrinda. It was different for me, California, lumber. Of course most of book one AND book two end up being on a ranch with a cowboy!

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  9. Ooooh Mary, this series sounds so good! Hope to read it. Please enter me for the gift card. You are such a generous person!
    Blessings~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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  10. Mary, what a brilliant concept. Cannot wait.
    I'm dealing with putting dimension to a character, well, now. I was almost finished with a novel when I realized that even I didn't care about these characters. The plot is fine, one of my better ones, we learn by doing, but the characters are flat or flat-ish. I think I'll try to give them some quirks.
    Fun fact, I recognized you in the photo before you told us.
    Back to work, thanks for sharing with us.
    Kathy Bailey

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    1. Hi Kathy! I've had that happen both reading and writing.
      We have to FEEL what they're feeling and it's tricky!

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  11. Can't wait to read this new series!

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  12. Like you, I enjoy giving each of my characters a special quirk. In my upcoming novel, my character Taliz took an earring that was supposed to be buried with his father because he decided he wanted it more than a dead person could, now whenever he is considering doing something impetuous (which is quite often) or is just nervous, he reaches up and rubs at the earring.

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    1. I like that, Nicki!!! That's a great quirk. And we, the reader, will know what's going on in his head, even when you're in someone else's point of view!

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  13. Mary, your characters are always such fun! These new ones sound so fascinating! I can hardly wait to read about them. I'm not a writer, so I don't have to think up quirky characters (be thankful, as I'm not creative!), but I love to read about intriguing characters. I just finished Regina Jennings' new book, Proposing Mischief, and Maisie is such a great character! She reminds me a lot of your characters, and Regina has a similar fantastic sense of humor to yours!

    Thanks for the fun post!

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    1. Winnie! I have Regina's book right here beside me! I can't wait to read it!

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  14. Love your premise, Mary! Oh those girls are going to cause so many problems! How fun!

    I need to think about quirks. Hmmm? Great tip for character development. Thank you!

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    1. Debbie, what ever you are doing right now is EXCELLENT!!! Don't change a thing! :)

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  15. This is something I need to work on more for sure.

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    1. Hi Felicity, there is ALWAYS something more to work on!

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  16. I know I’m going to Love these books!

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  17. I love all of Mary's quirky characters. It makes her books fun to read. Looking forward to this new series. Merry Christmas!

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  18. I love characters that have quirks. To me it makes them more believable and lovable. I love the covers of your books Mary.
    Merry Christmas!

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  19. I love your quirky characters, Mary! In my book that released on Tuesday, my character Adrian hums under her breath. She always has a song in her head. She *might* be a bit like me in that way. ;)

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  20. Sounds like a great read! Merry Christmas!

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