Two weeks back, we talked about characters. I gave you my opinion on what book protagonists and heroes ought to be like, or rather, what they ought not to be. Normally, my characters tend to be devoid of stereotypes and the usual drama slash flamboyance. And I make sure to have a clear picture of what they should look like before committing them to paper. However, the last article did not address the grave risk of character monotony.

The easiest sin of all is to have a single personality throughout the book, simply portrayed in different colors and styles. It’s so natural; you envision yourself in a fictional situation and you let your imagination take over. You end up with you being written as this or that character. Your alter ego becomes your story.

Some people have multiple personalities, so they end up with a bit more variety. Others create a vivid surrounding that helps take focus away from the very singular emotional spectrum presented. Others yet fail to see that all their heroes share the same uniform code of morality, action, violence, and passion. Supposedly, they are shown at different times and in different situations, but the underlying human creed remains the same. For me, this is something that I dearly try to avoid.

I try to stop my alter ego from interfering too much by using real people I know as templates for my characters, people who are distinctively not me. It is not always easy to copy & paste modern-day life activities to an alien world set in a medieval era, but it works better than letting your natural instincts come to bear, as they will ultimately always taper to the same result. Friends, colleagues, crazy and unique people that you met somewhere, they can all serve the higher purpose of being cast as heroes and anti-heroes in the book. You need not stick to every little detail, just use the core values that define them. Some people are obstinate, some are shy, some are sly, some are open-hearted and merry.

And then, you need their values too. Prejudice, hatred, fears, their stance on big issues, all of these will help form the colorful characters that you need for your plot, and each one will be different from the rest, infused with a fresh breath of lifelike originality. The best thing is, you need not go far. Pretty much anyone you know will have some useful trait for the book. Blend them, mix them, create your mutants and hybrids, go wild with absurd things that only the reality can spin so well. Do not try to invent the next great villain when the world has so many petty people doing horrible and evil things so successfully.

When you combine the street psychology 101 formula with the everyone-is-mad axiom, you get characters that will stand the test of authenticity anywhere anytime. True, you might not escape the mega-tragic arch-stories of great rises and falls that must play part in epic historical and magical events taking place in your books, but at least you won’t be retelling the same boring cliche story that everyone else has used a million times over.

That would be all for now. More good stuff coming soon.

Cheers.