I have been reading through and editing some of my stories, and I have realized something. Most of my characters are plain boring. With the exception of one story, no one has an amazing gift, a mysterious, dark past, or a dysfunctional family.

No one is exceptionally brilliant, or stupid, or anything! You probably get the picture.

I'm writing about normal people, and that is starting to bore me. LOL!

Any ideas on how to spice things up a bit? How can I make my characters stand out more?

Try giving them strange backgrounds of sorts that are revealed later in the story, maybe? Maybe their personalities seem totally normal, but it's a cover for their past. Or, they may have a strange quality that can be explained by something that happened in the past.
They don't have to continue to have a abnormal life. They could have already moved past that before the story you're telling begins, and now they seem average. Or you could always take the other route... a completely average person is suddenly met with odd or tough circumstances.

Hope this helps!

It's okay to have average characters. I know in a lot of books the characters have amazing gifts or they save the world. Another stereotypical thing is to have characters come from a dysfunctional family or the parents have been killed and have a terrible past. (I'll admit to having done these things to my own characters in different stories.)

I, for one, like to come across a book with a normal character in it because as a person I don't have amazing, magical gifts nor do I come from terrible family background. I do have my faith in God and the gifts of the heart that He has blessed me with, so I have different types of gifts. I'm not athletic, but I can draw. I'm bad at math, but I can write. I'm not a scientist, but I love nature. I like a character I can relate with on a reality level. We all have flaws too. ^^

I hope this was helpful! Good luck!

Ditto to Calen.

I think what a good deep character needs is to have character strengths and weaknesses, and have those two aspects play into the plot of the story...

Also, you need to get your reader to identify with and really care about the character. (not by sheer pity - torture - but by other means)

There are some really famous average characters out there. What about the Pevensie children? Or Han Solo? Or Shasta? Or even Frodo! They're all 'average' in personality and background (haha, okay, we have a family fleeing the Blitz, a smuggler, a slaveboy, and a Ringbearer...but the first was average at the time it was written, the second actually makes him a less desirable character rather than more, and the last two are quite necessary to the plot)

Do what the plot requires.

And look around you - at school (if you're not homeschooled), at the grocery store, at Walmart - look at all the potential characters.

Han Solo is not average.

Simply have them run into something unusual, such has a secret society, a mysterious stranger, etc. and have them adapt.

Han Solo is average in the context of the story, not being able to use the Force like Luke. (which makes Luke above-average in his world) Pretty much as average as you can get in a world populated by aliens, stormtroopers, and rebels... lol (the Jedi are the above-average minority)

The cool thing about characters is that if you give the character his own personality, then you can throw him into a new situation and write out how he'll react.

My two main characters are fairly average. One was born and raised in the same nation and is fairly normal, but goes on a quest because of, well, various reasons. The other MC, she only appeared in this country about a week before the quest starts. So she's not so average...but both of them have interesting situations thrust upon them by the quest that they go on.

eruheran

Or give the characters skills taught to them by a friend, neighbor, etc. I did this so my favorite character, Aidan Romero, would be prepared for everything I threw at him. He was taught by a Green beret.

A Green Beret??? That sounds really interesting!


*sigh* Maybe I need to get used to normal characters.:P But it seems like there SHOULD be SOMETHING special about them, otherwise they would not have a book being written about them.

I mean how normal is that? LOL!

Or I need to stop reading Eragon, where EVERYONE is just...weird. lol.

ooh! You could kill them... and then they would come back to life as zombies?
... Ok that's not the best idea...

-God bless

My characters are mostly normal, with the exception of my MC. Maybe if you give then unusual hair or eye color? That wouldn't be average! Or give them interesting pasts... That's what a few of my characters have.

For me, it's all a matter of balence. A character is good at archery, they're not so great at riding, they're excellent singers but rotten painters, etc. But for the sake of all that is wonderful, don't make your characters perfect. Honestly, I can not imagine anything more boring than a character who's good at everything/beautiful/gets the guy/who all other characters worship. It's awful! It's a Mary-Sue, and they all must be murdered in their beds. But on the flip side, if a character is good at nothing/ugly/who everyone hates, it's also boring. Who wants to read about an average joe who wants to expand his plumbing buisness? Don't make them perfect, don't give them color change eyes or "fiery red hair" or a tiger companion, but also don't make them absolutely nothing. Both types are boring, the first there's no challenge the second there's not enough.
Also, make them grow. A horrible trait of the Mary-Sue is that there is never any change, and therefore they're not a person, they're just cardboard. Twilight, anyone?

UGH! Don't mention Twilight. Every single character IN those books is a Mary-Sue or a Johnny-Joe. :P

I get what you mean. And when I think of "average" characters I think of characters like "Beth" from little women. Characters who just BUG me and there's nothing interesting about! LOL!

You're right though. I was talking to my mom about this and she said, "Very few people are actually "normal". Usually, there's something really interesting about someone, and that's what makes a story. So.

What defines normal? Or even perfect charcters?

LOL! Those are good questions Varon, and I guess that's what I've realized is that there is always SOMETHING remarkable about everyone.:P


But to me...Perfect Character = Eragon or Arya (pardon me all Paolini fans!)

There is no one on EARTH who is physically gorgeous, strong, powerful, famous, brave, noble, a deadly warrior, moral, oh. And is also a teenager.:P

Another Perfect Character that I dislike would be Elsie Dinsmore. (pardon me all Martha Finley fans!)

Elsie is eight years old, beautiful, polite, respectful, ALWAYS obedient, always truthful, NEVER really loses her temper. She gives in to everything people want. (as long as it's not evil.) And she discusses theology at breakfast time. Oh, and everyone around her HATES her (for no apparent reason) and she "bears" it with an air of "steadfast martyrdom".

*sigh* I'm not saying that all these things aren't WONDERFUL. But...really? All rolled into one person? Throughout the books Elsie doesn't really SIN. She forgets things her father has told her sometimes, and then is severely punished for them as wrongdoing. That's about as close as it comes.

So. Yeah. There's my definition of a perfect character, Varon.

Ah, then I wouldn't have any perfect characters according to you. Eragon was perfect-esque, but I didn't like him. So I quit the series.

Just about the only perfect character I can think of that I actually liked is Mary Poppins. Also Aslan, but he doesn't count because he is allegorically representing God. My favorite thing to do with average characters is either what happened to the Pevensies, make them go through a crisis, or have them have a mysterious past. I absolutely love characters like that.

I like well-equipped and trained characters going against other trained characters, like soldiers or Bourne going against other soldiers or assasins.

Moved topic to Character Development.