The simplest way to make your characters feel real? Give them quirks. Quirks will unconsciously draw your reader in and embed them in your story because real people have little idiosynchracies that make us who we are. There’s a tick to our speech, we constantly run our hands through our hair when we’re thinking, we bite our lip when we’re nervous, we walk on the tips of our toes. You can brainstorm this list on your own by noticing your own subtle ticks or thinking about the ones that you notice in others. But the best way to to gather this list is to watch people.
Notice: how they laugh, what they do with their hands, if their eyes are focused or flitty, if their mouth is a smirk, a smile, or a slight frown, if they move their head when speaking, if they are animated or quiet, if they speak slowly or fast, if they lick or bite their lips, if they blink frequently, if they fidget by playing with their hair or jewelry, if they shift when they stand, how they walk, how their face looks when relaxed, patterns in their speech, if they keep their hands in their pockets…
I’d also recommend adding the following movies and books to your list for further craft study:
Read:Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard (how does what they’re wearing or how they move tell you who they are?), The French Lieutenant’s Woman by Jonathan Fowles (how does the setting and emotional state of the characters tell you who they are?)
Watch: Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11 (why is he always eating and why is this important?), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix/Freaky Friday/Face Off/Scooby Doo/Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle or any other film where two characters switch bodies (i.e. what traits does Helena Bonham Carter imbue to show she is acting like Hermione Granger who is pretending to be Bellatrix Lestrange? In other words, how do you know that you’re watching Hermione break into a building and not Bellatrix Lestrange?)
What else do you notice from these characters and how can you add this layer of personhood to your own?
Elegance Press 